The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office is asking the court for priority to be given to a 6-year-old case against a high-profile music producer charged with dozens of sex crimes, as a defense attorney is asking for more time.
Noel Christopher Fisher, aka “Detail,” 47, has been held to answer for 30 counts, including multiple counts of forcible rape, assault with a deadly weapon and false imprisonment, relating to allegations dating from 2010 to 2018, according to a motion by Vira Samouhi, a deputy district attorney for the DA’s Sex Crimes Division.
The motion has been scheduled for a ruling in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, according to a spokesman for the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office.
The case involves “numerous acts of sexual abuse against multiple victims who have been waiting years for the resolution of this case,” Samouhi wrote, adding the current complaint was filed Aug. 27, 2021.
Detail became famous for his work in the music industry, producing Beyoncé’s “Drunk in Love,” which featured Jay-Z, for which he also earned a writing credit, as well as working with artists like Ray J, Lil Wayne and Wiz Khalifa.
However, all of that came to a halt in May 2018, when allegations began to emerge against the Stevenson Ranch resident, who notably left the scene in December 2018, according to a 2021 ruling, in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Largely driven by survivors’ social media and activism, the effort sought to “out” previously ignored perpetrators of sexual harassment, abuse and assault.
Kristina Buch and another musician, Peyton Ackley, both alleged assaults by Fisher and received restraining orders against him. A complaint filed by Buch against Detail alleged he forced her to have sex with him if she was interested in a career in the music industry.
Fisher ultimately was accused of numerous sexual-assault allegations involving young women who were seeking entry into the music industry.
In 2019, Buch received a $15 million judgment against Detail for allegations he assaulted her in his home studio in the Santa Clarita Valley. That judgment was upheld by a court ruling two years later.
In a motion filed May 29, Fisher’s attorney, Andrew Reed Flier, is now claiming numerous “constitutional deficiencies” with the case against his client in a 995 Motion that seeks to throw out the case.
Flier did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The statements in his 45-page motion, which seeks to throw out the case, are in part based around claims of ineffective counsel. Flier states this ineffective counsel deprived Fisher of his ability to have a fair preliminary hearing, which is when a judge looks at the evidence and decides whether there’s enough to potentially prove a case at trial.
Flier lists several of the alleged victims by their initials and claims a wide range of problems he had in doing his own investigation into what’s been said about his client, from a lack of opportunity to interview some of them to a lack of adequate questioning of other witnesses. He also alleges that Fisher’s previous counsel’s “lack of investigation and preparation resulted in a cascade of missed impeachment opportunities and the permanent loss of exculpatory evidence.”
Fisher has remained in custody at Men’s Central Jail in Downtown Los Angeles since his 2020 arrest.
