In 1991, Desiree Washington accused former heavyweight boxing champion, Mike Tyson, of raping her in his hotel room at the Canterbury Hotel in Indianapolis. At the time, Desiree was a participant in the Miss Black America pageant, where Tyson was one of the celebrity guests.
After meeting Tyson at the pageant’s dance rehearsal, he invited her to his hotel room later that night. Desiree agreed to go since her father, brother, and grandfather were huge boxer fans. However, after the encounter, Desiree went to Methodist Hospital’s emergency department the next day and reported that she had been raped.
In July 1991, Tyson was arrested from his hotel room in Indianapolis. Following a month-long court trial in the Marion County Superior Court, Tyson was found guilty of raping Desiree and sentenced to six years in prison, with four years of probation. Tyson’s then-chauffeur supported Desiree’s allegations, describing her as being in a state of shock.
At the trial, Desiree shared graphic details of the night in question and testified, “I felt like someone was ripping me apart.” Despite the overwhelming evidence against Tyson, the case remained controversial, with some questioning Desiree’s credibility and accusing her of being a gold-digger.
Desiree Washington’s rape case involving Mike Tyson is one of the most high-profile cases of sexual assault in American history. Claudia Jordan, Washington’s childhood friend, claimed in a 2020 podcast interview that she was called by Tyson’s team to testify against Desiree. Jordan, who was a hostile witness for Tyson’s side, revealed that the legendary boxer was mad when she testified in favor of Desiree.
In 1992, Tyson was convicted of raping Washington and was sentenced to six years in prison and four years of probation. Despite Tyson’s claim that everything was consensual, Desiree accused him of raping her in his hotel room at the Canterbury Hotel in Indianapolis.
After his release from prison in 1995, Tyson regained the WBA and WBC titles in 1996 and went on to become one of the few boxers in history to have regained the heavyweight championship title after losing it. However, in 2013, Tyson published his autobiography called Undisputed Truth and claimed that he did not rape Desiree Washington. He settled a civil suit filed against him by Washington in 1995, but the amount of the settlement was not disclosed. In 2020, Tyson defended himself again, saying that while he was not above violating a woman, he did not violate Washington.
