Boxing legend, Mike Tyson has been accused of raping a woman after the two met at an Albany nightclub in the early 1990s, according to the unidentified plaintiff’s $5 million lawsuit filed earlier this month.
The woman claims Tyson raped her in a limousine, resulting in ‘physical, psychological and emotional injury’ in the years since then.
‘I got in Tyson’s limousine to pick up my friend from her house,’ read the lawsuit, obtained by DailyMail.com. ‘Tyson immediately started to touch me and attempted to kiss me. I told him no several times and asked him to stop, but he continued to attack me. He then pulled my pants off and violently raped me.’
The woman’s filing does not include a specific date for the attack other than the ‘early 1990s’ – around the same time that beauty pageant contestant Desiree Washington said Tyson raped her in Indianapolis. Tyson was convicted of raping Washington on February 10, 1992, and served three years in prison.
The legal action in New York was filed under the state’s Adult Survivors Act, which gives sexual assault victims a one-year window to file lawsuits over assaults that happened years or even decades ago.
The woman is seeking to maintain her anonymity because, she said, publication of her name ‘would certainly pose a risk to me of further mental harm, harassment, ridicule or personal embarrassment.’
She also claims that she suffered as a result of the alleged attack.
‘As a result of Tyson’s rape, I suffered and continue to suffer from physical, psychological and emotional injury,’ read the filing. ‘I have experienced feelings of guilt, loss of self-respect, shame, embarrassment, sadness, anger, depression, anxiety, violent tendencies, drug and alcohol addiction,
and confusion resulting from the brutal rape.
‘I have developed lifelong problems including but not limited to issues with sex, and with being touched as a result of the rape. I have been unable to maintain and/or develop healthy relationships with men or anyone in general. I have experienced extreme emotional suffering including but not limited to nightmares, panic attacks and flashbacks.’
The woman’s attorney, Darren Seilback, said in a separate filing that his office did not simply take the woman at her word but investigated her allegations and determined that they are ‘highly credible.’
Seilback said Tuesday he could not comment further on the case.
Tyson’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com’suest for comment.
Brooklyn-born Tyson, 56, won adulation as the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990, but his life outside the ring has been turbulent.
Tyson’s former wife, actor Robin Givens, said in divorce papers that their late-1980s marriage was characterized by ‘unprovoked rages of violence and destruction.’
He was also accused of groping his former photographer.
Tyson allegedly tried to grab the breast of award-winning photographer Lori Grinker in the early 1980s, but rather than denying the claim, he told DailyMail.com that the two had a consensual sexual relationship starting when he was ‘around 17’ and she was in her mid 20s.
Grinker, 65, made her accusation in the preface of her new pictorial book, ‘Mike Tyson,’ a candid collection of photographs from Tyson’s teenage years in through the early 1990s.
‘Mike could be very sweet and gentle when he was feeling it, and not very sweet or gentle when he wasn’t,’ she wrote about Tyson, who is now 56. ‘He once tried to grab my breast, and when I pushed him away, he got angry and threw my light meter in the snow. He had a somewhat spoiled side and, being the champ, grew accustomed to getting his way.’
In emails to DailyMail.com, Grinker said Tyson never tried anything like that again and the two continued with their professional relationship. She also stressed that Tyson was just an ‘immature teenager’ at the time.
Grinker has told DailyMail.com that Tyson’s claim is inaccurate and a lie.