Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office
A self-proclaimed spiritual leader in Brooklyn claiming to use “mystical magic” to help clients find jobs and resolve court cases is accused of drugging and raping two women who came to him for help. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday identified the man as 42-year-old Nigel Kennedy. Kennedy, who pleaded not guilty to the charges of rape and sexual abuse on Wednesday, allegedly committed the first rape in May 2016 and the second in May of this year. Prosecutors say he met both of his alleged victims at a religious-goods shop in East Flatbush that he previously owned and later forced them both to drink a substance that immediately knocked them out. One woman who’d asked for a “spiritual reading” woke up while Kennedy was assaulting her, and when she told him to stop, he said, “Relax, it’s part of the ritual,” according to prosecutors.