Legal
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A U.S. senator representing Music City had tough questions about artificial intelligence’s impact on the music industry during a Congressional hearing on Tuesday, at one point asking the CEO of the company behind ChatGPT to commit to not using copyrighted songs to train future machines.
At a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee about potential regulation for AI, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) repeatedly grilled Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, over how songwriters and musical artists should be compensated when their works are used by AI companies.
Opening her questioning, Blackburn said she had used OpenAI’s Jukebox to create a song that mimicked Garth Brooks – and that she was clearly concerned about how the singer’s music and voice had been used to create such a tool.
“You’re training it on these copyrighted songs,” Blackburn told Altman. “How do you compensate the artist?”
“If I can go in and say ‘write me a song that sounds like Garth Brooks,’ and it takes part of an existing song, there has to be compensation to that artist for that utilization and that use,” Blackburn said. “If it was radio play, it would be there. If it was streaming, it would be there.”
At one point, Blackburn demanded a firm answer: “Can you commit, as you’ve done with consumer data, not to train [AI models] on artists’ and songwriters’ copyrighted works, or use their voices and their likenesses without first receiving their consent?”
Though Altman did not directly answer that question, he repeatedly told the senator that artists “deserve control” over how their copyrighted music and their voices were used by AI companies.
“We think that content creators need to benefit from this technology,” Altman told the committee. “Exactly what the economic model is, we’re still talking to artists and content owners about what they want. I think there’s a lot of ways this can happen. But very clearly, no matter what the law is, the right thing to do is to make sure people get significant upside benefit from this new technology.”
Blackburn’s questioning came amid a far broader discussion of the potential risks posed by AI, including existential threats to democracy, major harm to the labor market, and the widespread proliferation of misinformation. One witness, a New York University professor and expert in artificial intelligence, told the lawmakers that it poses problems “on a scale that humanity has not seen before.”
The music industry, too, is worried about AI-driven disruption. Last month, a new song featuring AI-generated fake vocals from Drake and The Weeknd went viral, underscoring growing concerns about AI’s impact on music and highlighting the legal uncertainties that surround it.
One of the biggest open questions is over whether copyrighted music can be used to train AI platforms – the process whereby machines “learn” to spit out new creations by ingesting millions of existing works. Major labels and other industry players have already said that such training is illegal, and cutting-edge litigation against the creators of such platforms could be coming soon.
At Tuesday’s hearing, in repeatedly asking Altman to weigh in on that question, Blackburn drew historical parallels to the last major technological disruption to wreak havoc on the music industry — a scenario that also posed novel legal and policy questions.
“We lived through Napster,” Blackburn said. “That was something that really cost a lot of artists a lot of money.”
Though he voiced support for compensation for artists, Altman did not get into specifics, saying that many industry stakeholders had “different opinions” on how creators should be paid. When Blackburn asked him if he thought the government should create an organization similar to SoundExchange – the group that collects certain blanket royalties for streaming – Altman said he wasn’t familiar with it.
“You’ve got your team behind you,” Blackburn said. “Get back to me on that.”
Three NYPD detectives are facing criminal charges over allegations that they stole nearly $3,000 worth of Jay-Z’s Ace of Spades brand champagne from the VIP area during last year’s Electric Zoo festival.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg announced Monday (May 15) that Jonathan Gonzalez, 33, and Wojciech Czech, 44, would each face a charge of grand larceny in the fourth degree and a charge of criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree — both felonies — over the September 2022 incident at the yearly electronic music festival.
Gonzalez and another detective, Warren Golden, 31, were also charged with official misconduct, Bragg’s office said.
“In addition to the alleged theft that occurred, none of the Officers working at the event stepped up and stopped this activity,” Bragg said in a statement announcing the charges. “Public confidence in the criminal justice system depends on members of law enforcement acting with the utmost integrity while on duty and following the same rules that apply to everyone else.”
In a statement, the NYPD told Billboard: “As a result of the continuing joint investigation with the Internal Affairs Bureau and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, two NYPD officers were arrested and subsequently suspended from duty today. The NYPD will continue to pursue the facts in this investigation and initiate further discipline where appropriate.” It’s unclear which two detectives have been arrested.
Gonzalez, Czech and Golden could not immediately be located for comment, nor could representatives for the officers.
According to prosecutors, all three detectives were working narcotics at the festival when they noticed that several VIP attendees had ordered bottles of Armand de Brignac — a pricey brand of champagne co-owned by Jay-Z that’s better known as “Ace of Spades” because of a giant spade on the bottle.
When the concertgoers stepped away, prosecutors say Gonzalez took two unopened bottles — valued at a whopping $2,900 total — and grabbed a backpack. Czech then allegedly handed him the bottles to place into the bag, while Golden allegedly stood by and did nothing.
