Hip-hop artist CeeLo Green, who's seen every week on NBC as a judge on the hit show "The Voice," was charged Monday with slipping ecstasy to a woman during a dinner date last year, but prosecutors declined to file a rape charge against the singer.
Green, 39, whose real name is Thomas DeCarlo Callaway, pleaded not guilty to one felony charge of
furnishing a controlled substance, and was released on $30,000 bail, the New York Times reported. He faces up to four years in state prison if convicted.
Prosecutors claim the singer gave ecstasy to a 33-year-old unnamed woman while the two were eating at a restaurant in Los Angeles in July 2012. The two later went back to the woman's hotel room.
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The district attorney's office said it could not file a charge of
rape of an intoxicated person because of insufficient evidence, according to CNN.
"Mr. Green encouraged a full and complete investigation of those claims and he was confident once conducted he would be cleared of having any wrongful intent and it would be established that any relations were consensual," Blair Berk, Green's lawyer, said in a statement. "CeeLo had faith that if the true facts were known the district attorney would reject those charges."
Green is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 20 for the drug charge.
The singer rose to fame as a member of the hip-hop group Goodie Mob and later as part of the soul duo Gnarls Barkley. He has earned five Grammy Awards, most notably for 2006's "Crazy" and 2010's "F— You!"
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