Anthony Anderson Rape Charge

JULY 28--Actor Anthony Anderson was charged today with the aggravated rape of a woman who police say was assaulted after being lured into a production trailer on a Memphis movie set.

According to the Shelby County Sheriff's Office, Anderson, 33, and Wayne Witherspoon, 42, attacked the woman, a movie extra, yesterday afternoon.

The woman told cops that Witherspoon forcibly removed her clothes once she was inside the trailer. She told investigators that Anderson, who was already in the trailer at the time, joined the assault, according to a graphic criminal complaint. The woman told cops that Anderson and Witherspoon "both assaulted her with their hands and took pictures of her while she was nude."

A witness told officers that he heard the woman screaming and managed to unlock the trailer's door. At that point, the naked woman ran from the vehicle, which was parked on the grounds of the Shelby County Corrections Center, where scenes from director John Singleton's "Hustle & Flow" were being shot.

Anderson, pictured in the adjacent mug shot, and Witherspoon were released tonight from the Shelby County Jail after each posted $20,000 bond. The actor, who has appeared in "Barbershop" and "Malibu's Most Wanted," is starring in Singleton's flick, a movie about a fledgling rapper. (2 pages)