Rapper T.I. and his wife Tameka Harris have been accused of a long list of criminal acts including drugging, kidnapping and sexually assaulting nearly a dozen women.
Lawyer Tyrone A. Blackburn told reporters on Monday he is representing 11 women who have made allegations of “methodical, sadistic abuse” by the couple between 2005 to 2018 in California and Georgia.
T.I. (whose real name is Clifford Harris Jr.) and Tameka are accused of forced ingestion of illegal narcotics, kidnapping, false imprisonment, intimidation, sexual abuse, assault and harassment.
“They all have various reasons why they took so long to come out,” explained Blackburn during a virtual press conference. “One of the reasons is that they did not think anyone would believe them.”
Blackburn did not identify the alleged victims but said they came forward after Sabrina Peterson went public in January with her claim that T.I. pointed a gun at her head (the rapper denied the allegation).
One woman, who was hired to do a private dance for the couple, alleges she was forced to take cocaine and MDMA and to engage in sex acts with other women. She claims her phone and other personal effects were taken from her and she was held against her will for three days.
The lawyer said he wants authorities in California and Georgia to launch criminal probes. “This is about justice, not about dollars,” said Blackburn, who is representing Peterson in a defamation suit against the couple.
Steve Sadow, a lawyer for T.I. and Tameka, said he is “confident that if these claims are thoroughly and fairly investigated, no charges will be forthcoming.”
Sadow said the couple “deny in the strongest possible terms these unsubstantiated and baseless allegations,” which he described as “nothing more than the continuation of a sordid shakedown campaign that began on social media.”
In 2019, T.I. made headlines when he said he takes his daughter Deyjah Harris on “yearly trips to the gynecologist to check her hymen” to ensure she is a virgin. Appearing on the Ladies Like Us podcast, T.I. said “as of her 18th birthday, her hymen is still intact.”
T.I. later said his comments were “misconstrued” and “sensationalized.” He explained: “Never said I was in any exam room. That is an assumption. That is a falsity. I never said that it was being done in present-day as an 18-year-old. And I never said that her mother wasn’t present.”