The attorney who filed a $20 million sexual assault lawsuit against Trey Songz in February is accused of offering to bribe a witness to lie about the incident.
The witness in the case dropped a bombshell accusation against Florida attorney Ariel Mitchell. The lawyer is accused of attempting to bribe a witness with up to $200,000 to force a $1 million settlement for sexual assault accusations against Trey Songz.
Trey Songz has been the subject of several sexual assault accusations at the time when Mitchell’s lawsuit was filed, and some are still ongoing.
In a twist that could see Mitchell disbarred or even imprisoned, a woman who is a witness in the case claims that she was approached by the attorney to lie that an assault took place. In return, she would be paid up to $200,000 once a settlement is agreed.
The alleged victim, Jauhara Jeffries, sued Songz for sexually assaulting her at a 2017 New Year’s Eve party in Miami in February 2022.
On Friday, attorneys for Trey Songz filed a motion in a Miami court accusing Ariel E. Mitchell, an attorney for Jeffries, of professional impropriety in that she offered a woman money to act as a witness in the case and lie in support of the alleged victim.
“Plaintiff and Ms Mitchell have engaged in serious misconduct, and it warrants a serious sanction,” the motion filed by attorneys Jeffrey A. Neiman and Derick Vollrath representing Songz said.
The woman who was approached is Mariah Thielen, who says she met with Jeffries’ attorney, Ariel Mitchell, last year at a Miami bar. The woman said that Mitchell reeked of weed and she carried a gun.
Thielen is named in the lawsuit filed by Jeffries. The documents say that Thielen was with Jeffries on the night of the alleged assault. However, while she does not say what happened, Thielen says that Mitchell offered her money to lie about what happened and claim that she was an eyewitness to the sexual assault.
“Ms Mitchell also informed me that if I changed my testimony to corroborate [Plaintiff’s] version of events and testified on [Plaintiff’s] behalf, that she would pay me between $100,000 and $200,000, depending on the case’s ultimate settlement amount, if any,” the witness said in the filing on Tuesday.
Thielen says that Mitchell further tried to convince her to also lie that the singer had sexually assaulted her as well in a big to paint him as “the next R. Kelly.” At the time,
The women were at a Miami nightclub during a New Year’s Eve celebration in 2017. Jeffries claims that while dancing on a couch wearing a “dress with a high slit up the back,” Songz inserted his fingers into her private parts.
Jeffries has, however, cracked as she says the plan was to force Trey Songz into a settlement, but she turned the offer down.
In the meantime, Mitchell has denied that she tampered with the witness as she disclosed that the allegations were also investigated by the Florida Bar Association, according to TMZ.
“We’re highly confident and certain the court will find the witness committed perjury. Parties are still awaiting the judges’ further instructions on how to proceed given the witness’s inconsistent testimony during the hearing.”
Mitchell also threatened to file a suit for defamation if the attorneys did not withdraw the claims.
In the meantime, Mitchell was the attorney who reportedly represented a client who claimed that Chris Brown sexually assaulted her earlier this year. The lawsuit was later dropped after the singer shared text messages proving that sex between the parties was consensual.
