Los Angeles prosecutors
said on Tuesday they would not charge Backstreet Boys singer
Nick Carter over a 2003 sexual assault accusation because it
fell outside the California statute of limitations.
The Los Angeles District Attorney's office said it had
reviewed the accusation by a woman who was 18 years old at the
time, but said the statute of limitations had expired in 2013.
"An analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence
is not warranted, and the matter is declined," prosecutors said
in a charge evaluation worksheet released to the media.
They gave no details of the case, but Carter last year
denied an allegation that he raped a teen pop singer 15 years
ago.
An attorney for Carter, whose band is currently playing a
long-term engagement in Las Vegas, said in a statement on
Tuesday that the singer was "happy to put the matter behind
him."
"Nick has denied these allegations ever since he first
learned of them last year," attorney Michael Holtz said in the
statement.
The Backstreet Boys were one of the biggest boy bands of the
late 1990s and early 2000s, with hits like "Quit Playing Games
With My Heart."
Accusations of sexual misconduct, inspired by the #MeToo
social media movement, have forced multiple celebrities,
politicians and businessmen to step down or be fired in the past
year.