Beastie Boy Sides With Women Accusing His Playwright Father

The father of one of the Beastie Boys is the latest to be caught up in a sexual misconduct scandal, and the Beastie says he stands with the accusers. Nine women have lobbed allegations of sexual abuse and "violations of trust" against playwright Israel Horovitz, and the New York Times offers details on cases reaching back to the mid-'80s, with at least two accusers saying they were just 16 when Horovitz abused them. The accusations include inappropriate groping, fondling, forced kissing, and even rape at Horovitz's home. He was like an "honorary grandfather" and mentor, one accuser tells the Times, detailing how he'd touched her breasts last year and made comments on how she'd developed (he'd known her since she was 11). "To treat me the way he did was the ultimate betrayal."

The 78-year-old Horovitz responded to the Times by saying he had "a different memory of some of these events" and apologizing "with all my heart to any woman who has ever felt compromised by my actions. … To hear that I have caused pain is profoundly upsetting." In his own statement, Adam Horovitz, known to his Beastie fans as Ad-Rock, said: "I believe the allegations against my father are true, and I stand behind the women that made them." Meanwhile, the Times and AP report the elder Horovitz has left the Massachusetts-based Gloucester Stage Company, of which he was a founding director. The theater itself is facing accusations it knew about his alleged abuse since at least 1993, when a Boston paper published accusations against him from at least 10 women. (More Beastie Boys stories.)