*Claudia Jordan recently addressed her involvement in Mike Tyson’s infamous 1991 rape trial.
Jordan and Tyson’s victim were friends, and “for a very long time,” Claudia says she carried a lot of guilt over what happened to 18-year-old Desiree Washington.
While appearing on Vivica Fox’s podcast, “Hustling With Vivica A. Fox,” Jordan recalled what went down that fateful day. Washington was in Indianapolis competing for the Miss Black USA pageant when her insecurities got the best of her so she decided to leave.
Jordan, however, convinced her to stay in the competition. The rape occurred the following day.
“I talked her into staying, the next day she went out and she got raped,” Jordan told Fox during the interview. “I felt very bad about that for a very long time.”
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As noted by MadameNoire, Jordan learned about the rape while driving to Indianapolis with Washington’s family to surprise her at the pageant.
“As soon as she got on the phone, she was like, ‘I went out with Mike Tyson last night and he raped me,’” Jordan recalled. “I put mom on the phone, she’s hysterical. Her father cries, his heart is broken. “It was so sad. I had to be the sensible one, I got on the phone, like, ‘Okay, have you taken a shower? We gotta come pick you up.’ We picked her up, we took her to the hospital and I could tell, as soon as I saw her, that she was broken.”
Jordan accompanied Washington to the hospital and “held her hand while she was having her vaginal examination. They said there was evidence,” she added.
At the trial, Jordan was called as a witness for the defense.
“It was horrible for me. [Tyson] was like 10 feet away, he was mad,” she said. “I think he thought I was called by the defense like all the other paid off witnesses that came to the trial in new clothes and fresh from a trip from Jamaica. But when I got on the stand, I’m a hostile witness for their side.”
Continuing, “You hate to see a Black man who came from nothing be … I can’t even say taken down, he took himself down. There’s evidence, he got on the stand and he said, ‘I know I did something wrong but I didn’t break no bones, so what’s the big deal.’”
Jordan noted that Washington never attempted to profit off of the incident but her life was ruined by it.
“Her whole family fell apart after this,” said Jordan. “So much stuff happened. She had to change her name and move, cut her hair, she changed how she looks so no one would f-ck with her. Her life was ruined, her life was ruined in one night.”
Tyson denied the allegations of rape, but was found guilty and sentenced to six years imprisonment. After serving three years, he was released on parole.
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