Mystikal broke his silence on the four-year "bad dream" of rape and kidnapping charges that were recently dismissed.
For the first time, the rapper spoke on the first-degree rape and second-degree kidnapping charges stemming from a 2016 allegation. Mystikal initially denied any involvement with his accuser and sat in jail for 18 months before being released on a $3 million bond. The case was dismissed in December 2020, after new evidence was presented to a second grand jury.
"I didn't get a Donald Trump pardon,” he said while speaking to The Associated Press.
However, prosecutors say that although the charges were dropped, that doesn't mean Mystikal is innocent.
"We never want to be a part of any process that has an innocent person tied up in the criminal justice process," said Britney Green, who oversaw the case for the Caddo Parish District Attorney’s Office. "I just want to say that there is a distinction between not guilty and innocent, and that also because the case is dismissed or a case is resolved in a fashion other than at trial, that it doesn't necessarily mean that an incident did not happen."
According to police records, Mystikal and a few members of his entourage, including Averweone "Lil Hood" Holman, met up with Holman's female friend and her boyfriend after Mystikal's performance earlier that night. The female told police she was continuously handed drinks while hanging out with the group. She was eventually separated from her boyfriends and when they reunited a few hours later, her boyfriend said she seemed disoriented and the police were called.
Holman admitted to being intoxicated with the alleged victim and having intercourse with her. While he claimed they were the only ones in the room, the female recalled her buttocks hurting with Mystikal standing behind her although she didn't remember certain parts of the night.
Mystikal denied being in the room but forensic tests proved he had a sexual encounter with the female eight months later. A toxicology report also found that there was cocaine and another substance in the alleged victim's body.
According to the Associated Press, an arrest warrant was issued for Mystikal, Holman, and a woman who later pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. Holman pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of simple kidnapping in June 2019 and was sentenced to time served.
Mystikal admitted to the news site that he did have a consensual sexual encounter with the woman and believes she claimed she was raped to cover up cheating on her boyfriend.
"There was additional information that surfaced that the original grand jury did not have an opportunity to consider at the time that the charges were brought forward," Green said. "We then decided that the case needed to stop there because the [second] grand jury did not return an indictment after the review of the additional evidence."
Mystikal also spoke on his sexual battery conviction in 2003, for which he served six years in prison. He claimed he accepted the sexual battery charge in order to avoid a potential life sentence a rape charge can carry in Louisiana, but admitted to being in a "horrible fraternity" as a registered sex offender.
The Louisiana legend acknowledged that he may always have detractors due to his legal past but is still grateful he's able to get booked for shows. He also claimed he no longer entertains women while out on the road.
"I don’t do the groupies on the road [anymore]," Mystikal said. "I don't perform at the show and get the ladies [excited] and get her all goo-goo-eyed and take advantage [of being a celebrity]...That was a young Mystikal."
As for his dropped rape charge, the grand jury documents that were the basis for the dismissal remain sealed. Prosecutors do not plan to recharge Mystikal.
Source: The Associated Press