Prosecutors say that when the trio left the VIP tent and forced their way into a staff-only area, they were pursued and confronted by two attendees who saw the theft and reported it to a security guard.
“Following a brief interaction between the attendees, the defendants, and the security officer, the two bottles were taken from defendant Gonzalez’s bag and returned to the attendees,” the official charging document reads. “The three defendants then left the area and returned to their command. The security officer notified his supervisors, who in turn notified the NYPD.”
It’s unclear exactly what kind of sentences the three could be facing if they’re convicted. Fourth-degree grand larceny and possession of stolen property charges can result in as much as four years in prison under New York law. But criminal sentences can widely vary based on many factors, including potential cooperation by defendants, and could potentially only include probation and fines.
A civil lawsuit filed in Tennessee federal court — first reported by Variety and independently obtained by Billboard — on May 11, 2023, accused Jimmie Allen of sexual assault. A Jane Doe, who was a day-to-day manager at Allen’s former management company Wide Open Music, alleged that the country singer had “harassed” and “sexually abused her” over 18 months from 2020 to 2022, and that she was fired after she complained.
“Plaintiff expressed in words and actions that Jimmie Allen’s conduct was unwelcome, including pushing him away, sitting where he could not reach her, telling him she was uncomfortable and no, and crying uncontrollably,” her attorneys stated in the complaint. “However, Allen made clear that plaintiff’s job was dependent on her staying silent about his conduct.”
Allen responded to the allegations in a statement shared with Billboard, admitting to a sexual relationship with his accuser, but denied all allegations of wrongdoing. “I’ve worked incredibly hard to build my career, and I intend to mount a vigorous defense to her claims and take all other legal action necessary to protect my reputation,” he said.
The complaint also names management firm Wide Open Music and founder Ash Bowers as defendants, claiming they did not do enough to protect their employee from Allen’s alleged abusive behavior. The lawsuit alleges that after she revealed she had been “raped and sexually abused” by Allen, Wide Open Music and Bowers fired her in retaliation.
In his own statement sent to Billboard, Bowers strongly denied Jane Doe’s assertion that her position was terminated in retaliation. He said that Wide Open Music learned of Allen’s abuse on Oct. 4, 2022, and “immediately ended our professional relationship” at that point, and that “any assertion she ever raised the existence of a sexual or physical relationship” with the country singer before then “is patently and objectively false.”
Since the allegations against Allen surfaced in the lawsuit, he has been suspended by his label, dropped from a performance slot at CMA Fest and more. See the timeline of the fallout since the lawsuit was filed against him.
May 11: Jane Doe Files Civil Lawsuit Against Allen
Disco legends Village People sent a cease-and-desist letter to Donald Trump on Monday threatening legal action over a costume-clad tribute band at his Mar-a-Lago resort that’s allegedly been performing “Macho Man” and other hit songs without permission.
In the letter, Karen Willis (wife of Village People lead singer Victor Willis) warned Trump’s lawyers that such performances potentially violate federal trademark law by confusing consumers into thinking the real band was playing at the former president’s resort.
Since a video of the Mar-a-Lago performance was posted on Twitter last week, Willis said the band had been “inundated” with social media posts from people who thought it was the real Village People.
“The performance has and continues to cause public confusion as to why Village People would even engage in such a performance. We did not,” Willis wrote in the letter, obtained by Billboard. “Though my husband has tolerated your client’s use of his Village People music, we cannot allow such use by him to cause public confusion as to endorsement.”
In a statement to Billboard on Monday, Trump attorney Joseph Tacopina said: “I will only deal with the attorney of the Village People, if they have one, not the wife of one of the members. But they should be thankful that President Trump allowed them to get their name back in the press. I haven’t heard their name in decades. Glad to hear they are still around.”
Top artists have long chafed at the use of their music by politicians, particularly conservatives. Foo Fighters and John Mellencamp blasted John McCain for using their music during the 2008 presidential election, and Neil Young, Guns N’ Roses, Pharrell Williams, Rihanna and the estate of Tom Petty have all spoken out about their music being used at campaign events for Trump.
Willis has even already complained about it once. In June 2020, angered by Trump’s use of police force to clear protesters from Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., Willis took to social media to request that the president stop playing his music at events.
Owing to the complex thicket of blanket licenses that govern the public performance of music, it’s actually more complicated than you might expect for artists to prevent politicians from playing their music at rallies. Many times, artists lack a clear route to take formal legal action, and instead are left to complain in the court of public opinion.
But in the letter this week, Willis says that a live performance by a tribute band dressed to look like Village People — a construction worker, a cowboy, a policeman and so on — crossed the line into a clearer violation of the law by suggesting that the band had endorsed him.
