Prosecutors Accuse Rapper/Actor of Serial Rape

VAN NUYS, CA — The trial of a Los Angeles actor and rapper accused of assaulting dozens of women opened this week with prosecutors painting a picture of a "digital age" serial rapist who used his fledging fame and social media to prey on teens and young women.

Kaalan Walker, 26, who appeared in multiple movies, is charged with more than a dozen counts, including forcible rape, rape by use of an intoxicating substance, sexual penetration by use of force, unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor and assault with intent to commit a felony, that date back as far as 2013. The charges are linked to allegations involving 11 women, but last year prosecutors said that more than 30 women had come forward with allegations against Walker.

Walker's defense attorney quickly countered that his client is the victim of vengeful women willing to destroy Walker because they fell for his "BS."

"They're going to lie to you because they know that they fell for his B.S.," the defense lawyer told jurors, saying the alleged victims were out for "revenge."

"The pattern of Mr. Walker is to make false promises and they bought it. ... Each one of these women voluntarily made their own decisions," Flier said. "He didn't force them. ... It's pay-back to Mr. Walker and we're not going to let that happen."

He said his client has endured "a living nightmare" and had a great career that has since been ruined.

Walker appeared in the 2018 film "SuperFly" and in Kings with Halle Berry. He was arrested in September 2018. He was subsequently released on bond.

It was his rising star in the entertainment world that Walker used to prey on unsuspecting young women, according to Deputy District Attorney Yasmin Fardghassemi.

The prosecutor told jurors Tuesday they would see a "dark side" of a rapper-actor.

In her opening statement, Deputy District Attorney Yasmin Fardghassemi told the Van Nuys jury there were more than a dozen women who didn't know each other, and the "single thing that unites all of these woman is the defendant Kaalan Walker."

She detailed allegations made by 10 of the teens and young women without any mention of the 11th alleged victim, along with "strikingly similar" allegations made by a teenager and two other women for whom no charges were filed.

"You're going to see a dark side of him ...," the prosecutor told jurors, saying Walker primarily used Instagram and Twitter to lure his alleged victims to locations he chose by booking them for fake photo or music video shoots or with a false promise of introducing them to someone famous.

"When they said `Stop,' he didn't care," Fardghassemi said.

One of Walker’s alleged victims was a 16-year-old girl, whom he reached out to on Twitter, offering to pay her thousands of dollars to appear in his music video, said Fardghassemi.

The teen thought she was meeting the rapper to sign a contract, but her dreams of stardom ended in a nightmare, according to Fardghassemi.

Walker took her to Downtown Los Angeles and raped her as she “lay there crying, sobbing so hysterically that her entire body started shaking,” the prosecutor said, according to Rolling Stone.

The prosecutor described a 2014 rape of an intoxicated 19-year-old in a parking lot outside a club.

“She’s in and out. She’s drunk. She doesn’t know what’s going on. He penetrates her from behind without her consent. He rapes her as she’s in and out. What you’re going to learn about [this victim] is that she didn’t know who her attacker was because she was so drunk,” Fardghassemi said in her opening statement, according to Rolling Stone. “This crime is entirely solved by DNA evidence. That happened in 2014.”

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.