LOS ANGELES - One of three former employees being sued by Rob Lowe says the actor sexually abused her for years but she continued to work for him and his wife because she loved their two boys and needed the job.

In legal papers filed in Santa Barbara, Jessica Gibson says Lowe touched her inappropriately several times between September 2005 and January 2008.

Gibson worked for Rob and Sheryl Lowe on and off for seven years before quitting on Feb. 24.

"I always thought it would be different when I went back, but it was not," Gibson said in the suit. "I stayed as long as I did because of the children and because I needed a job."

Last week, Lowe sued three former employees, including Gibson. He said she demanded $1.5 million to remain silent about the abuse allegation, which his attorney dismissed as "outrageous" and "untrue." In that suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Lowe also accused another nanny of spreading lies about him.

Lowe's lawyer, Larry Stein, said Gibson never gave any indication she had a problem with Lowe during all the years she worked for him.

"She left at least two times, to pursue other jobs, and returned each time asking for more hours," Stein said. "She sent two e-mails the day after she left, both saying she loved the Lowes and her leaving had nothing to do with them but her heart wasn't into being a nanny anymore.

Gibson's attorney, Gloria Allred, told The Associated Press Lowe filed his suit after his attorneys saw "the original content of our suit."

"They may have thought their pre-emptive strike would intimidate our client," Allred said Tuesday. "I can assure them it will not."

Allred said in e-mails to the AP later Tuesday that there was no police investigation regarding her client's claims. Asked why, she wrote, "No complaint made to police."

Gibson's countersuit, filed Monday, seeks unspecified damages.

Lowe, 44, is a former star of "The West Wing" and currently appears on ABC's "Brothers and Sisters."

He gained attention in the 1980s as a member of Hollywood's so-called Brat Pack, appearing in such films as "The Outsiders," "Class" and "St. Elmo's Fire."

At the height of his Brat Pack career in 1989 Lowe was embarrassed when a sex tape of him with two women surfaced. It had been recorded the year before in Atlanta, where he had attended the Democratic National Convention.

Source: AP