Kanye West accused of sexual assault by his former chief of staff Lauren Pisciotta – Libération

2024-10-14 16:58:00

Sexual violencefile

Lauren Pisciotta, who worked for the rapper from 2021 to 2022, had already filed a complaint for sexual harassment and unfair dismissal. Now she accuses him of drugging and sexually assaulting her, particularly during a studio session co-organized by P. Diddy.

The accusations against Kanye West increase. Already targeted since last June by a complaint for “sexual harassment”, “breach of contract” et “dismissal without just cause”, the American rapper is now accused of sexual assault, according to English-speaking media TMZ, Presentation work et People. His former chief of staff, Lauren Pisciotta, at his side from June 2021 to September 2022, extended the list of reasons for his first complaint to the Los Angeles County Court on Tuesday, October 8. She claims that, in addition to the dismissal without severance pay and the numerous sexual and pornographic messages that “Ye” allegedly sent her, the latter drugged and sexually assaulted her during a studio session, co-organized by the rapper P. Diddy – also in the crosshairs of American justice for acts of sexual violence and sex trafficking.

The facts date back to a period in which Lauren Pisciotta did not yet work for Kanye West. According to her story, the rapper and producer invited her to a recording session in Santa Monica, California. Although Sean “Diddy” Combs is named in the complaint as a co-organizer of the event, the businessman and musician, currently in prison, is not charged for the time being. On the other hand, “drinks were served [par Kanye West] to those present, followed by the announcement that everyone had to drink if they wanted to stay”, we read in the filing of the complaint, consulted by the lawyer People. Lauren Pisciotta would have fallen for it “an altered and greatly weakened state” after a few sips, then nothing more. Kanye West’s future personal assistant then reports waking up with no memory of the night’s events.

Only later, while she was the rapper’s chief of staff, did the rapper tell her about the incident. “We already got a little closer to each other once,” Kanye West would have whispered to him, who would have laughed when Lauren Pisciotta had assured him that she didn’t remember him: “Women like to say they don’t remember.”. “Until this very moment […]the complainant was not aware that she had been the victim of gender violence and sexual assault that evening in the studio by Kanye West aka Ye”, the document continues.

Fear of retaliation

She accuses him of taking advantage of her a second time, in July 2021, in a hotel in San Francisco, where the rapper had come to work on his album A wound. West allegedly woke her up at 6 a.m. to use the shower in his room because hers was broken. Then she claims that Kanye West approached her, “he dropped the towel” Before “attempt to forcibly push his naked body and penis into the complainant’s face” et “ignore his pleas to stop”. According to the complaint, he “quickly to the left” after being “Excuse me” et “continued his day as normal”.

To explain that she didn’t speak immediately, Lauren Pisciotta expressed her fears of retaliation from the star. She is not the only one to report the rapper’s behavior: a former employee claims to have suffered harassment when she worked for him, another reported him this week for emotional distress, retaliation and violations of the labor code.