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Mike Tyson’s lawyer expects he will file an objection in a civil rape lawsuit

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Mike Tyson’s lawyer expects he will file an objection in a civil rape lawsuit

Editor’s note: This story contains graphic descriptions of alleged sexual abuse that may be offensive to some readers or distressing to survivors of sexual abuse.

As Mike Tyson prepares to fight Jake Paul, his legal camp prepares for a civil lawsuit in federal court accusing the former heavyweight champion of raping a woman more than three decades ago.

While the first lawsuit was filed in January 2023, the latest development came to light in June when the woman who says Tyson brutally raped and sexually assaulted her in the back of a limousine in the early 1990s told the court that by accidentally stated the wrong date of the alleged murder. attack, according to court documents reviewed by USA TODAY Sports.

Tyson has denied the allegations, court records show. USA TODAY Sports tried to ask Tyson about the lawsuit during a video interview with the boxer on Friday. But Tyson’s publicist, Joann Mignano, interrupted him and said, “We’re not going to talk about that.” Thank you. Next question.’

An amended complaint filed on behalf of the woman says she was raped by Tyson on March 1, 1990, and not March 1, 1991, as stated in her original complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, she said. according to court records. According to the court, the woman is demanding $5 million.

Tyson, 58, was convicted in 1992 of raping Desiree Washington, an 18-year-old contestant in the Miss Black America beauty pageant at the time of the attack. He was in prison for three years.

His lawyers plan to file opposition papers by Nov. 18 — three days after Tyson is scheduled to fight Paul at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas — according to a copy of an Oct. 3 letter written by the woman’s attorney to the magistrate hearing the case. the case.

The woman who sued Tyson filed the lawsuit under the Adult Survivors Act, which was enacted in New York in May 2022 and allows alleged victims of sex crimes for which the statute of limitations has passed one year to file charges.

The court denied the woman, Christi Pinto’s, request to proceed anonymously. USA TODAY does not generally identify victims of alleged sex crimes.

No trial date has been set.

Darren Seilback, an attorney representing Pinto, declined to comment Monday. Pinto did not respond to requests for comment left by USA TODAY Sports via text message, voicemail, email and Facebook.

Daniel SL Rubin, an attorney representing Tyson, did not respond to voicemails and emails from USA TODAY Sports seeking comment.

How might this issue affect the case?

The inconsistency in the data raises the question of credibility, according to New York attorney Alan Sash, who said he has represented plaintiffs and defendants in cases involving alleged sex crimes but has no connection to this case.

“The defendant is going to say, ‘Look, she’s not keeping up with her dates, so maybe that means it never happened,’” Sash told USA TODAY Sports. “And the prosecutor is going to say, ‘This event happened decades ago, so whether it was a particular day in 1991 or 1992, it makes little difference to the real question of whether or not I was attacked.’ ”

Sash also said he doesn’t think the inconsistency of the dates will affect the plaintiff’s filing of an amended complaint.

Effie Blassberger, a New York attorney with the firm Clayman Rosenberg Kirshner & Linder who is not involved in the case, said the incorrect date issue highlights the challenges involved in Adult Survivors Act cases for plaintiffs and defendants.

“Many of the plaintiffs we represent have extraordinary feelings of guilt because they were initially too afraid to report their abuse,” said Blassberger, who is representing actress Julia Ormond in a civil lawsuit accusing Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault in 1995. “Now , years later, the ASA and similar revival statutes provide these victims with the opportunity to hold their abusers and enablers accountable. In this case, where three decades have passed, it is understandable why the date in the complaint was incorrect, and that fact should not happen. undermine the plaintiff’s credibility.”

But Blassberger also addresses “the defendant’s perspective,” saying, “Not only has the enormous lapse of time since 1990 or 1991 affected witnesses’ memories and the preservation of evidence, but now, a year and a half after the case was filed , Mike Tyson is learning … the alleged attack took place on a different date.

