Malik Yoba Almost Throws Hands With Interviewer That PRESSED Him With Questions?! Testimony From 9 Trey's Claim NYPD Help Distribute Drugs & More!

Actor Malik Yoba stormed off the set during an on-camera interview with The Root Friday after being asked about allegations that he solicited sex from a minor who engaged in survival sex work in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The walkout was also seemingly triggered by questions about his motives for publishing an Instagram post that declared his love and attraction for trans women, which has since been deleted.

During the conversation at The Root’s studios, The Root asked Yoba to respond to a Facebook post by Mariah Lopez Ebony, in which she accuses the actor of soliciting sex from her at ages 13 and 16. Yoba said, “I don’t know the woman,” and “I have no idea who she is.” In a phone interview with The Root on Saturday, Lopez, now 34, stood by her claims, saying her first sex act with Yoba took place at age 13, and the second act occurred at age 16.

Lopez was born April 27, 1985, so the first sexual act would have likely taken place in 1998 and the second act in 2001. Lopez is a long-time trans rights activist and executive director of STARR, the Strategic Trans Alliance for Radical Reform, founded by trans pioneers Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson. Lopez alleges Yoba, now 52, would drive around New York’s Greenwich Village area looking for trans women to pay for sex.