Artist News Legal

Nelly to sue woman who accused him of rape

By | Published on Monday 18 December 2017

Nelly

Nelly has said that he will take legal action against a woman who accused him of rape. She subsequently asked prosecutors to drop the case, the alleged victim’s lawyer saying that her client “believes the system is going to fail her”.

As previously reported, prosecutors confirmed last week that they would not be pursuing the case, as Nelly’s accuser had refused to testify. The rapper was originally arrested in October, after the woman made a 911 call in the early hours of 7 Oct saying that he had raped her on his tour bus after a show in Auburn, Washington. He strongly denied the allegations throughout.

After the woman decided that she did not want to continue pushing for a conviction, her attorney Karen Koehler criticised how the system deals with rape victims, saying: “We do not live in a society where a 21 year old college student can feel safe enough to pursue criminal charges against a celebrity for an alleged rape”.

However, Nelly has now announced the he plans to sue his alleged victim. In a statement to the New York Post, his attorney Scott Rosenblum said: “Nelly has suffered very real damage to his reputation. He has incurred economic loss and painfully has watched his family suffer. As a result, Nelly is planning to proceed with litigation as the first step in restoring his reputation”.

“We were confident, that what our investigation revealed from the outset of this allegation would ultimately be clear and Nelly would be vindicated”, he added, saying that the accusation against his client was “an affront to the real survivors of sexual assault”.



READ MORE ABOUT: