Legal

14 Oct 2022

Gunna’s Lawyers Call Foul On Witness Tampering Text: ‘Misled the Court’

A day after an Atlanta judge refused to release Gunna from jail, his lawyers made a striking accusation against prosecutors on Friday – claiming an alleged smoking gun text message cited by government lawyers actually had “nothing to do with witness intimidation” and had been used to mislead the court.

At a hearing on Thursday, prosecutors told Judge Ural Glanville that they were in possession of a message in which a co-defendant offered to “whack someone” on Gunna’s behalf. A short while later, the judge denied the rapper bond for a third time, meaning he’ll remain in jail until his January trial.

But in Friday’s filing, Gunna’s lawyers said they’d finally gotten their hands on the message in question – and that it was from June 2020 and “has nothing to do with witness intimidation or obstruction.”

According to the new filing, the actual message reads: “Tell gunna happy c day it’s all love [100 and heart emojis] I’ll still a whack some Bout him.”

“For the state to [argue] that this text is an offer to commit murder (or to threaten or injure a witness in a case that was still two years in the future) aptly illustrates the problem of a hearing by ambush and proffer,” wrote attorney Steve Sadow and Gunna’s other lawyers.

“Respectfully, at each of the bond hearings before the Court, the State has relied on proffers of evidence— never disclosed to Kitchens prior to a hearing — and none of the proffers has panned out,” Sadow wrote.

A spokesman at the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Both Gunna (real name Sergio Kitchens) and Young Thug (Jeffery Williams) were indicted in May, along with dozens of others, on accusations that their group YSL was not really a record label called “Young Stoner Life,” but a violent Atlanta street gang called “Young Slime Life.” The charges included allegations of murder, carjacking, armed robbery, drug dealing and illegal firearm possession over the past decade.

The two stars, who strongly deny the charges, have both repeatedly sought to be released on bond ahead of their trials, which are currently scheduled for January. But both have been refused, largely because prosecutors have warned that they might threaten witnesses or otherwise obstruct the case.

Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, Gunna’s lawyers said those warnings had largely been premised on unreliable “proffers” from the government, none of which had later proved to be based on hard proof. They said there was not “a shred of evidence” to support keeping him locked up before he has been proven guilty.

But at the hearing, prosecutor Adriane Love repeatedly cited the supposed “whack” statement by the co-defendant, arguing that it suggested people were willing to murder witnesses for Gunna. She said she was uncertain about whether the message in question had yet been uploaded into court records, but said it would be available by the end of the day if not. Minutes later, Judge Glanville denied bond.

On Friday morning, having seen the text in question, Gunna’s lawyers argued that Love “misstated” the evidence and had thus “misled” Judge Glanville. They put particular emphasis on the date, since it allegedly suggested witness tampering the current criminal case: “The text in question, dated June 14, 2020 — almost two years before the indictment was returned in this case — has nothing to do with witness intimidation or obstruction.”

The new filing did not outright ask the judge to reverse his own decision, but asked Judge Glanville to officially note the actual date and content of the text message, rather than rely on the description offered by prosecutors.

The case against YSL is built around Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, a state law based on the more famous federal RICO statute that’s been used to target the mafia, drug cartels and other forms of organized crime. Such laws make it easier for prosecutors to sweep up many members of an alleged criminal conspiracy based on many smaller acts that aren’t directly related.

Beyond indicting two of rap’s biggest stars, the case also made waves because it cited their lyrics as supposed evidence of their crimes — a controversial practice that critics say unfairly sways juries and injects racial bias into the courtroom. California recently banned the tactic in that state, but Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has strongly defended using it against Young Thug and Gunna.

Barring delays — a very real possibility — trials are currently scheduled for early January.

13 Oct 2022

Cardi B Judge Says YouTuber Tasha K Must Pay $4M or Secure Funding During Defamation Appeal

The federal judge didn’t phrase it quite the same as Cardi B, but the message was the same.

Months after the superstar rapper tweeted BBHMM – “bitch better have my money” – Judge William Ray ruled Thursday that a gossip blogger who made salacious claims about Cardi must either immediately pay her an almost $4 million defamation verdict, or secure a bond covering the entire amount.

With the blogger Tasha K seeking to pause the huge judgment while she appeals it, Judge Ray said he would only do so if she can post a so-called supersedeas bond covering the entire amount. If Tasha (real name Latasha Kebe) loses her appeal, that money will then be automatically handed to Cardi.

Issued by private lenders, such bonds allow a losing litigant to delay paying a full judgment while they appeal. But they typically require large upfront deposits and property collateral to cover an eventual payment in the event that the appeal is unsuccessful.

Cardi’s lawyers asked for the bond last month, citing Tasha’s own public statements like one suggesting she had perhaps moved to Africa. They said they were worried she might use the delay caused by the appeal to avoid paying entirely.

“This is more than a hypothetical concern in this case,” attorney Lisa F. Moore and Cardi’s other lawyers wrote Friday. “During the litigation, Kebe bragged publicly that she had taken steps to insulate herself from a judgment. And there have been recent online reports that Kebe has moved from Georgia to avoid enforcement of the judgment.”

The judge did order additional briefing on the total amount of the bond, saying he might consider “an amount less than the full amount of the judgment” if properly persuaded. Lawyers for Tasha did not immediately return requests for comment. Lawyers for Cardi declined to comment.

Cardi B (real name Belcalis Almánzar) sued Tasha in 2019, seeking to end what the rapper’s lawyers called a “malicious campaign” to hurt Cardi’s reputation. The star’s attorneys said they had repeatedly tried – and failed – to get her to pull her videos down.

