Prosecutors decline to charge rapper Nelly with rape

SEATTLE – Prosecutors in Washington state say they can’t proceed with a rape case against the rapper Nelly because the accuser is not co-operating.

The woman said Nelly raped her on his tour bus in October in a Seattle suburb. Auburn police arrested Nelly, whose real name is Cornell Iral Haynes Jr., in his tour bus at a Walmart. He was booked into jail on suspicion of second-degree rape and released.

Shortly afterward, the woman said she wanted to stop the investigation.

King County prosecutors said in a statement Thursday that they have reviewed the investigation, but without the woman’s help, they can’t “proceed or fully assess the merits of the case.”

Nelly’s attorney, Scott Rosenblum, had called the rape claim a “completely fabricated allegation.”