Rapper Nelly arrested; accused of Rape

http://tmz.com/#2017/10/07/nelly-arrested-rape-washington/

 

Here is a statement from his lawyer

I hope it isn't true.

 

First time I have heard about something like that about Nelly.

 

Gonna have to start calling him R. Nelly:

What the entire fuck?

And does anyone know how to embed Twitter videos on this site? I tried like ten times and still can't figure it out lol.

 

You can't embed Twitter video on this site. You're just gonna have find a site to download that Twitter video clip, than upload the clip to YouTube, Dailymation, Vimeo, or Facebook video. OR you search if the clip has been uploaded to 1 of those sites.

 

This reminds of another woman that tried to say some rappers raped her, but later confessed that she had lied the further the story went on. Nelly has seemed to slow down and settled down with Floyd's ex Shantel Jackson for this to be true, hopefully it is not. But you never know with some people, especially when they are famous. smh.

 

Looks like Nelly was only arrested for suspicion of 2nd degree rape & was not charged:

 

Nelly has been in the game so long, if he had those tendencies I think we would have heard about them by now, considering the Bill Cosby scandal.

It's possible I guess he raped some woman, but I doubt it.

 

his accuser wants police to drop the charges

 

This whole situation is so incredibly sad. Either an innocent man was accused of a terrible crime he didn't commit...or we have a young rape victim who recognizes the impossible road ahead of her and bows out. I pray it's not the latter. There's zero defense for accusing an innocent man of rape, no doubt about it,
But rape victims in this country are just as much on trial (if not more so) than the actual rapist is. The cards are stacked against most rape victims from the get go, especially when the accused is famous. If I were in this woman's shoes (and she's telling the truth), everything in me would want to do just as she did...drop everything. The day after she went to police, she was receiving death threats. She was being attacked by many in the media. What if this woman was telling the truth?? Her rapist is empowered to do it again because America has proven (once again) that money and fame trumps truth.

 

So true. Most people confuse "I don't want to prosecute" with "It didn't happen." Those two are definitely not the same thing.

 

What's strange about this situation is that the police are continuing their investigation without the alleged victim's cooperation. I don't see how they could possibly obtain a conviction if the sole complainant has withdrawn her accusation?

 

I may have misread but I thought she was refusing to testify, not withdrawing her accusation? If she changed her story to "it was consensual", I'd imagine there wouldn't be much left to investigate BUT if she gave her statement and is simply refusing to testify down the line, maybe the police feel like there's enough evidence to go to trial without her?

I know people have the right to confront their accuser, but how does that work if she's refusing cooperation with regards to testifying down the line? Im so confused lol. Just another reminder of why I never went into law lol.

Absolutely right. Many victims just want to move on from the incident...not relive it for months on end in court while simultaneously being torn apart in the media as if they're the villain, not the victim.

 

To be honest I'm not sure of the specifics.

If she really is a victim it's sad that she isn't able to participate in getting justice for herself.

 

Long story short, if she doesn't testify in court then nothing she said previously could be used in court. It would all be inadmissible hearsay.

 

But they can force her to testify though right?

I would think they would have to feel they have enough evidence with or without her on the stand....but would still put her on the stand ??

 

The problem that we will unfortunately will always have here is that this country has a LONG history of black men being accused of rape that they never committed. Back in the day they hunted down, hung and castrated when women accused black men of raping them. Now days there have been black men that have been released from prison after finding out that they were wrongly convicted of rape. White women have been going to the police saying black men raped them only to find out through the investigations it wasn't true.
Remember Breana Harmon? She was indicted this past summer on false accusations. This is a dangerous climate right now for black men, because it is now VERY easy to accuse black men of rape, because of the overwhelming sympathy women are getting and rightfully for speaking out. But what gets lost in that there are those women that will lie, especially in this country on black men.

 

They can subpoena her to come to court but generally, she cannot be forced to give any testimony.

Unless the state had some actual eyewitnesses to what happened, trying to prosecute a rape (or any other case) without a victim is pretty close to impossible.

 

I was so hoping you'd chime in! Thank you! Maybe the investigation continues in the hopes of changing her mind down the road. Who knows. I hate the what-ifs (what if she was telling the truth, what if she really won't testify even with adequate evidence in place, etc).

 

What should happen in these cases is total anonymity for both accuser and accused until after the trial. That way, investigations can be done without all of the extra pressure from the public. However, there still needs to be some sort of way to police the police and make sure these kinds of investigations are being done properly and not just swept under the rug.

Our laws regarding information and privacy need to be revamped. They were never meant to address the "instant information" age.