One Tasha video cited in the lawsuit includes a statement that Cardi had done sex acts “with beer bottles on f—ing stripper stages.” Others videos said the superstar had contracted herpes; that she had been a prostitute; that she had cheated on her husband; and that she had done hard drugs.

Following a trial in January, jurors sided decisively with Cardi B, holding Tasha liable for defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress. They awarded more than $2.5 million in damages and another $1.3 million in legal fees incurred by the rapper, and Judge Ray later issued an injunction forcing her to pull the videos from the internet.

Tasha appealed that verdict last month, arguing in her opening appellate brief that Judge Ray withheld key details from jurors and the verdict was the result of a “very lopsided” trial. She’s vowed to keep fighting the case “all the way to the Supreme Court if need be,” even if it “takes years” to do so.

But Thursday’s order means that appeal will not offer Tasha much reprieve from the judgment unless she wins it. And appeals like the one Tasha is fighting face long odds, particularly when they seek to overturn a jury’s verdict.

It’s unclear if she would be able to pay the judgment or secure a supersedeas bond; in a recent Instagram post, she claimed to have withdrawn the last $1,083 from her bank account. Federal bankruptcy is an option, though civil judgments and other debts incurred by wrongdoing aren’t always discharged through that process.

11 Oct 2022

Eric Andre Sues Over Drug Search Program at Atlanta Airport

Comedians Eric André and Clayton English are challenging a police program at the Atlanta airport they say violates the constitutional rights of airline passengers, particularly Black passengers, through racial profiling and coercive searches just as they are about to board their flights.

Lawyers for the two men filed a lawsuit Tuesday (Oct. 11) in federal court in Atlanta alleging that they were racially profiled and illegally stopped by Clayton County police at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

The two men, well-known comedians and actors, say officers singled them out during separate stops roughly six months apart because they are Black and grilled them about drugs as other passengers watched.

“People were gawking at me and I looked suspicious when I had done nothing wrong,” André said in an interview, calling the experience “dehumanizing and demoralizing.”

While the stated purpose of the program is to fight drug trafficking, the lawsuit says, drugs are rarely found, criminal charges seldom result, and seized cash provides a financial windfall for the police department.

Clayton County police officers and investigators from the county district attorney’s office selectively stop passengers in the narrow jet bridges used to access planes, the lawsuit says. The officers take the passengers’ boarding passes and identification and interrogate them, sometimes searching their bags, before they board their flights, the lawyers say in the lawsuit.

The police department calls the stops “consensual encounters” and says they are “random,” but in reality the stops “rely on coercion, and targets are selected disproportionately based on their race,” the lawyers argue.

Clayton County police spokesperson Julia Isaac said the department doesn’t comment on pending litigation.

Police records show that from Aug. 30, 2020, to April 30, 2021, there were 402 jet bridge stops, and the passenger’s race was listed for 378 of those stops. Of those 378 passengers, 211, or 56%, were Black, and people of color accounted for 258 total stops, or 68%, the lawsuit says.

Those 402 stops resulted in three reported drug seizures: about 10 grams of drugs from one passenger, 26 grams of “suspected THC gummies” from another, and six prescription pills without a prescription from a third, the lawsuit says. Only the first and third person were charged.

Those 402 stops also yielded more than $1 million in cash and money orders from a total of 25 passengers. All but one were allowed to continue their travels, and only two — the ones who also had drugs — were charged, the lawsuit says. Eight of the 25 challenged the seizures, and Clayton County police settled each case, returning much of the seized money, the lawsuit says.

Carrying large quantities of cash doesn’t mean someone is involved in illegal drug activity, the lawyers argue in the lawsuit, noting that people of color are less likely to have bank accounts and are more likely to carry large sums when they travel.

English was stopped while flying from Atlanta, where he lives, to Los Angeles for work on Oct. 30, 2020, the lawsuit says. André had finished a shoot for HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones and was traveling from Charleston, South Carolina, to his home in Los Angeles on April 21, 2020, when he was stopped after a layover in Atlanta.

Officers blocked them as they entered the jet bridge and asked if they were carrying illegal drugs, the lawsuit says. Both were asked to hand over their boarding passes and identification. An officer said he wanted to search English’s bag, and English agreed, believing he didn’t have a choice.

“I felt completely powerless. I felt violated. I felt cornered,” English said at a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Atlanta. “I felt like I had to comply if I wanted everything to go smoothly.”

André complained about his stop right after it happened. Clayton County police said at the time that it was “consensual.”

“Mr. Andre chose to speak with investigators during the initial encounter,” the department said in a statement posted on Facebook. “During the encounter, Mr. Andre voluntarily provided the investigators information as to his travel plans. Mr. Andre also voluntarily consented to a search of his luggage but the investigators chose not to do so.”

André said he felt a “moral calling” to bring the lawsuit “so these practices can stop and these cops can be held accountable for this because it’s unethical.”

“I have the resources to bring national attention and international attention to this incident. It’s not an isolated incident,” he said. “If Black people don’t speak up for each other, who will?”

One of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit, NYU School of Law Policing Project co-founder Barry Friedman, encouraged anyone else who has had similar experiences to get in touch.

The lawsuit names Clayton County and the police chief, as well as four police officers and a district attorney’s office investigator. It alleges violations of the constitutional rights that protect against unreasonable searches and seizures and against racial discrimination.

The comedians seek a jury trial and ask that the Clayton County police jet bridge interdiction program be declared unconstitutional. They also seek compensatory and punitive damages, as well as legal costs.