SEATTLE (AP) — Rapper Nelly is fighting back against a lawsuit that alleges he raped a fan on his tour bus after a performance in Seattle last year and sexually assaulted two fans in England.
Nelly filed court papers Friday in King County Superior Court denying the allegations and seeking to have a Jan. 22 amended complaint against him dismissed.
The complaint says Nelly raped a fan last October in his bedroom on the tour bus and sexually assaulted two women after performances in England in June 2016 and December 2017.
Nelly denies all allegations.
In court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Nelly says the encounter on the tour bus after a performance at a Seattle night club was consensual and the woman became upset only when another person entered the bedroom to use the bathroom.
Nelly’s court filings were first reported by the celebrity website TMZ.com.
His attorney, Scott Rosenblum, said Saturday in an emailed statement to The AP that the allegations are “completely fabricated” and a “money grab” by the woman.
The woman’s attorney, Karen Koehler, said in a phone interview with The AP on Saturday that the two women who allege they were assaulted in England by Nelly contacted her after reading about her client’s case.
The two women are named as Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2. One is American and was posted in England with the U.S. military when the alleged incidents happened. The other woman is British.
One woman alleges Nelly slid his hand under her dress and attempted to keep her from leaving a room. She was able to leave when a security guard came to the door, the lawsuit says.
The second woman alleges that Nelly trapped her in a bathroom, masturbated in front of her and tried to force her to perform oral sex before she got away, court papers say.
One alleged incident occurred in London and the other in Essex, Koehler said.
“He’s got a career to save but my job is to make sure that he doesn’t try to save his career at the expense of an innocent young woman,” she said of her Seattle client.
“This isn’t funny. This is a real nasty litigation that’s going on now. …They have chosen to go after her in a way that I have never really seen,” Koehler said of the woman.
Nelly was arrested on his tour bus in a suburban Seattle Wal-Mart parking lot in October after the woman called 911 from the parking lot to report an alleged rape.
In court documents, the 22-year-old college student says Nelly invited her to his bedroom on the bus and masturbated in front of her. He then forced himself on her while she was intoxicated, according to the documents.
Prosecutors have said they can’t pursue a criminal case against Nelly because the woman decided not to cooperate with authorities.
The amended complaint alleges that after she called police, her name became public and she was attacked on social media.
She decided not to testify further in the criminal case because “she felt that she could not stand up against a celebrity and the criminal justice system would fail her,” court documents state.
She sued Nelly in December seeking unspecified damages.
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This story has been corrected to say one woman is American and was posted in England with the U.S. military when the alleged incidents happened. The other woman is British. Also corrects by dropping sentence about one woman losing employment at two clubs.
