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(NewsNation) — A Netherlands-based singer filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday accusing producer Terius “The-Dream” Gesteelde-Diamant of sex trafficking, rape and sexual battery.
Gesteelde-Diamant, his record label Contra-Paris and label Epic Records are listed as defendants in the suit. Attorneys are seeking monetary judgments for damages, including mental pain and anguish.
“Choosing to speak out about the trauma I survived has been one of the most difficult decisions of my life, but ultimately, what Dream did to me made it impossible to live the life I envisioned for myself and pursue my goals as a singer and songwriter,” the woman, singer Chanaaz “Channii Monroe” Mangroe, said in an official statement through her attorneys.
“Ultimately, my silence has become too painful, and I realized that I need to tell my story to heal. I hope that doing so will also help others and prevent future horrific abuse,” she said.
Gesteelde-Diamant is a Grammy award-winning singer, songwriter and producer known for helping write famous hits including Rihanna’s “Umbrella,” Justin Bieber’s “Baby,” Mariah Carey’s “Touch My Body” and Kanye West’s “All of the Lights.” He is also known as a go-to producer and songwriter for Beyoncé and is listed in the credits on every album of Beyoncé since 2008, including Beyoncé’s most recent release “Cowboy Carter,” according to the lawsuit.
He denied the accusations in a statement that The New York Times attributed to one of the producer’s representatives.
“These claims are untrue and defamatory,” he said in the statement. “I oppose all forms of harassment and have always strived to help people realize their career goals. As someone committed to making a positive impact on my fellow artists and the world at large, I am deeply offended and saddened by these accusations.”
New York employment law firm Wigdor LLP filed the complaint on behalf of Mangroe, who came in contact with the producer in 2014. She was 23 at the time and working in the United States on an international visa from the Netherlands, according to the 60-page civil complaint.
The woman’s attorneys accused Gesteelde-Diamant and his team of making false promises to lure Mangroe to Atlanta, using the producer’s success with Beyoncé and Rihanna to manipulate and exploit Mangroe and subjecting her to a “horrific pattern of physical, sexual, and psychological manipulation and abuse.”
In one alleged instance, Gesteelde-Diamant is accused of locking Mangroe in a dark room adjacent to a recording studio, “violently having sex with her and then leaving her alone, naked in the dark, for hours on end, returning to again have sex with her and demand that she tell him she loved him,” according to the lawsuit.
The woman’s attorneys also said Gesteelde-Diamant “controlled all aspects of Ms. Mangroe’s stay in the United States,” including her housing, transportation and food expenses.
“He kept a close track of her location at all times, calling and texting her at all hours to demand updates on her location, or even keeping his own key to Ms. Mangroe’s hotel room so that he could enter whenever he pleased with no notice,” the woman’s attorneys wrote in the 60-page filing.
“This is yet another horrific example of how men in the music industry use their power and influence to manipulate and harm others,” Mangroe’s attorneys, Douglas H. Wigdor and Meredith Firetog, said in an official statement. “Dream, like Sean Combs did with Ms. Ventura and others, used his standing as a prominent recording artist and producer to subject Ms. Mangroe to vicious physical, psychological, and sexual abuse.”
Combs, the subject of a separate investigation, has denied all allegations and, like Gesteelde-Diamant, has not been criminally charged in connection to the civil accusations.
