The funk musician Rick James has been dead for nearly 16 years, but a woman is now suing his estate, claiming that James raped her in 1979, when she was 15. The woman, whose name has not been given, has filed a lawsuit under the Child Victims Act, a New York state law that provides a one-year window for victims to file charges and lawsuits that were previously blocked by the statute of limitations.
According to the Associated Press, the alleged victim claims that James raped her while she was staying at a group home in Buffalo. She says James came to the home to visit one of the parents and that he came into her room, threatened to "cut" her, and raped her. She says that she has suffered "physical, psychological, and emotional injury" as a result.
Under the Child Victims Act, which passed last year, victims, within a one-year window, can file criminal charges up to 28 years old, and they can also file lawsuits from incidents up to 55 years in the past. Under the Act, people have already filed lawsuits against organizations like the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts, as well as against the late Jeffrey Epstein.
In the early '90s, James spent more two years in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting two women.
