The New Orleans hip-hop artist enters not guilty plea to charges accusing him of raping and choking a woman as well as drug possession at his Prairieville, Louisiana home.
- Sep 20, 2022
AceShowbiz - Mystikal continues to maintain his innocence. The New Orleans hip-hop artist insisted that he is the "true victim" as he pleads not guilty to charges accusing him of raping and choking a woman and illegally possessing drugs at his home.
On Monday, September 19, the Grammy-nominated rapper's lawyer Joel Pearce stated that his client "is innocent of all charges." The attorney further stated that the rap artist had a court order to protect him from the woman and that he is "the true victim."
The two indictments were read aloud in court, though Joel told the Associated Press he hasn't gotten his hands on copies. "My client doesn't even do drugs, so he has absolutely no idea what they were talking about," the attorney told the outlet of the 51-year-old musician, whose real name is Michael Lawrence Tyler.
Joel also claimed he doesn't know what Mystikal's accuser is accusing him of damaging, though Associated Press reported that the charge refers to the alleged victim's broken Apple Watch band.
"People keep saying it's his third time to be charged [with rape]," the attorney said, noting that Mystikal admitted guilt to a slighter charge in Baton Rouge. "And in Caddo Parish, after a grand jury indicted him, they un-indicted him."
Mystikal pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges accusing him of raping and choking a woman as well as drug possession at his Prairieville, Louisiana home. His charges include first-degree rape, for which he'd be imprisoned for life, as well as simple criminal damage to property, false imprisonment, domestic abuse battery by strangulation, simple robbery, possession of heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine and Xanax and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Joel hopes to secure Mystikal's bond, which was denied in August, during their next hearing on October 17 as he remains behind bars for the foreseeable future. He also detailed that prosecutors apparently plan to discuss the rapper's 2003 guilty plea to sexual battery and extortion.
In 2004, Mystikal was sentenced to six years after pleading guilty to sexual battery. The rapper and his two bodyguards allegedly forced his hairstylist to perform oral sex on them in return for not turning her into police for cashing $80,000 worth of unauthorized checks from his bank account.
Mystikal was released in 2010 and registered as a sex offender in Louisiana, but found himself back behind bars just two years later on a domestic abuse battery charge against his partner, violating the terms of his probation.
