T.I. and Tiny Harris Face Lawsuit Over Sexual Assault Allegations

UPDATE (Aug. 9): A judge has dismissed the sexual assault lawsuit filed against T.I. and his wife Tiny Harris after the pair’s Jane Doe accuser 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 (Aug. 8).

In her order, Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett writes that after the lawsuit was filed, T.I. and Tiny put forth two challenges to the woman’s complaint: that it was barred by the statute of limitations; and that the woman failed to provide any “factual allegations” to back up 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 (Jan. 3): T.I. and his wife Tiny Harris are facing a new civil lawsuit that claims they drugged and sexually assaulted a woman they met in a Los Angeles nightclub in 2005.

In a complaint filed Tuesday in Los Angeles court, lawyers for a Jane Doe accuser say T.I. (Clifford Harris) and Tiny (Tameka Harris) gave her a spiked drink after she was introduced to them in the VIP section of a club, then brought her back to their hotel room where they “forced her to get naked” and assaulted her.

“Plaintiff did not consent to any of the sexual assault or misconduct and did not have the capacity to consent after being drugged by defendants,” lawyers for the alleged victim write in the lawsuit, which was obtained by Billboard.

Attorneys for accuser, who they say was in her early twenties and serving in the U.S. Air Force at the time, claim she was introduced to the couple by an associate named “Caviar,” who she says she met the previous night at the house of the rapper Coolio. Midway through the alleged incident, after she allegedly drank a beverage offered her by Tiny, she began to feel “extremely dizzy and lightheaded” and later passed out.

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

“For THREE years we have maintained our innocence and refused to pay these extortionate demands for things we didn’t do,” the couple wrote. “For THREE years, we’ve maintained the same position while the claims in this story have changed time and time again. Our position is clear… We are innocent of these fake claims, we will not be shaken down, and we look forward to our day in court.”

Tuesday’s lawsuit shares similarities with previously-reported accusations. In 2021, the New York Times reported a police investigation over an alleged 2005 incident in which “a military veteran” claimed the famous couple had “raped her in a hotel room” after she had become “incapacitated” while drinking with them in the “VIP section” at a Los Angeles club.

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

The new case is filed under California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act, which created a four-year window through 2026 for alleged victims to bring cases that would otherwise be barred by the statute of limitations. The law is similar to New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which recently led to a wave of sexual abuse cases in that state before the statute expired in November.

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

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

After meeting T.I. and Tiny at the nightclub, the accuser’s lawyers claim Tiny “handed plaintiff a drink” and “watched her take a drink.” A short time later, the trio allegedly returned to a nearby hotel, where Tiny “took off all of plaintiff’s clothing,” got undressed herself, and they were joined by a nude T.I.

“Plaintiff was then directed to get in the shower and T.I. and Tiny entered the shower with her,” her lawyers write. “Plaintiff was extremely shocked and uncomfortable.” After the shower, the accuser claims she began to feel “extremely dizzy and lightheaded” and was “visibly drugged” as T.I. told her to get into bed.

“Plaintiff could tell she was experiencing something serious and debilitating that was not a symptom of a typical drink or a few drinks,” her lawyers say.

After T.I. allegedly forced her to watch pornographic movies, he then “demanded she begin rubbing oil on his back and naked body, while Tiny “proceeded to get on plaintiff’s back, while she was still naked, and grind back and forth” on top of her. Then, “while Tiny was straddled on plaintiff’s back and pinning her down,” the accuser claims that T.I. “proceeded to slide his toes into plaintiff’s vagina.”

“Plaintiff grew increasingly sicker and felt extremely ill by the assault and battery she was experiencing,” the Doe’s attorneys write. Eventually, she “forced herself up and went into the bathroom where she proceeded to vomit.” She later emerged from the bathroom “naked, dazed, sickened, and weak” and passed out on a couch.

When she was awoken by a security guard the next morning, the accuser claims she “immediately noticed her vagina was in serious pain.” As she was crying, she says the security guard then escorted her out of the room.

The lawsuit is the latest in a recent flood of lawsuits alleging sexual assault and sexual harassment by men in the music industry. Over the past year, such cases 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 many others.

Read the entire complaint against TI and Tiny here: