Snoop Rape Suit Dropped

The rape charge filed against Snoop Dogg, born Calvin Broadus, by makeup artist Kylie Bell in January has been dropped. While Bell claimed that the rapper and four members of his entourage drugged and then raped her backstage after a 2003 taping of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, she dropped her suit seeking $25 million in punitive damages, explaining in a statement that “the matter has been resolved amicably.”

Bell, who won an Emmy Award in 2002 for her work with HBO’s acclaimed series Six Feet Under, had claimed in the suit that she was hired at Snoop Dogg’s request to apply and remove makeup for his January 2003 appearance on the late-night talk show. In the artist’s dressing room following the taping, Bell claimed in the suit that she “could not think straight and could not control her body” after drinking a small glass of what one of the rapper’s associates had claimed was champagne. While she was in this state, the thirty-six-year-old alleged that Snoop Dogg and four others raped her.

More than a month prior to Bell’s suit, Snoop Dogg sued the then-unidentified woman for extortion, maintaining that she had demanded $5 million in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual assault.

Bell claimed that she had kept quiet for so long because the morning after the alleged assault, she spoke with family members who warned her that the rapper “was a gang member.” She also stated that, when she informed Kimmel’s show of the alleged incident four months later, her living expenses began to be covered by an ABC subsidiary. Once these payments were terminated, Bell claims that Snoop Dogg began covering those costs, and his lawyers began negotiations with Bell’s representatives last October. After an agreement fell through, Bell filed the lawsuit for suffering “physical, psychological and emotional injury,” as well as “loss of the ability to work,” caused by the alleged rape.

In a statement in February in response to the suit, Snoop Dogg’s representative called Bell “opportunistic and deceitful,” saying, “It is truly unfortunate that [she] has chosen to follow the increasingly common path of misusing the legal system as a means of extracting financial gain from entertainers.”

The rapper’s publicist said this week that no money was paid to Bell in the “settlement.” Snoop Dogg’s suit against Bell will also be dropped.