Terius Gesteelde-Diamant, who is known as “The-Dream” and is a famous singer and producer for Beyoncé, Rihanna, and other stars, was sued on Tuesday, accusing him of rape and sexual battery.
Chanaaz Mangroe, who performed as Channii Monroe, says in her lawsuit that Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant broke her trust by promising to help her career. Instead, he put her in an abusive relationship where he strangled her, forced her to have sex, and even recorded an intimate encounter and threatened to show it to other people.
As The-Dream, Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant is one of the most powerful producers in the music business. He has won eight Grammys and worked on some of the biggest pop and R&B hits of the last 20 years, such as Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” and Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body.” He has a very close creative relationship with Beyoncé. He wrote and produced her memorable songs about empowering women, like “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and “Break My Soul,” and he has worked on all of her studio albums since 2008.
But in her lawsuit, which she filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Ms. Mangroe says that Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant is like a Svengali, controlling a promising artist’s life, forcing her to have sex she doesn’t want, and physically abusing her.
The lawsuit also accuses Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant of sex trafficking, which is a claim that has been made in recent civil lawsuits, such as the one against Sean Combs, the hip-hop mogul known as Diddy or Puff Daddy, for allegedly lying to or forcing a victim of sexual assault to stay with or travel with them. The Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act is mentioned in Ms. Mangroe’s lawsuit. This is a California law that lets people file sexual attack claims even if the time limit for those claims has passed.