Popular American and a New Orleans-based rapper Mystikal, has been charged with sexual assault for the third time.
The Grammy Award nominee, 51, was arrested over the weekend after Ascension Parish Sheriff’s Office (APSO) responded to a nearby hospital’s report of a sexual assault survivor at around midnight the night before, according to a release from APSO.
The woman suffered minor injuries in the alleged attack, according to NBC News.
After investigators identified the rapper Mystikal as suspect, and now faces charges of first-degree rape, simple robbery, domestic abuse battery – strangulation, false imprisonment and simple criminal damage to property. The investigation is ongoing.
“Our investigation into the facts has just begun, but we expect Mystikal will be granted bail,” his attorney Roy Maughan told NBC News.
Mystikal (born Michael Lawrence Tyler) previously pleaded guilty to sexual battery and extortion in a 2003 deal after he was charged with aggravated rape. He was accused of coercing his hairstylist into engaging in sex acts with himself and two bodyguards.
The Tarantula artist was later sentenced to six years in federal prison, according to BBC News. He was released in 2010 and forced to register as a sex offender in Louisiana, Reuters reported.
Mystikal was also indicted in 2017 on separate rape and kidnapping charges and spent 18 months in jail before being released on a $3 million bond, according to the Associated Press. The charges against him were dropped after a second grand jury declined to bring an indictment, per the outlet.