*A guitarist who once played for Prince has been arrested in Philadelphia for allegedly raping a 14-year-old boy after a backyard BBQ.
Mike Tyler, 58, has been charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful contact with a minor, and sexual assault, according to PhillyMag.com.
Tyler, who goes by the name “Col. Mike Tyler” and has also played guitar for Billy Joel and Pearl Jam, bragged about his work with the artists to BBQ guests all evening, the party’s host (also a musician) told PhillyMag. One of the impressed guests was the host’s 14-year-old son.
Via PhillyMag.com:
The next morning, says the [host], Tyler called with an offer to help clean up the party mess, an offer that was happily accepted. As the dad tells it, he and Tyler were doing some work upstairs when the dad had to go downstairs to attend to something else. Tyler remained upstairs, claims the dad, who says he lost track of Tyler for maybe ten minutes.
It was during this interval that Tyler allegedly went into a room where the boy was still in bed. According to the charges filed in court, Tyler raped the boy while the father was downstairs. Tyler soon went home.
The dad says that he knew something was wrong right away, that his son just didn’t seem like himself. He pressed his son for an explanation, and within a couple of days, the boy opened up about it.
“He was really embarrassed at first and scared,” says the dad. “He didn’t want to talk about it. I mean, he’s a 14-year-old boy. This is no easy thing to talk about. But I’m so proud of him for telling me.”
The boy and his father went to Special Victims Unit and gave a statement, and police arrested Tyler on Wednesday.
Tyler is currently being held at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility in Northeast Philadelphia, with bail set at $150,000. He’s scheduled for a preliminary hearing on September 1st.
