Poison drummer accused of rape

PHILADELPHIA, Mississippi (AP) -- Poison drummer Rikki Rockett was arrested on a rape warrant, and his case was turned over to the district attorney's office for possible grand jury consideration, officials said Friday.

Rockett, 46, was arrested Monday at or near Los Angeles International Airport in California, Los Angeles police said. He was booked and released and was awaiting an extradition decision by Mississippi prosecutors.

A woman in Mississippi filed a complaint that she was raped September 23, 2007, at the Silver Star Casino, Neshoba County sheriff's investigator Ralph Sciple said.

"The subject, Rikki Rockett, forcibly had sex with an adult in one of the hotel rooms," according to a complaint.

Sciple said the woman contacted authorities several days after the alleged attack. He did not discuss details of the case, but said his office believed that the woman's complaint warranted review by the district attorney.

The casino-hotel complex in Philadelphia, about an hour northeast of Jackson, is owned by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.

Rockett, whose real name is Richard Ream, did not have a listed number in the Los Angeles area and could not be reached Friday for comment.

Rockett was booked into the Los Angeles County jail under his stage name and released early Tuesday, according to jail inmate information on the county sheriff's Web site. Sciple said that there was no immediate attempt to bring Rockett back to Mississippi and that a decision on extradition would await action by the district attorney.

Rockett and singer Bret Michaels founded Poison, the glam-metal band with a string of hits in the 1980s, including "Talk Dirty to Me." E-mail to a friend

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