A US Air Force veteran is accusing rapper T.I. and his wife Tiny for drugging and raping her in 2005.
According to The New York Times, the lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by a Jane Doe and accuses the couple — real names Clifford Harris and Tameka Harris — of sexual battery, battery, sexual assault, negligence, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The woman, who was 22 or 23 years old at the time of the alleged incident, states in her lawsuit that she and her friend met T.I. and Tiny via a member of the couple’s entourage. The member, a man known by the name of Caviar, invited her and her friend to meet the couple and a member of Xscape at a VIP area of a club in Los Angeles where the two women took a sip of a drink that Tameka offered them.
The plaintiff and her friend, believing that there was an afterparty, were amongst a few who were invited up to a hotel room, with the veteran riding with the couple and her friend riding with Caviar. The other guests were eventually asked to leave the hotel, leaving Doe alone with the couple who went on to shower with and massage her as she began to feel “extremely dizzy and lightheaded.” She “could tell she was experiencing something serious and debilitating that was not a symptom of a typical drink or few drinks,” the suit reads. Doe remembers being penetrated by T.I.’s toes and saying no to him before she began to vomit and “passed out until the following morning.” She woke up in pain and reunited with her friend who had been separated from her ever since they left the club.
“This plaintiff has been threatening to file this lawsuit for three years,” a statement provided by Andrew B. Brettler, the couple’s lawyer, reads. “For three years, we have emphatically and categorically denied these allegations. For three years we have maintained our innocence and refused to pay these extortionate demands for things we didn’t do.”
They added, “We are innocent of these fake claims, we will not be shaken down and we look forward to our day in court.”
Prosecutors in Los Angeles previously refused to pursue criminal charges against the Harrises in this case, noting in a charge evaluation filing in September 2021 that “Without the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence being evaluated, the case is declined due to the expiration.” However, this suit was filed under California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act, which lengthens the statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims.
The Harrises were also investigated in the past following several accusations of sexual abuse and assault in the news and on social media. 11 people claimed to have been victims of the couple or members of their entourage, with at least four women accusing the couple of drugging and sexually assaulting them.
Doe anonymously told her story to The New York Times in 2021, stating that she and her friend detailed their memories of the night before to each other. Another friend of hers stated in an interview that the veteran called the events at the hotel “non-consensual” as she had been drugged, and that her account has not changed ever since. “Even after all these years, the embarrassment, shame, depression — it still lingers,” Rodney S. Diggs, a lawyer for the woman, said in a statement. “Silencing women silences justice. No longer will my client remain silent; we are now seeking justice for her and everyone who has been similarly violated.”
