Mystikal is facing a third allegation of rape and battery.
Police from the Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office arrested the rapper, whose real name is Michael Tyler, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, before midnight Saturday after officers responded to a “hospital in reference to sexual assault,” Sheriff Bobby Webre said in a press release Monday.
“Detectives interviewed the victim who sustained minor injuries during the attack,” Webre added.
Tyler has been charged with three felonies and two misdemeanors relating to the alleged incident, including first-degree rape, domestic abuse battery (strangulation) and simple robbery, arrest records viewed by USA TODAY show.
The investigation is ongoing, Webre said in the press release.
USA TODAY has reached out to Mystikal’s reps for comment.
Mystikal’s legal history: Rapper breaks silence on dropped 2016 rape charge
This is the third time Mystikal has been publicly accused of sexual assault.
A woman accused the “Shake Ya (Expletive)” rapper of sexual battery in 2002, and in December 2020 he was cleared of a second allegation of rape and kidnapping, stemming from a 2016 accusation.
Mystikal accused of rape in 2016
The Louisiana rapper initially denied involvement with an alleged victim stemming from a 2016 charge of first-degree rape. He spent 18 months in jail before being released on a $3 million bond. Louisiana’s Caddo Parish District Attorney closed the investigation after new evidence was presented to a second grand jury that declined to bring an indictment. The district attorney then filed to dismiss the charges.
The long ordeal “was like a reoccurring bad dream,” he told the Associated Press in April 2021. “I didn’t know how it was going to work out.”
The female victim alleged the rape occurred after his 2016 performance at a “Legends of Southern Hip-Hop” concert stop in Shreveport, Louisiana, police records obtained by the AP stated.
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Britney Green, who oversaw the case for the Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Office, told the outlet it was important to remember “that there is a distinction between not guilty and innocent, and that also because the case is dismissed or a case is resolved in a fashion other than at trial, that it doesn’t necessarily mean that an incident did not happen.”
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Mystikal plead guilty to sexual battery following an incident in 2002
In 2002, Mystikal was charged with aggravated rape and extortion by his then-hairstylist. The victim alleged he forced her to perform sex acts on him and two bodyguards in retaliation for allegedly cashing $80,000 worth of unauthorized checks from his account.
The acts were filmed and the video would seal his fate. Hoping to dodge the potential life sentence a rape charge can carry in Louisiana, Mystikal pleaded guilty in 2003 to sexual battery and served six years in prison.
“I learned from the first situation,” Mystikal said in the AP interview.
He said he’s committed to not put himself “in situations where things like this can happen. I’m too old for that.” He also said he no longer hangs out with groupies or indulges in the rock star lifestyle. “I don’t perform at the show and get the ladies (excited) and get her all goo-goo eyed and take advantage (of being a celebrity) … That was a young Mystikal.”
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, RAINN offers support through the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE & online.rainn.org).
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mystikal arrested for rape, charged with felonies for battery, robbery
