Former Wu-Tang producer says NYPD, Manhattan DA plotted against him in rape case
A former producer for the Wu-Tang Clan alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday that New York City law enforcement subjected him to “a near-decade of torment” for an attempted rape and assault he insists he didn’t commit.
Derrick “True Master” Harris, 52, partially beat a sex crimes conviction in 2015 after defending himself against felony charges alleging he tried to rape a woman he invited into his apartment on Sept. 12, 2011. He also faced accusations he punched a second woman in a park in an unprovoked attack the same day.
A jury acquitted Harris of felony criminal sexual act. Judge Abraham Clott declared a partial mistrial on five other counts when a holdout juror wouldn’t deliberate for longer than one day. Harris spent four years behind bars while awaiting trial.
Manhattan prosecutors announced they would not retry the remaining charges in January 2020.
“Derrick Harris faced a concerted and malicious effort to sabotage the successful life that he had built for himself and to rob him of his notoriety and freedom,” said Harris’ lawyer Ben Crump.
“Even today, it can be astounding to some to see Black people rise to success and achieve the American dream, but it remains to be seen why that assigns a target to our backs.”
Harris worked with Alicia Keys, Busta Rhymes, Ghostface Killah, and others. His suit seeks unspecified damages.
Harris cross-examined his alleged assault victim at the Manhattan Supreme Court trial. He told jurors that she spitefully accused him of trying to rape her because he had rejected her sexual advances. His lawsuit doesn’t mention the alleged sexual advance.
Prosecutors argued that Harris forced the woman he had met several times before to perform oral sex and tried to rape her on a pool table inside his house. They said the alleged victim was so desperate to escape that she tried to flee through a second-floor bathroom window of his 120th St. townhouse while naked from the waist down.
Harris said the woman had framed him. He claimed a separate woman — who his lawsuit alleges the first victim knew, unbeknownst to him or jurors during the trial — similarly could not be believed. He was accused of punching her at random in Marcus Garvey Park. Harris claims the NYPD falsified and withheld exculpatory evidence and that DNA swabs he paid for after prosecutors dismissed the case did not identify him.
Harris’ case with the Manhattan DA is now sealed. The office declined to comment on the lawsuit. A spokesman for the city Law Department said the suit will be reviewed.
