Erick Morillo, American DJ, found dead after a sexual battery charge

By | September 4, 2020

American disk jockey (DJ) and music producer Erick Morillo was found dead in Miami Beach at the age of 49 after harassment allegations.

Erick Morillo died just days before he was due in court for a sexual battery charge.

According to police, they responded to a 911 call Tuesday morning, said detectives did not observe “apparent signs of foul play.”

The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office will determine the cause of death, police said.

Born in 1971 in New York and raised between Colombia and New Jersey, Morillo became known under the pseudonym Reel 2 Real and dropped the hit I Like to Move It in 1993.

The song was a collaboration with the Trinidadian singer The Mad Stuntman and became an iconic Eurodance song with ragga vocals, a subgenre of dancehall and reggae.

Earlier, DJ Erick Morillo has been arrested and charged with sexual battery.

According to a report, police said the alleged incident happened in December at Morillo’s home in Miami Beach.

Morillo’s accuser says they both DJ’d at a private party and went to Morillo’s home afterwards with another woman. She resisted sexual advances by Morillo, became intoxicated and went to a room to sleep, and reportedly “woke up nude on the bed, with Mr Morillo standing on the side of the bed also nude”, according to the arrest report.

Morillo has consistently denied the accusations, but turned himself in after the results of a rape kit matched his DNA. He was expected in court Friday.

Moreover, he became a music producer and under the alias Reel 2 Real had three UK Top 10 hits in the mid-1990s, including I Like to Move It, which topped the charts in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

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