Singer and television star CeeLo Green has been charged with giving the drug ecstasy to a woman while the two were dining at a Los Angeles restaurant.
Mr Green, real name Thomas DeCarlo Callaway, “slipped” the drug to the 33-year-old woman during the meal last July, prosecutors said.
The two then went back to the woman’s hotel room, authorities said.
If convicted, Mr Green, 38, faces up to four years in prison. He pleaded not guilty.
Mr Green was charged with one felony count of furnishing a controlled substance, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said.
He pleaded not guilty during his arraignment in Los Angeles County court on Monday.
Prosecutors have requested his bail be set at $30,000 (£18,579). He is scheduled to appear in court again on 20 November.
Mr Green, an Atlanta native who rose to prominence as a member of rap group Goodie Mob, later won fame as a solo artist. He also appears on the NBC reality show The Voice.
What isn’t mentioned: what Green did to the victim after they got back to her hotel room. The victim doesn’t remember because she was drugged to the point of amnesia. It neglects to mention that the prosecutors “declined” to pursue a rape charge because the woman was incapacitated. Even the Daily Mail managed to include that extremely important piece of information, although it was buried in a huge pile of rape myths. There is also no mention of Green’s well-documented history of violence against women. Green has convictions for domestic violence against his ex-wife who divorced him citing mental and physical cruelty. There is at least one other instance of sexual violence which was investigated.
- The woman had been dating Green prior to the incident.
- The woman in question had a prior sexual relationship with Green.
CeeLo was pleased that the rape charge was rejected and will address the ecstasy charge in court, his attorney Blair Berk wrote in a statement.
She said any sexual contact between Green and the woman was consensual.
‘Mr. Green encouraged a full and complete investigation of those claims and he was confident once conducted he would be cleared of having any wrongful intent,’ Berk wrote. She declined further comment.
The above was published in the Daily Mail. It reads as though Green’s attorney is admitting that rape took place but without “wrongful intent”. At what point did deliberately putting a rape-drug into a woman’s drink stop having “wrongful intent”?
This is rape culture: where a male celebrity cannot be prosecuted for rape for drugging his victim in advance. Where deliberately placing a known rape-drug in a woman’s drink has no “wrongful intent”. Where a woman is in a perpetual state of consent to any man she meets, and no woman can ever revoke consent. Once you have said yes to a man, you can never say no again.
Below are a series of tweets on the case:
Thank you to Victoria Brownworth for bringing this to my attention.