Singer Rick James Declared Fugitive

Funk singer Rick James and a female companion were declared fugitives Friday after failing to surrender to sheriff’s deputies to face charges that they sexually assaulted a woman at an exclusive West Hollywood hotel last month, authorities said.

James, 44, whose real name is James Ambrose Johnson, and Tanya Ann Hijazi, 22, were charged with assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment and kidnaping in connection with the Nov. 3 incident at the St. James’s Club and Hotel on the Sunset Strip in which a 24-year-old woman says she was assaulted.

Prosecutors said James, who recorded the 1981 hit “Super Freak,” and Hijazi had promised to surrender on Thursday.