SANTA MONICA—The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office declined sexual assault charges against Backstreet Boys’ singer Nick Carter on Tuesday, September 11.

Dream singer Melissa Schuman filed a police report with the Santa Monica Police Department in February accusing Carter of raping her in 2003. Schuman was 18 at the time the incident occurred. The statue of limitations to prosecute expired in 2013.

In November 2017, Schuman wrote about her alleged assault on her personal blog, stating that Carter invited her to his Santa Monica apartment where he forced her to perform oral sex on him in his bathroom and later forced her into his bedroom where he raped her.

She noted that she wanted to file a police report after the incident occurred, but did not want it to hurt her professional career or personally, stating, “I didn’t have the money, the clout or access to an attorney who was powerful to stand up against my abuser’s legal counsel.”

On February 7, 2018, Schuman tweeted, “I’m finally doing what I thought I could no longer do. I’m filing a police report…thank you to @RAINN [Rape and Incest National Network] for empowering me to take this step.”

Carter declined the allegations and responded in a statement saying, “Melissa never expressed to me while we were together or at any time since that anything we did was not consensual.”

Following the DA’s announcement of rejecting the charges, Schuman wrote in a blog post, “My family and I were well aware of the likelihood that my case was not prosecutable due to the statute of limitations in California which was modified in 2016.”

Carter’s lawyer, Michael Holtz, made a statement noting that Carter is “happy to put this matter behind him.”

Earlier this week, Carter took to Twitter to share that his wife, Lauren Kitt suffered a miscarriage. He tweeted, “God give us peace during this time. I really was looking forward to meeting her after three months. I’m heartbroken.”

Written By Nina Garza