Why Mike Tyson’s lawyer says he’s objecting

Tyson’s attorney, Rubin, initially said the boxer would accept the amended complaint if Pinto provided an affidavit “explaining the good faith basis for the alleged amendment,” according to a letter from Rubin filed with the court.

The objections, the attorney wrote, stemmed from subsequent depositions with two witnesses where Pinto testified that she “reported the alleged rape within weeks of the alleged rape.”

“Both witnesses have stated unequivocally that these reports were made to them shortly after March 1991,” Rubin wrote in a July 25 letter. “In addition, text messages, which were first disclosed during today’s deposition, included multiple times where Plaintiff admitted – including following her own statement in which she unequivocally testified that the alleged rape occurred on March 1, 1991 – that she continued to believe that the date was 1991.

“As a result of this newly acquired testimony and evidence, we must respectfully change our position regarding plaintiff’s request to amend the complaint and express our objection to such amendment.”

What Christi Pinto says

Aside from the date of the alleged attack, Pinto’s claims have not changed since she filed an affidavit in December 2022.

She said she met Tyson at a dance club called September’s in Albany, New York.

“My boyfriend and I were hanging out with him and his limousine driver,” she stated in the affidavit. “Tyson told us about a party and asked us to go with him. My friend was going to deliver her car and Tyson said he would. pick her up in the limo.

“I got into Tyson’s limo to pick up my girlfriend from her house. Tyson immediately started touching me and tried to kiss me. I told him no several times and asked him to stop, but he continued to attack me. He then took off my pants and violently raped me.”

In the affidavit, Pinto stated that she was raped in the early 1990s.

In a subsequent affidavit filed on October 2, she stated: “When I first came forward and reported the Mike Tyson rape to my lawyers, I told them that I was unsure of the year the event occurred, But I knew it in the early nineties.”

Citing “severe psychological trauma” from the rape, Pinto said it was difficult to remember the exact details and surrounding facts of the rape. But she said she knew it occurred on her birthday, March 1, and was trying to determine the year before the return was filed. a federal complaint.

While she was being deposed in April, Pinto testified that she was “certain” the rape occurred on March 1, 1991, according to the affidavit. But information her sister provided during a later deposition called the date into question, according to an affidavit. filed in New York Supreme Court in December 2022 before the case ended up in federal court.

“I am now certain that the rape took place on March 1, 1990,” Pinto said.

Why is Christi Pinto suing now?

Weeks after the alleged rape, according to the complaint, Pinto said the owner of the nightclub where she met Tyson and a singer she had spent time with that evening asked if Tyson had been “inappropriate” toward her.

“… but out of shame and fear, the plaintiff said no,” the complaint reads. her unwanted attention and further harm.”

In the ensuing years, the complaint said, Tyson faced numerous allegations of rape and sexual assault from various women.

In November 1990, a jury in New York determined that Tyson grabbed a woman’s breasts and buttocks at a dance club after she rejected his advances, according to the Washington Post and several other news outlets. The jury awarded her $100 in compensatory damages and denied her punitive damages.

A second woman said Tyson grabbed her buttocks while dancing that same night, according to the New York Times.

In 1995, Tyson settled a sexual assault lawsuit filed by Phyllis Polaner, who worked as a publicist for Robin Givens, Tyson’s first wife, in 1988, according to the New York Times.

Tyson, who was paroled in 1994 after serving three years for Washington’s rape, faced rape allegations in 2001 from a woman in California and a woman in Nevada.

Prosecutors have not filed charges in the California case. The district attorney in Clark County, Nevada, said it was unclear whether the sexual contact was consensual or coerced.

In a lawsuit filed last year, the current civil case in New York said the Adult Survivors Act “gave Plaintiff new hope and the opportunity to recover for her injuries and to demonstrate that even a man as powerful as Tyson can be held.” liable according to the law.”

Follow Josh Peter on social media @joshlpeter11

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline offers free, confidential, 24/7 support to survivors and their loved ones in English and Spanish at: 800.656.HOPE (4673) and Hotline.RAINN.org en en Español RAINN.org/es.

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