A music executive is accused of rape after two women alleged he drugged them at his $6.55 million luxury mansion in Joshua Tree, California.
Scott Leonard, 59, who bills himself as a former artist manager and major label executive, owns the unique Kellogg Doolittle cliffside mansion in the mountains, where he often throws celebrity parties. Los Angeles Times reported.
Model and writer Courtney Barriger, 36, and Australian musician Jamie-Lee Dimes, 35, both shared painful memories of visiting his home, where they say Leonard slipped them drugs.
Both women reported the alleged incidents to the San Bernardino County sheriff, and Leonard has not been charged in either case, the Times reported.
“This has been one of the worst times of my life. If this is what I have to tolerate to have a career in music, then I would rather speak up,” Dimes said in an interview with the outlet.
“I want to raise awareness about abuses in the music industry,” she told DailyMail.com.
Scott Leonard, 59, a former artist manager and major label executive, owns the unique Kellogg Doolittle clifftop mansion where Courtney Barriger, 36, and Jamie-Lee Dimes, 35, allege he drugged them
Dimes filed a report with the sheriff, detailing her alleged rape by Leonard, which she said occurred after she met him in August 2022.
In the report, she explained how she met Leonard, who says he worked in artist development at Virgin Records America, through mutual friends. He soon invited her to his home to talk about her music career.
“The fact that I met him in Joshua Tree, where it’s very community-oriented, and not in LA, made me feel like I could trust him,” she said.
Dimes came to Leonard’s house and played him a few songs before “slapping me on the ass a few times” and “asking me who the oldest person I’d ever had sex with was,” the report said.
“I felt uncomfortable and tried to change the subject,” she said.
“From the moment I met Scott, it was clear to me that I would never want to have sex with him.”
She said that about an hour later she began to feel “under the influence of this heavy sedative.”
Leonard then took Dimes to a bedroom, where she said he was “behind me and on top of me,” the report said.
She added that his “hands were in my vagina” before “he was on top of me and penetrated me with what was probably his penis, but it was a blur.”
Dimes continues: ‘I don’t remember how I got there, but when I woke up, my clothes were on the floor.
“He was naked next to me, which scared the hell out of me because I had absolutely not given consent. … I saw blood around my thighs, my menstrual cup was in my cervix. I couldn’t walk and I was screaming.”
The next morning, Dimes woke up with “bruises on my wrist…shoulder, abdomen, lower abdomen, thighs and a bruised toe,” she wrote in the report.
In August 2022, Dimes filed a report with the sheriff, detailing her alleged experience of sexual abuse by Leonard
According to the report, Dimes said Leonard told her, “You need to go now, don’t talk to any of the employees on your way out, you’re a total faggot.”
Still disoriented, she drove home because she had to catch a flight to Australia. Days later, Dimes told police in Gold Coast what had happened, the report said.
In December, investigators in Australia sent her clothes from that night to San Bernardino. The clothes and DNA swabs were placed in an evidence locker, the Times reported.
“I am so severely traumatized that I can no longer function,” she told police.
“I really feel like my whole life has been turned upside down by this man who is taking advantage of me, sexually abusing me… and who thinks I won’t say anything about it because of his business and musical connections.”
Barriger, an author and the creator of Eco Fashion Label, said she knew Leonard and his partner, Keiko Harada, for about seven years. Barriger, who later moved with her then-partner into a mobile home across the street from Leonard’s house, was initially introduced to him “as someone with a lot of influence,” she told the Times.
In November 2021, Leonard and Harada invited the couple to a gathering at their home.
“He had this house, but he always kept it quiet,” Barriger recalls.
“He said things like, ‘Can I see your paintings? Do you need a business mentor?’” she added.
According to her police report, Barriger felt uncomfortable when she visited the home alone and spoke to Leonard.
“Leonard said something like, ‘humanity would not have developed if rape was not part of it,’” she said in the report.
While the three drank late into the evening, Leonard invited her to stay in one of his guest rooms.
Around 2:30 a.m., Barriger said Leonard made a pineapple-flavored cocktail for her and Harada.
Shortly after both women enjoyed their drinks, Barriger felt like she was hallucinating and noticed that Harada’s eyes were “dilated.”
“Victim 1 walked over to a mirror and looked into her own eyes and saw that they were also dilated. Victim 1 confronted Leonard about drugging her, and Leonard denied all allegations,” the report said.
Harada soon fell asleep when “Leonard brought Victim 1 into the room where he had offered her to sleep and attempted to seduce her,” the report said.
Barriger then attempted to “leave the situation,” but “Leonard pulled” her “back to the bed by her pant loops and attempted to kiss Victim 1,” the report said.
Barriger recalled feeling “like I was a shark in the water” around Leonard, who she described as “dangerous and very aggressive,” she said in an interview.
On November 11, 2021, Leonard and Harada invited her and her then-partner to a get-together at their home. Barriger recalled getting “that shark-in-the-water feeling” around Leonard, who she described as “dangerous and very aggressive.”
‘I’m drunk and I can’t drive home. I just got super stiff, like, “How do I make this stop as fast as possible and get out of there?”‘
After telling Leonard to stop, he eventually left, the report said.
The next day, Barriger visited High Desert Medical Center to be tested for MDMA, but was soon told by staff that “she had to file a police report before she could receive treatment,” the Times reported.
Barriger said at the time that she was “not ready to press charges.”
“I didn’t know what to do and I was scared. There were two different versions of what to do at the time. I was like, ‘Is he as bad as I think he is? Or am I overreacting?'” she told the outlet.
The report found that Barriger “was not raped by Leonard,” but that she “felt unable to leave Leonard’s residence because of the drugs.”
After the meeting, Barriger sent photos of her dilated eyes to close friends and family members, the Times reported.
Her sister told the Times that Barriger called her at 7 a.m. and said Leonard was “trying to attack her and that she felt numb and didn’t know how to get out of the building.”
Barriger did not immediately file a police report after the alleged incident, but did so later.
“I thought I had done my due diligence. But it has contributed to a lot of loss in my life,” she told the Times.
Last year, after Dimes returned to Joshua Tree, she ran into Barringer’s then-partner at a local store.
Last year, after Dimes returned to Joshua Tree, she ran into Barringer’s then-partner at a local store and discovered that they had both filed charges against Leonard. (Image: Stock photo of Joshua Tree, California)
She then learned that they had both filed charges against Leonard, but after she contacted police about the progress of their case, police said they had no statements.
In April 2023, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office was hit by a cyberattack that left them unable to access police reports filed between April 2019 and April 2023, the Times reported.
According to the news agency, the region paid $1.1 million to a Russian hacking group to obtain the data.
Their attorney, Christine Pelosi, the daughter of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, fights tirelessly for her clients.
“We’ve been stuck with this for a long time. We need some kind of justice,” Pelosi said.
DailyMail.com reached out to Leonard, Harada and the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department for comment.
This isn’t the only legal drama Leonard has been involved in. He’s currently facing seven charges in Los Angeles stemming from a 2022 incident in which a fire broke out at a Hollywood recording studio he owned, the Times reported.
Nathan Edwards, 26, died in the fire and musician Ozzy Osbourne’s daughter Aimee, who was recording there at the time, was injured.