Grammy-winning rapper Nelly,best known for the hit songs “Ride Wit Me,” “Hot in Herre” and “Dilemma,” is being sued byMonique Greene, a student at the University of Washington, for alleged sexual assault and defamation.
Greene, 22, filed a 14-page complaint in King County Superior Court on Wednesdayaccusing him of sexually assaulting her on a tour bus parked at a Walmart in Auburn, a suburb of Seattle, and later damaging her reputation by denying her account, according to The Seattle Times.
Nelly, 43, whose real name is Cornell Haynes Jr.,performed at an amphitheater in Auburn on Oct. 6 as part of a tour with country pop group Florida Georgia Line. He was arrested in the early hours of Oct. 7 when Greene called 911 to report that a sexual assault had occurred on the tour bus. He was booked into the South Correctional Entity Regional Jail in Des Moines, Wash., on suspicion of sexual assault, then released, pending an investigation.
According to the complaint, on the night of the incident, Greene and her friend, Nelly and his group left the concert after-party together and drove to the rapper’s tour bus. Her friend decided to leave and was given a ride, but Greene, who had been drinking that night, opted to stay.
She said Nelly had sex with her orally and vaginally against her will,TMZreports. Greene said she tried to stop him by saying he needed to wear a condom, but he refused and continued assaulting her.Greene said that after the incident occurred, she screamed to get off the bus, and Nelly’s entourage pushed her out of the bus. She said Nelly allegedly gave her a $100 bill and told her, “Bye bye.”
In October, Nelly posted a tweet saying, “I am a victim of a false allegation.”
Let me say that I am beyond shocked that I have been targeted with this false allegation. I am completely innocent. I am confident that once the facts are looked at , it will be very clear that I am the victim of a false allegation.
Nelly_Mo (@Nelly_Mo) October 7, 2017
Last week, prosecutors said Greene was not cooperating with the investigation and refused to testify, so they couldn’t “proceed or fully assess the merits of the case.”On Dec. 14, they declined to file charges against Nelly. The Blastobtained a letterwritten by her attorney, Karen Koehler, stating that Greene feared pursuing “criminal charges against a celebrity for alleged rape.”
The following day, Rosenblum said Nelly would be taking legal action.
“Nelly has suffered very real damage to his reputation,” hesaid in a statementto The New York Post on Friday. “He has incurred economic loss and painfully has watched his family suffer. As a result, Nelly is planning to proceed with litigation as the first step in restoring his reputation.”
Greene said in her lawsuit that she was hesitant to testify, feeling she couldn’t “stand up against a celebrity and that the criminal system would fail her.”
Koehler said Wednesday that after Nelly publicly said that Greene fabricated her rape story, her client reluctantly filed the suit against him.
“She honestly decided to stand up for herself after that last horrible post they made against her,” Koehler told The Seattle Times, which generally does not identify alleged sexual assault victims, but Greene agreed to be publicly identified.
“If they had not done that, she would’ve just kept her head down. She didn’t want to be a fighter at all. She didn’t want anyone to know what happened to her. But enough was enough.”
Greene is seeking unspecified damages.
Rosenblum said in a statement that it “comes as no surprise” that Greene “filed a lawsuit against Nelly seeking money after we announced our intention to hold her accountable. We always believed her accusation was motivated by greed.”
