Jelani Maraj maintains his innocence, and his legal team wishes to expose the sexual history of the 12-year-old girl he’s accused of raping. Last year, it was reported that his DNA matched with semen found on the girl’s pants.
The legal team of Jelani Maraj, the 37-year-old brother of Nicki Minaj who’s currently facing charges for allegedly raping and sodomizing a 12-year-old girl on multiple occasions, has filed a motion to ask the judge to give them access to evidence that might shed light upon the minor complainant’s sexual history.
“Our firm has a good faith basis to believe that the complainant in this case has had intimate physical contact with a man who is not the defendant in this case and who is older than 17 years of age and who may have caused there to be physical evidence of repeated vaginal and anal penetration of the complainant,” Maraj’s lawyers, Benjamin Brafman and Andrea Zellan wrote, according to documents obtained by Bossip.
In addition to seeming evidence of vaginal and anal penetration, the court revealed there to be a match between Maraj’s DNA and semen found on the victim’s pants during a hearing in July. After revealing the evidence, the court put forth a plea deal, offering Maraj a sentence of 15 years to life in prison, which he declined.
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Maraj faces charges of first-degree rape and first-degree course of sexual encounter against a child. His lawyers have also asked the judge to toss out the top charge (first-degree rape), which carries with it a possible life sentence. They feel there is unconstitutional overlap between the two charges, reports Bossip.
Additionally, the lawyers have filed a motion to suppress evidence used against Maraj that was allegedly obtained with a “bad” warrant, enacted by reasonable cause instead of probable cause.
Nicki reportedly posted $100,000 in bail, putting up two of her properties, for her brother when he was arrested on a first-degree rape charge in December 2015. The accuser told police that Maraj had repeatedly raped and sodomized her in the period between April 1 and November 30, 2015. The most recent alleged assault took place one day before Maraj’s arrest, according to the victim.
Maraj plead not guilty to the charges against him when he was indicted in April 2016.
“We believe the truth will come out,” David Schwartz, Maraj’s lawyer, told Bossip yesterdaqy. “The complaining witness in the case and others have a real motive in this case to lie, this never occurred and Jelani is completely innocent.”
The case is headed to trial later this month.
Remy Ma references the case on “shETHER,” her new Nicki Minaj diss track, with the following lines:
And I got a few words for the moms of the young Barbz
Guess who supports a child molester? Nicki Minaj
You paid for your brother’s wedding? That’s hella foul
How you spendin’ money to support a pedophile?
He a walkin’ dead man, sendin’ threats to him
I guess that’s why they call you Barbie, you was next to Ken
Talkin’ about your money long and your foreign sick
Why you ain’t help your bro hide his cum from forensics?
You probably somewhere overseas, foreign sick
Thought you could fuck with me, by far Rem sick
Meek, Drake, Safaree, I see men in your pants
We call that Jelani, get it? Semen in your pants
hiphopbangaz 