Curtis Lepore is defending the plea deal he agreed to after his former girlfriend Jessi Smiles filed a rape charge against him.
Lepore allegedly assaulted Smiles when he flew to Los Angeles to hang out with her. They were going out at the time but broke up. He visited her to help her after she got a concussion while shooting a video for Vine, a short video sharing service that they are both popular on, and allegedly raped her when she fell asleep.
Lepore pled no contest to felony assault, but that will be graded down to a misdemeanor assault if he completes 24 days of community service and a year of counseling.
Responding to his many critics, Lepore said via Twitter that he made a deal “not because I was admitting guilt, but so this media frenzy would be over and move on with my life.”
“That was my choice,” he added. “If you support me then just say that. Thank you.”
Lepore also retweeted a tweet from a supporter defending him, which said: “The prosecution won’t let you plead out unless they know they dont have a case.”
“In other news I just hit 3.9 million followers on vine. Despite the obvious setbacks I’m still doing just fine,” Lepore said.
Smiles, on the other hand, has mostly stayed quiet about the latest update in the case. She has tweeted several things such as “Actions are everything” and “Funny thing about knowing your truth is that you don’t have to explain yourself to anyone.”
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