Producer-singer The-Dream accused of rape and sexual battery in lawsuit filed by former protégée

Singer and producer The-Dream has been accused of rape and sexual battery in a lawsuit filed by his former protégée.

Chanaaz Mangroe, 33, who performed under the name Channii Monroe, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, alleging that the hitmaker lured her into an abusive and sexually violent relationship while promising to help launch her career as an artist.

The-Dream’s behavior, which allegedly went on for about a year after meeting him in 2015, still affects Mangroe and has hindered her attempts at having a career, the suit says.

“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,” she said in a via her attorneys, Douglas H. Wigdor and Meredith Firetog.

“Ultimately, my silence has become too painful, and I realized that I need to tell my story to heal,” she continued. “I hope that doing so will also help others and prevent future horrific abuse.”

An agent for The-Dream, whose real name is Terius Adamu Ya Gesteelde-Diamant, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

Mangroe said in the suit that at the time she met The-Dream, a top producer for Beyoncé, Rihanna and other artists, she was 23 and working in the U.S. on an international visa from the Netherlands.

It alleges that an associate of The-Dream reached out to her via social media, and after sending them samples of her work, she was invited to join the producer in Atlanta. She flew out to meet him in January 2015, according to the lawsuit.

Mangroe was “hoping to land her big break as a singer and songwriter,” the suit says, but instead, she was lured “into an abusive, violent, and manipulative relationship filled with physical assaults, violent sexual encounters, and horrific psychological manipulation.”

It alleges that The-Dream made false promises to Mangroe, telling her that he would sponsor the extension of her international visa and would make hit songs for her if she became a part of his “sanctuary,” which he described as something “stronger than a spousal connection because it was about ‘art.’”

“In reality, Dream used Ms. Mangroe for his base desires, which manifested in violent sexual acts and vicious psychological torture,” the document alleges.

During one incident cited in the suit, the producer allegedly locked Mangroe in a dark room while they were at a recording studio and “violently” had sex with her before leaving her alone for hours. He later returned “to again have sex with her and demand that she tell him she loved him,” according to the suit.

Mangroe, still hopeful for her big break, tried to convince herself that the sex was consensual, the lawsuit says.

The-Dream also controlled Mangroe’s stay in the U.S., tracking her location, calling and texting to find out where she was, and keeping a key to her hotel room “so that he could enter whenever he pleased with no notice,” the lawsuit alleges.

It goes on to say that the producer forced her to drink excessive amounts of alcohol, recorded a sexual encounter and threatened to share it with others, and physically abused her. During one incident, he allegedly choked her to the point that “she believes she might have lost consciousness at one point,” it says.

While at a movie theater, the producer forced Mangroe to have sex with him while another man presumably watched, according to the suit. That same night, he allegedly raped her in the back of a van, the lawsuit says.

Mangroe was eventually signed to Contra Paris LLC in 2015, The-Dream’s record label, and the producer arranged for a distribution deal with Epic Records. The suit alleges that Contra facilitated his behavior and Mangroe had raised concerns to an executive with Epic, but she was told to “figure out a way to work with Dream again.” Contra and Epic are both named as defendants.

NBC News reached out to Sony Music Entertainment, which owns Epic, for comment. Efforts to locate contact information for Contra were unsuccessful.

In July 2016, Mangroe was informed that she had been dropped from the label.

Wigdor and Firetog, Mangroe’s attorneys, said the lawsuit is “yet another horrific example of how men in the music industry use their power and influence to manipulate and harm others.”

Wigdor and Firetog represented singer of rape and abuse.

“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,” the lawyers said in a joint statement.

“While she will never fully recover from what he and those who supported him did to her, her willingness to speak out now is evidence of her extraordinary strength,” they continued. “We are honored to represent her.”

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