November 18, 1993 Tupac arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman in the Parker Meridian Hotel. Shakur and others were charged with sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room. Shakur denied the charges. According to Shakur, he had prior relations days earlier with the woman that were consensual. The complainant claimed sexual assault after her second visit to Shakur’s hotel room; she alleged that Shakur and his entourage raped her.

Many believe that the rape case came about because of the police shooting case in Atlanta. Mutulu Shakur, Tupac’s step-Father and political prisoner is convinced that Tupac became a lightning rod after he shot the policemen in Atlanta. “These disenfranchised–the young blacks who are poor and hopeless–have no leader. Their heroes are cultural and sports heroes. No one–not Jesse Jackson, not Ben Chavis, not Louis Farrakhan–has as much influence with this segment as rappers. So when Tupac stands up to a white cop, shoots it out, wins the battle, gets cut free, and continues to say the things he’s been saying–the decision to destroy his credibility is clear.”

Charles Ogletree, Jr., a black attorney and professor at Harvard Law School, who represented Tupac on a number of cases in the last year of his life, notes that “people in law enforcement not only disliked Tupac but despised him. This wasn’t just a person talking, but someone who had generated a following among those who had problems with the police, and who spoke to them. He was saying, ”I understand your pain, I know the source of it, and I can tell you what to do about it.” Police officers knew him by name, Bob Dole mentioned him by name.”

Parker Meridian Hotel Sexual Case