A New York lawyer, who is representing several women who have accused T.I. and Tiny Harris of drugging and sexually abusing them, says another six victims are making accusations against the celebrity couple. One of the latest victims has enlisted the help of a lawyer, according to reports.
Tyrone A. Blackburn, a New York attorney, has implored authorities to investigate the accusations of sexual abuse against the couple, and there are now additional claims being made by six women, according to a report by The Daily Beast. Blackburn represents 11 accusers, including eight women who say they were sexually assaulted, drugged or kidnapped by the Harrises or one of the couple’s employees, which was previously reported by The New York Times. Three other clients, including a male, have made claims that the couple has hurled “terroristic threats” toward them.
“If I was a prosecutor, I’d have brought charges already,” Blackburn told The Daily Beast.
One of those victims has accused the couple of drugging and trafficking her in “Nevada, California and Florida over three days,” Blackburn said in an email to Vulture earlier this week. That victim has retained Blackburn as her legal representative.
“All she wants is justice, and we intend to fight until she gets it,” Blackburn added in an email. A lawyer for T.I. and Tiny told Vulture his clients “continue to deny in the strongest possible terms these scurrilous and unsubstantiated accusations.”
Blackburn sent out five letters to authorities in both California and Georgia that detailed his clients’ claims against T.I., real name Clifford J. Harris, and Tiny, real name Tameka Harris, last month, The New York Times first reported. Blackburn confirmed to The Daily Beast that he has spoken to two offices and has begun preliminary conversations surrounding his clients’ claims with them. He declined to name which offices he was speaking with in order to preserve the “integrity of the investigation.”
“This is very sensitive, and I do not want the Harrises to get off on a technicality, because I may have disclosed something prematurely or because something may have gotten out,” Blackburn told The Daily Beast. “For me, the goal is to get justice for these women, hands down. This is not about money. This is not about clout.”
Blackburn said the “eerily similar” experiences spanned more than a decade, beginning in 2005; the most recent allegation of sexual abuse occurred in 2017 or 2018, he said. None of the women involved know one another but described “sexual abuse, forced ingestion of illegal narcotics, kidnapping, terroristic threats and false imprisonment” at the behest of T.I., Harris and their associates or employees, Blackburn wrote in one of the letters.
Here are some of the claims that alleged victims have made against T.I. and Tiny Harris:
- A military veteran, who served in the U.S. Air Force, alleges that she partied with Tiny and T.I. at a club in Los Angeles in September 2005. At one point, she consumed a drink given to her by Tiny that may have been laced with a narcotic. After returning to the couple’s hotel room, the woman began feeling “lightheaded and dizzy.” She claims Tiny washed her and T.I. in the shower. Once in the bedroom, the woman began throwing up and T.I. allegedly tried to insert his foot in her vagina.
“She told him, no, and the next thing she remembers was waking up naked on the couch with a towel thrown over her with a very sore vagina,” the letter alleges.
- Another woman claims she was a 17-year-old high schooler who interned for Tiny and T.I. in 2006. She has a similar tale of being drugged, throwing up, passing out and waking up “naked on a bed… bleeding from her vagina. She also felt discomfort in her anus,” the letter claims.
- An Atlanta-based woman who became friends with Harris when they were teenagers and who went on to work for the couple around 2005, traveling and partying with them, told lawyers she was first to take drugs and participate in the abuse.
“On several occasions T.I. forced her to take multiple ecstasy pills,” and “the duo forced her to engage in sexual acts with different women against her will,” Blackburn wrote. “She has personally witnessed women complaining of being kidnapped and held against their will for days at a time.”
Steve Sadow, a lawyer representing the Harrises, said in a statement to The New York Times that his clients “deny in the strongest possible terms these baseless and unjustified allegations.” He also contends that they “fully expect” if the claims are “fairly investigated, no charges will be forthcoming,” pointing to the accusations as “a sordid shakedown campaign.”
But Blackburn is adamant his clients aren’t seeking any monetary gain by coming forward. “This is all about holding the Harrises accountable for their actions, full stop,” he said.
T.I. spoke about the accusations last month in an 8-minute video on Instagram. He vehemently denied engaging in any sexual activity without consent.
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