‘War & Leisure’ wailer Miguel may have battled his way to the top of the Billboard R&B album charts this week with the release of his critically acclaimed fourth album, but now the singer/songwriter is finding himself front and center of another battle: a resurfaced sexual assault allegation.
Details inside:
“I felt I had already addressed how bizarre and twisted this accusation was when I was asked about it in March. Her story of what transpired is not accurate and the accusation is unfair and unwarranted.” – Miguel
The words above were lent to SPIN magazine recently (by way of his publicist) when the Grammy winner was quizzed on sexual assault allegations stemming from an interaction with fan Xian Bass earlier this year. Bass, who says Miggy “ripped her breasts out of her shirt,” initially brought the alleged incident to light in March when she took to Instagram to say:
When asked why she did not take the report to her local authorities, Bass stated:
“I didn’t want to [file the report] because black lives matter,” said Bass. “I [didn’t] want to because I do not want to put another brown man in jail. I [didn’t] want to because I [didn’t] want to be re-traumatized by going to law enforcement. However, yes, I did. I didn’t want to, but I do know that for other people who may have been abused or assaulted or whatever, maybe this will help them as well.”
Bass explained her motivation for bringing attention to Miguel’s alleged actions are not for legal justice as much as it is for him to get help.
“Restorative justice calls in,” she explained. “When you call out your brother, you are also calling him in. You’re saying, ‘Come to this circle of healing.’” A health and human services major, she says wants to be tied to “releasing black people from the chains that bind them, the chains of intersectional racism and sexism between our gender relations.”
Keep it locked to That Grape Juice for more on this story as it develops.