Rapper Mystikal was jailed Monday in Louisiana, charged with rape more than a year after prosecutors dropped charges that held him to 18 months in prison in another part of the state.
Michael “Mystikal” Tyler was arrested on charges of rape and domestic violence, Sheriff Bobby Webre of Ascension Parish, just outside Baton Rouge, said in a Facebook post Monday.
The 51-year-old hip-hop legend is being held without bail on 10 charges, according to the detainee of the sheriff’s office.
Attorney Joel Pearce, of Shreveport, who represented the rapper in the earlier case, said he believes bonds will be discussed at a hearing in Ascension Parish Tuesday.
“I expect it to be a big band,” he said.
Pearce said he has not been detained on Tyler’s current case, but they would meet on Wednesday or Thursday to discuss the matter. He said he would then make a statement.
Pearce represented the rapper on charges filed in 2017 that accused him of sexual assault at a casino in Shreveport in 2016. Prosecutors dropped those rape and kidnapping charges in December 2020 after new evidence was presented to a grand jury and it yielded no new ones. charge on.
Shreveport is located more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) northwest of Ascension Parish.
Webre said officers were called to a hospital for a sexual assault just before midnight Sunday and interviewed the victim, who had minor injuries.
“Further investigation has identified Michael ‘Mystikal’ Tyler as a suspect,” the statement said.
The new charges include first-degree rape, simple robbery, false imprisonment, simple criminal property damage and drug possession, including possession of amphetamines. Conviction for first-degree rape carries at least a life sentence – the prosecutor can choose whether to ask for the death penalty.
Tyler pleaded guilty to sexual acts in 2003 and served six years in prison.
In April 2021, he told The Associated Press that his past placed him in a “terrible brotherhood,” but he was ready to move on.
Mystikal’s 2000 hit, “Shake (It Fast)” peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100. His 2000 album “Let’s Get Ready” went multi-platinum.