I believe him
If Eddie was a fakkit, there should have been more legit stories to come out besides that. Charlie Murphy said he has always done stuff to help out down and out people, giving bums 100's of dollars and stuff like that.
It's one thing to give a bum hundreds of dollars.
It's another thing to be spotted driving in the early hours in a known tranny prostitute area, pull over, have the hooker get in the car and drive off.
Eddie Murphy's 1997 Transvestite Prostitute Encounter Fear - Softpedia
The story of the prostitute stands somehow like this: in the early hours of May 2, 1997, Murphy was driving his wife's SUV down Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, an area known for homosexual prostitutes. Murphy pulled over, and a transvestite hooker named Atisone Kenneth Seiuli got in. They drove off together, but didn't get far before there was a burst of siren, and Murphy was pulled over by a Los Angeles Sheriff's Department squad car.