close
close

Association-anemone

Bite-sized brilliance in every update

Woman claims she was raped and impregnated by producer Metro Boomin – lawsuit
asane

Woman claims she was raped and impregnated by producer Metro Boomin – lawsuit

A Los Angeles woman has filed a lawsuit alleging Metro Boomin, a Grammy-nominated producer who has worked with some of the biggest names in hip-hop and R&B, raped her in 2016 and got her pregnant following the attack.

The producer’s lawyer believes the allegations are false and said the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, is “a complete shakedown.”

Vanessa LeMaistre, 38, says in the lawsuit that she befriended Metro Boomin, whose legal name is Leland Wayne, after the death of her nine-month-old son.

While visiting him at a recording studio months later, she passed out and woke up on a bed to find Wayne raping her, the lawsuit alleges.

She found out she was pregnant following the attack weeks later, the suit states.

A lawyer for the 31-year-old St Louis-born producer immediately denied the allegations.

“This is pure shock. These are false allegations,” Lawrence Hinkle said in a statement Wednesday.

“Mr Wayne refused to pay it months ago and he refuses to pay it now. Mr. Wayne will defend himself in court. He will file a malicious prosecution claim once he wins.”

Wayne curated the soundtrack for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse and co-produced most of the songs on the album.

His 2022 album Heroes & Villains, featuring contributions from John Legend and The Weeknd and Travis Scott, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album.

He has also worked with Future, Kendrick Lamar, Offset, 21 Savage and Asap Rocky.

Ms. LeMaistre said in the lawsuit that she met Wayne in the spring of 2016 at a party in Las Vegas, and in the months that followed they met several times and “she thought they bonded through music’s ability to have help people the darkest moments”.

Around September, she visited him at a recording studio in California, where he was given an alcohol injection and took half a bar of Xanax.

“The next thing Ms. LeMaistre remembers is waking up on a bed in a different location with Wayne raping her and being completely unable to move or make a sound,” the lawsuit says.

“She went in and out of consciousness for an unknown amount of time, but woke up again at one point when Wayne was having oral sex with her.”

At no point was she able to consent, the lawsuit states.

She found out she was pregnant a few weeks later and there was no doubt the baby was Wayne’s, the suit states. She had an abortion shortly after.

The Associated Press does not routinely name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ms. LeMaistre did.

She is named in the lawsuit and has consented to be publicly identified through her attorneys.

Her lawsuit, which alleges sexual assault and gender-based violence, seeks damages to be determined at trial.