“Your client is hereby on notice that U.S. trademark law protects against the unauthorized use of the Village People image and trade dress,” Willis wrote. “To be certain, the use of the group’s image and likeness at Mar-A-Lago was unauthorized.”
If such performances don’t stop, Willis made a clear threat of legal action: “We shall be forced to bring suit preventing further use, not only of the Village People trademarked image and trade dress, but of the music as well (and we’d hate to have to do that) but such combined use causes public confusion and is suggestive of endorsement.”
The letter gave Trump 10 days to respond.
Country music star Jimmie Allen‘s label BBR Music Group has suspended him following allegations of sexual assault in a lawsuit filed Thursday (May 11) by his ex-manager.
“In light of today’s allegations against Jimmie Allen, BBR Music Group has decided to suspend all activity with him, effective immediately,” says a statement from the label. That includes ceasing radio promotion on his current single, “Be Alright,” which climbs 59-57 on this Billboard’s Country Airplay chart dated May 13.
The move came hours after news broke that Allen was facing a lawsuit that claims he repeatedly sexually harassed and raped a woman on his management team — and that his management company then fired her when she complained.
In a civil lawsuit filed Thursday in Tennessee federal court — first reported by Variety and independently obtained by Billboard — an anonymous “Jane Doe” accuser says that Allen “manipulated and used his power” over her job as a day-to-day manager in order to “sexually harass and abuse her” over a period of 18 months from 2020 to 2022.
“Plaintiff expressed in words and actions that Jimmie Allen’s conduct was unwelcome, including pushing him away, sitting where he could not reach her, telling him she was uncomfortable and no, and crying uncontrollably,” the woman’s lawyers write in the complaint. “However, Allen made clear that plaintiff’s job was dependent on her staying silent about his conduct.”
In a statement to Billboard, Allen admitted to a sexual relationship with his accuser but denied all allegations of wrongdoing and vowed to defend himself against the lawsuit.
“It is deeply troubling and hurtful that someone I counted as one of my closest friends, colleagues and confidants would make allegations that have no truth to them whatsoever,” Allen says. “I acknowledge that we had a sexual relationship — one that lasted for nearly two years. During that time she never once accused me of any wrongdoing, and she spoke of our relationship and friendship as being something she wanted to continue indefinitely.”
“Only after things ended between us, did she hire a lawyer to reach out and ask for money, which leads me to question her motives,” Allen’s statement continues. “The simple fact is, her accusations are not only false, but also extremely damaging. I’ve worked incredibly hard to build my career, and I intend to mount a vigorous defense to her claims and take all other legal action necessary to protect my reputation.”
Allen’s attorney did not immediately return an additional request for comment on BBR Music Group’s decision to suspend its relationship with the star.
The complaint also names management firm Wide Open Music and founder Ash Bowers, claiming they did not do enough to protect their employee from it from Allen’s abusive behavior. When the woman formally disclosed that she had been “raped and sexually abused” by the star, her lawsuit says that Wide Open Music and Bowers then fired her in retaliation.
In his own statement sent to Billboard, Bowers strongly denied the allegations. He said Wide Open Music had learned of Allen’s abuse on Oct. 4, 2022, and had “immediately ended our professional relationship” at that point.
“Any assertion that she ever raised the existence of a sexual or physical relationship between Mr. Allen and her (or that Wide Open Music or I was aware of any such relationship) before October 4, 2022 is patently and objectively false,” Bowers said.
Bowers also denied that the lawsuit’s claim that the accuser had been terminated in retaliation: “Once WOM no longer managed Mr. Allen, that role was gone and, furthermore, WOM has transitioned out of artist management completely to development and publishing. Accordingly, any claim that our professional relationship with her ended due to retaliation is also false.”
In her lawsuit, Allen’s accuser makes graphic and disturbing allegations of sexual assault.
She says the star began by repeatedly sexually harassing her, “making comments about her status as a single female, her innocence, and how hot she looked” and asking her “personal sexual questions,” including whether or not she was a virgin.
According to the lawsuit, she later began to receive unwanted touching and hugging. Then, after a taping of American Idol, she says Allen sexually assaulted her while she was “incapacitated and incapable of giving consent.”
“While she only drank a couple of glasses of white wine, plaintiff does not remember anything after dinner that evening — she lost consciousness and awoke naked in her hotel room several hours later, with Jimmie Allen insisting she take Plan B as soon as possible,” her lawyers say, referring to a brand of morning-after contraceptive.
The lawsuit claims that the abuse then continued after that first incident in many additional ways.
