On August 2, Mystikal was denied bond release in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, for charges related to raping and unlawfully imprisoning a woman in his home back on July 31. As reported by The Advocate, Judge Steven Tureau decided that the extensive evidence against Mystikal and the victim’s fear of retaliation was well enough to deny his release.
The rapper, real name Michael Lawrence Tyler, had his lawyer – Roy Maughan – request $250K in bail and objected to the judge’s initial decision to deny bond. However, both were declined.
The Advocate noted Louisiana’s tendency to give all defendants a right to bail and the stipulation that judges have the right to decline that affordance if they believe the accused perpetrator is at risk of committing a similar crime again or avoiding judgment. It was reported that the prosecutor’s analyst deemed Mystikal a high-risk client if released.
“And I just don’t think that’s in Mr. Tyler to do that,” Maughan said; keeping Mystikal without bond would affect his career, “So, we need to contact promoters, and we need to let them know that he’s not going to be available and do our best to mitigate the damage from this,” Maughan explained. He claimed that Mystikal was giving nothing but well wishes to the victim, despite her persistence that she was worried about retaliation from the rapper.
The 51-year-old rapper, in total, was charged with first-degree rape, robbery, felony domestic abuse, battery by strangulation, criminal damage to property and five drug counts added later after a search was conducted at his home.
The charges were brought about because of a violent attack where he allegedly took the victim’s car keys and held her against her will; from there, he is suspected of having committed a violent beating and sexual assault on the woman.
