The woman who accused Nelly of raping her on his tour bus is reportedly withdrawing her case because she doesn’t want to testify against the rapper.
In a letter her lawyer, Karen Koehler, sent to the Auburn Police Department in Washington, on Friday, October 13, the woman said that she wanted to “put a halt to the criminal investigation.”
“We do not live in a society where a 21 year old college student can feel safe enough to pursue criminal charges against a celebrity for an alleged rape,” the woman’s lawyer wrote in the letter obtained by TMZ, citing privacy concerns after information about the alleged victim’s meeting with police was released to the press.
“People are saying horrible things [about her] already,” the lawyer stated. “She cannot handle this. She is about to break.”
So “she will not testify further in a criminal proceeding against him,” the letter continued. “She never wanted notoriety. She never wanted a dime from that man.”
In what seems to be a reference to the Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby scandals, the letter ended with, “One day, maybe our world will change and thirty women will not be needed to (eventually) speak out against a celebrity who has hurt them in order to be believed. But that day has not yet come.”
As Us Weekly previously reported, the “Hot in Herre” singer was arrested in the early hours of Saturday, October 7, after the woman called police to say she’d been raped on board his tour bus hours after a concert. He was later released without being charged and said in a series of tweets that he was “completely innocent.”
In a statement to TMZ on Friday, Nelly’s attorney Scott Rosenblum said that the accuser’s “reckless accusation, once investigated thoroughly, was exposed for what it was — a fabrication. A fabrication that has caused Nelly and his family to suffer emotionally financially.”
Rosenblum added that he wants a public apology from the woman and will recommend to the singer that he consider taking legal action against his accuser.