Rapper Mystikal pleaded not guilty Monday to sex assault and drug charges following an alleged incident at his Louisiana home at the end of July.
The 51-year-old, whose real name is Michael Tyler, is facing a first-degree rape charge – which comes with an automatic life sentence upon conviction – as well as false imprisonment, domestic abuse battery by strangulation, simple robbery, simple criminal damage to property, possession of heroin, marijuana, methamphetamine and Xanax and possession of drug paraphernalia.
According to an Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office arrest report, Mystikal allegedly accused a woman who was visiting his home on Saturday of stealing $100 cash before punching and choking her, pulling braids out of her hair and then taking away her car keys.
The woman told officers Mystikal suddenly became “very apologetic” and asked her to pray with him. She said he asked her if he could “feel” her and then pushed her onto a bed and forcible raped her.
According to the report, the woman was only allowed to leave after she agreed to send him cash via an app. She phoned a friend and proceeded to a hospital in Baton Rouge.
In 2004, Mystikal pleaded guilty to sexual battery and extortion after he accused a woman of stealing $80,000 in cheques and then forced her to perform oral sex. He was sentenced to six years in prison and had to register as a sex offender. He spent an additional 81 days in jail for a parole violation after being charged in 2012 with domestic abuse battery. A 2017 rape charge was dismissed in 2020 due to a lack of evidence.
Mystikal has not released a studio album since his fifth, Tarantula, in 2011.