TI and wife Tiny sued for sexual assault following alleged 2005 hotel incident (updated)

UPDATE (August 9): A judge has dismissed the sexual assault lawsuit filed against TI and his wife Tiny Harris after the couple’s accuser, Jane Doe, failed to respond to the couple’s motion to dismiss the case in a timely manner, according to documents filed in Los Angeles court Thursday (August 8).

In her order, the judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett writes that after the complaint was filed, TI and Tiny raised two objections to the woman’s complaint: it was time-barred and the woman provided no “factual allegations” to support her claim that the couple drugged and sexually assaulted her at a nightclub in 2005. However, the judge left the door open for the woman to file an amended complaint within 21 days.

PREVIOUSLY (January 3): IT and his wife Little Harris are facing a new civil lawsuit accusing them of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman they met at a Los Angeles nightclub in 2005.

In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in a Los Angeles court, attorneys for one of Jane Doe’s accusers allege that TI (Clifford Harris) and Tiny (Tameka Harris) gave her a drugged drink after she was introduced to them in the VIP section of a club, then took her back to their hotel room where they “forced her to undress” and assaulted her.

“Plaintiff did not consent to any sexual assault or misconduct and lacked the capacity to consent after being drugged by the defendants,” the alleged victim’s attorneys write in the complaint, which was obtained by Billboard.

Lawyers for the accuser, who is believed to be in her 20s and serving in the U.S. Air Force at the time, say she was introduced to the couple by an associate named “Caviar,” whom she allegedly met the night before at rapper Coolio’s house. In the middle of the alleged incident, after drinking a drink allegedly offered to her by Tiny, she began feeling “extremely dizzy and lightheaded” and later passed out.

In a statement to Billboard On Wednesday, TI and Tiny “categorically and emphatically” denied the allegations and vowed to fight back against a lawsuit they said the plaintiff had been threatening to file for years.

“For THREE years we have maintained our innocence and refused to pay these outrageous demands for things we did not do,” the couple wrote. “For THREE years we have maintained the same position while the allegations in this story have changed many times. Our position is clear… We are innocent of these false allegations, we will not take this lying down, and we look forward to our day in court.”

Tuesday’s trial bears similarities to previously reported charges. In 2021, the The New York Times reported a police investigation into an alleged 2005 incident in which “a military veteran” claimed the famous couple “raped her in a hotel room” after she became “incapacitated” while drinking with them in the “VIP section” of a Los Angeles club.

At the time, the couple strongly denied any wrongdoing, saying the accusations were part of a “sordid racketeering campaign.” Prosecutors later declined to file charges over the allegations, citing a 10-year statute of limitations that had expired.

The new case is being filed under California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover-up Liability Act, which created a four-year window, until 2026, for alleged victims to file claims when the statute of limitations would otherwise run out. The law is similar to New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which recently saw a wave of sexual abuse cases filed in that state before the statute expired in November.

Representatives for the Harrises and their label, Grand Hustle Records, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit’s allegations. The attorney who represented the couple in the previous police investigation also responded to a request for comment.

The new lawsuit against the Harrises contains graphic details of the alleged sexual assault.

After meeting TI and Tiny at a nightclub, the accuser’s lawyers claim that Tiny “handed the plaintiff a drink” and “watched her drink.” Shortly after, the trio allegedly returned to a nearby hotel, where Tiny “removed all of the plaintiff’s clothing,” undressed herself, and they were joined by a naked TI.

“The plaintiff was then asked to take a shower and TI and Tiny entered the shower with her,” her lawyers wrote. “The plaintiff was extremely shocked and uncomfortable.” After the shower, the accuser claims she began to feel “extremely dizzy and lightheaded” and was “visibly drugged” when TI told her to go to bed.

“The plaintiff could say that she was suffering from something serious and incapacitating that was not a symptom of typical alcohol consumption or a few drinks,” her lawyers say.

After TI allegedly forced her to watch pornographic films, he then allegedly “ordered her to begin rubbing oil on her back and naked body, while Tiny “got on top of the complainant’s back, while she was still naked, and rubbed himself back and forth” on her. Then, “while Tiny was straddling the complainant’s back and holding her down,” the accuser claims, TI “began to slide his toes into the complainant’s vagina.”

“Plaintiff became increasingly ill and felt extremely unwell from the assault and beatings she was enduring,” Doe’s attorneys wrote. Eventually, she “forced herself to get up and went to the bathroom where she began vomiting.” She then exited the bathroom “naked, dizzy, sickened and weak” and passed out on a couch.

The next morning, when she was woken up by a security guard, the accuser claims she “immediately noticed that her vagina was very sore.” As she cried, the security guard escorted her out of the room.

The lawsuit is the latest in a string of recent claims of sexual assault and harassment by men in the music industry. In the past year, such claims have been filed against hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, Aerosmith star Steven Tyler, Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine and former Recording Academy president Neil Portnow, among others.

Read the full complaint against TI and Tiny here: