T.I. and Tiny Harris won’t be charged
Sex assault allegations against rapper and his singer wife were too old to prosecute.
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has declined to file charges against rapper Clifford “T.I.” Harris and his wife, singer Tameka “Tiny” Harris, in a case based on allegations brought by a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by the couple in 2005.
After reviewing an LAPD investigation into the allegations, prosecutors determined they could not proceed with a filing against the couple because the case falls outside the 10-year statute of limitations.
Shawn Holley, an attorney for the couple, said they are pleased but not surprised by the decision not to proceed “with the meritless accusations,” and they plan to put the matter behind them.
The LAPD’s investigation into the couple became public in May. In March, attorney Tyrone A. Blackburn said he had been contacted by more than 30 “women, survivors and witnesses” who accused the couple of “forced drugging, kidnapping, rape and intimidation” over a 15-year period.
In April, a woman spoke to an LAPD detective and alleged that she had received a drink at a bar from Tiny and later was sexually assaulted by T.I. before vomiting and blacking out. An investigation followed.
Attorneys for the couple have labeled the accusations “a sordid shakedown campaign that began on social media.”
Another woman filed a report with the Las Vegas Metro Police claiming that her drink was spiked before she engaged in nonconsensual sex with the couple in August 2010. That investigation was dropped when it was determined that it too fell beyond the statute of limitations.
Public allegations against the couple first appeared in January, and filming was halted on their VH1 reality show, “The Family Hustle.”
In March, Sabrina Peterson filed a defamation lawsuit in L.A. County Superior Court against Tiny, T.I. and hairstylist Shekinah Anderson. Peterson alleged that the rapper pointed a gun at her head when she got into an altercation with his assistant. She sued after the Harrises responded with an extensive denial.
Peterson’s accusations against T.I., which were posted on Instagram in January, spurred additional allegations against the couple on social media.
In February, Blackburn sent letters to police agencies in California and Georgia calling for an investigation into the couple, describing their allegations as an “eerily” similar pattern of “events of sexual abuse, forced ingestion of illegal narcotics, kidnapping, terroristic threats and false imprisonment.”
The Harrises have vehemently denied any wrongdoing since the accusations first surfaced.