(Ron Galella, Ltd. / Contributor)
Legendary singer and prolific crack cocaine enthusiast Rick James has been deceased for many years, yet the lawsuits tied to his alleged deviant ways at the height of his fame soldier on.
A woman is suing the Rick James estate for $50 million, claiming the dead R&B star sexually assaulted her in upstate New York when she was just 15, according to court documents.
The unidentified accuser says James attacked her when he visited a youth detention home in Buffalo in 1979, a year after the release of his first album.
He immediately made her “very uncomfortable” by being “very suggestive and inappropriate” — then pinned her down and raped her when she went to her room, her lawsuit claims.
“He grabbed my hair and pushed my head into the pillow,” she said in the suit. “I tried to fight him off, but he told me to ‘shut up and quit moving or I’ll cut you.’”
According to Page Six, the lawsuit was filed in Erie County Supreme Court on Thursday against the James Ambrose Johnson Jr. 1999 Trust, which is run by the singer’s estate using his birth name.
It was filed under the Child Victims Act, which opened a one-year litigation window for victims who were once blocked by the statute of limitations.
The woman’s attorney, Darren Seilback, told the Buffalo News that the woman told someone about the alleged rape, but never reported it to police. She also never confronted James or contacted any of his representatives, he said.
James, who had cocaine and other drug problems throughout his life, was arrested in 1991, accused of holding a 24-year-old woman hostage for days, forcing her to perform sexual acts, and torturing her. While awaiting trial on that case, he was charged with kidnapping and assaulting a music industry executive.
A California jury found James guilty of one assault and he pleaded guilty to another in 1994. He was convicted of holding a woman against her will and forcing her to have sex with his girlfriend during a six-day cocaine binge. He was sentenced to five years and four months in prison. James was released from prison in 1996 after serving more than two years.
The Chicks on the Right have more on the James’ lawsuit in the clip below.
