Los Angeles prosecutors have decided not to charge T.I. and Tiny Harris following an investigation into allegations of sexual-assault and drugging made against the couple. According to a document from the district attorney’s office obtained by Vulture, prosecutors cited the statute of limitations as the reason for their declination. The alleged incident took place in 2005, and the statute of limitations on sexual abuse in California is 10 years. “Without the strengths and weaknesses of the evidence being evaluated, the case is declined due to the expiration,†the district attorney’s office wrote in the charge evaluation. The couple’s attorney, Shawn Holley, said in a statement to Vulture, “Mr. and Mrs. Harris are pleased, but not surprised, by the District Attorney’s decision to dismiss these meritless allegations. We appreciate the DA’s careful review of the case and are grateful to be able to put the matter behind us and move on.â€
The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed that that couple were under investigation for sexual assault and drugging back in May. The investigation centered on an incident that took place in 2005, which was reported to police by an unnamed L.A. woman last April. The woman claimed, according to a police report obtained by Vulture, that she had met T.I. and Tiny in a Los Angeles club, where Tiny allegedly gave her a drink that she believes was “most likely drugged.†She claimed that the couple then took her back to a hotel room, and T.I. penetrated her vagina with his toes while she was incapacitated and unable to consent.
In February, the woman’s attorney, Tyrone A. Blackburn, had sent letters on behalf of 11 victims to law enforcement in Georgia and California, following multiple sexual assault allegations from dozens of women against the couple on social media in January . The letters from Blackburn detail “eerily similar events of sexual abuse, forced ingestion of illegal narcotics, kidnapping, terroristic threats and false imprisonment.†Four victims, according to the letters, specifically accused the couple of drugging and sexual assault, including a 17-year-old intern to T.I. and Tiny’s studio. The couple’s attorney at the time, Steve Sadow, called the allegations “a sordid shakedown campaign.†In response to today’s news, Blackburn said that the prosecutors’s decision “does not vindicate Clifford Harris and Tiny Harris from the act of raping and drugging Jane Doe. It only amplifies the need to do away with the statute of limitations for sex crimes.â€