NEW YORK — A woman has filed a lawsuit alleging former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson raped her sometime in the early 1990s after meeting him at a nightclub in Albany, New York.
The woman, who is suing for $5 million, said Tyson raped her in a limo and she has since suffered “physical, psychological and emotional injuries.”
The woman’s affidavit does not include a date for the attack, only saying it happened in the early 1990s — around the same time beauty pageant contestant Desiree Washington said Tyson raped her in Indianapolis. Tyson was found guilty of Washington rape on February 10, 1992 and served three years in prison.
The New York lawsuit was filed under the state’s Adult Survivors Act, which gives victims of sexual assault a one-year window to file claims for assaults that occurred years or even decades ago.
The lawsuit was first reported by the Times Union of Albany.
The woman is trying to maintain her anonymity because, she said, publishing her name “would certainly pose a risk of further psychological harm, harassment, ridicule or personal embarrassment to me.”
The woman’s attorney, Darren Seilback, said in a separate filing that his office did not simply take the woman at her word, but investigated her allegations and found them to be “highly credible.”
Seilback said on Tuesday that he could not comment further on the case.
A message requesting comment from Tyson was sent to an agency who represented him.
Brooklyn-born Tyson, 56, was hailed as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world from 1987 to 1990, but his life outside the ring was tumultuous.
Tyson’s former wife, actor Robin Givens, said in divorce papers that their marriage was marked by “unprovoked outbursts of violence and destruction” in the late 1980s.
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