Former boxer and heavyweight champion Mike Tyson has been accused of rape a second time. A woman is accusing him of raping her after they met in a nightclub in Albany in the 1990s, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month.
The woman, who filed a $5 million lawsuit, claims that the boxer raped her in his limousine, which resulted in psychological, physical, and emotional trauma in the decades since the incident.
In the lawsuit, the woman said she got into Tyson’s limousine so they would go and pick up a friend from her house, but the boxer immediately started assaulting her by touching her and attempting to kiss her. She allegedly told him to stop a few times, but he continued to attack her.
The woman says that Tyson undressed her and raped her violently.
The lawsuit does not specify the exact date the attack happened and only says it happened in the early 1990s. During those years, Desiree Washington, Tyson’s first rape accuser, said the boxer sexually assaulted her in Indianapolis.
Washington accused him of raping her on February 10, 1992, a crime for which Tyson was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison.
The recent rape lawsuit against Tyson was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, which allows sexual assault victims to file lawsuits against their attackers, even if the assaults happened several years ago.
Tyson’s new accuser is seeking anonymity because she fears that the publication of her name would expose her to harassment, ridicule, further mental harm, and embarrassment.
Writing about what Tyson’s alleged actions did to her, the woman said as a result of the assault, she suffers from emotional, physical, and psychological trauma. She said that she had feelings of embarrassment, loss of self-respect, guilt, anger, sadness, depression, and suffered from drug and alcohol addiction, among others.
She said the assault left her with lifelong problems, including issues with sex and intimacy and an inability to develop healthy relationships with men. She also said that she experiences nightmares, flashbacks, and panic attacks due to the rape.
Her attorney, Darren Seilback, said that his office did not simply take their client’s word for it. They investigated her claims and concluded that they were credible.
Tyson, now 56, shot to success and was crowned the undisputed heavyweight champion for four consecutive years, from 1987 to 1990. Despite his success in the ring, his life in the outside world has been controversial.
Tyson’s ex-wife, Robin Givens, said in their divorce that their marriage, which only lasted a year, from 1988 to 1989, was characterized by Tyson’s unprovoked violence and a lot of destruction.
His former photographer, Lori Grinker, also accused the champion of groping her in the early 1980s. Tyson did not deny the allegation and said that he and Grinker had a consensual sexual relationship that began when he was 17 and Grinker was in her mid-20s.
Tyson grew up in the Brownsville neighborhood in Brooklyn. When he was young, he was bullied for his short stature, lisp, and love of pigeons. He discovered his talent as a teenager and quickly became a boxing champion.
With all his successes, Tyson will also be remembered for his rape conviction and subsequent three-year prison sentence.