A woman is suing boxing legend Mike Tyson, accusing him of violently raping her inside a limo after the two met at a popular Albany nightclub in the early 1990s.
The anonymous plaintiff, who is seeking $5 million ($A7m) in damages, alleges in her complaint filed in Albany this month that she has suffered from “physical, psychological, and emotional injury” over the years as a result of the rape.
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The woman’s affidavit does not provide an exact date for the alleged attack but says only that it happened sometime in the early 1990s — around the same time that 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant Desiree Washington said the former heavyweight champion raped her in Indianapolis.
Tyson, 56, was convicted of raping Washington on Feb. 10, 1992, and served three years in prison. He has staunchly maintained his innocence in that case.
The legal action in upstate New York was filed under the state’s recently adopted Adult Survivors Act, which gives sexual assault victims a one-year window to file lawsuits over attacks that happened years or even decades ago.
The alleged victim said in her affidavit that she ran into Tyson at a local hotspot then-called “Septembers” and later got into his limo after he offered to pick up her friend and take the two of them to a party. She claimed that the boxer immediately started touching her and trying to kiss her.
“I told him no several times and asked him to stop, but he continued to attack me,” the woman said. “He then pulled my pants off and violently raped me.”
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The document does not say whether Tyson’s driver was inside the vehicle at the time of the alleged rape, or whether the limo was parked or in motion.The woman is seeking to maintain her anonymity because, she said, publication of her name “would certainly pose a risk to me of further mental harm, harassment, ridicule or personal embarrassment.”
The plaintiff’s attorney, Darren Seilback, said in a separate filing that his office did not simply take the woman at her word but thoroughly investigated her allegations and determined that they are “highly credible.”
Tyson won worldwide fame as the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990, but his life outside the ring has been troubled and marred by a slew of controversies and his struggles with addiction.
Tyson’s first ex-wife wife, actress Robin Givens, said in divorce papers that their brief late-1980s marriage was characterized by “unprovoked rages of violence and destruction.”
His second wife, Monica Turner, filed for divorce from the athlete in 2002, accusing him of adultery during their six-year marriage.
Tyson tied the knot with his third wife, 44-year-old Monica Spicer, in 2009, shortly after her release from prison on a fraud conviction. The couple has two children together, and Tyson also has five older kids from his previous relationships.
With Post wires