“When plaintiff drove Allen to and from events, he sexually abused her at red lights, in green rooms, on airplanes, and in other places she was required to be to support him at events,” her lawyers say. “He raped her in private while choking her. He videotaped multiple sexual encounters in order to blackmail her to stay silent.”
Months later, when Doe says she was “on the verge of a nervous breakdown and considered committing suicide,” she claims she finally disclosed the alleged abuse to Bowers and asked to be reassigned to a different artist. After allegedly telling her, “I can’t hear any more of this,” Bowers then allegedly texted her that she would be placed on leave.
“On or about October 17, 2022, Bowers texted plaintiff stating, ‘[W]e are still unwinding things with Jimmie. Until that process is complete — we need you to continue to stay/work from home. We will update you once that’s completed,’” her complaint reads. “On October 26, 2022 … WOM terminated Plaintiff.”
In technical terms, Thursday’s lawsuit includes claims of battery, assault and false imprisonment against Allen; multiple claims of negligence against Wide Open Music and Bowers; and claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and violations of federal sex trafficking statutes against all three.
The case was filed by attorney Elizabeth Fegan, who has previously represented victims of disgraced executive Harvey Weinstein and Dr. George Tyndall, a campus gynecologist at the University of Southern California accused of sexually abusing hundreds of patients.
Allen, a Delaware native, was slated to give the commencement address at the University of Delaware tomorrow (May 12), but has been replaced by Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester. According to a press release from the University, Allen informed the University he would no long be able to participate in the ceremony.
Assistance on this story provided by Jessica Nicholson.
Stories about sexual assault allegations can be traumatizing for survivors of sexual assault. If you or anyone you know needs support, you can reach out to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). The organization provides free, confidential support to sexual assault victims. Call RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE) or visit the anti-sexual violence organization’s website for more information. (edited)
A federal judge has approved a $25 million settlement struck by vinyl producer Mobile Fidelity to resolve accusations that the company’s pricey “all analog” records were secretly created using digital methods, overruling objections from some customers that the settlement was “tainted by the stink of collusion.”
Though the deal would allow tens of thousands of MoFi customers to secure full refunds, some consumers argued that the deal was unfair — claiming it had been reached through a “reverse auction” in which MoFi bargained with “ineffectual” plaintiff’s lawyers to find the cheapest settlement possible.
But in a ruling Tuesday (May 9), U.S. District Judge James L. Robart rejected those claims and preliminarily approved the settlement deal. He said the agreement would likely fairly compensate any MoFi buyers who had been misled, and that there was no concrete evidence of impropriety in how it had been reached.
“The undisputed facts demonstrate that proposed settlement is not the product of a reverse auction or otherwise the result of collusion,” the judge wrote, saying it appeared to have been reached via “arm’s length negotiations” between attorneys for MoFi and the plaintiffs.
Among other things, the challengers had argued that the settlement’s payouts were insufficient based on how much they might have won at trial. But Judge Robart said those arguments ignored key factual details about how MoFi’s records were produced — and that such claims were at times “nonsensical.”
In a statement to Billboard, MoFi lead counsel Joseph J. Madonia said: “We appreciate the court’s ruling, which supports all of our claims that there was no reverse auction or collusion. As always MoFi continues its commitment to provide the best-sounding records possible.”
Attorneys for the consumers who challenged the settlement did not immediately return a request for comment.
The scandal at MoFi first erupted last summer, after Phoenix-area record store owner Mike Esposito posted a pair of videos to YouTube alleging that the company’s “all-analog” and “triple analog” records were in fact partially created using so-called direct stream digital technology. In one of the videos, MoFi’s engineers appeared to confirm that some digital tech had in fact been used in production.
As reported by The Washington Post, the digital revelations created “something of an existential crisis” in the analog-obsessed vinyl community. In a statement in late July, MoFi apologized for using “vague language” and for “taking for granted the goodwill and trust” of its customers: “We recognize our conduct has resulted in both anger and confusion in the marketplace. Moving forward, we are adopting a policy of 100% transparency regarding the provenance of our audio products.”
But the apology wasn’t enough to avoid litigation. In early August, a pair MoFi customers named Stephen J. Tuttle and Dustin Collman filed a proposed class action in Washington federal court, claiming the company’s analog branding had been “deceptive and misleading” and had duped them into paying premium prices. Four more cases were later filed in other federal courts by other groups of buyers.
In January, MoFi decided to settle the case. Calling the deal “a fair compromise,” the company agreed to let consumers either secure a full refund or keep their albums and instead take a 5% cash refund or a 10% refund in credit. The agreement would cover all customers nationwide, and the total money that could be paid out was “expected to be over $25 million.”
But some of the consumers who filed those other lawsuits quickly threw up red flags about the deal. They said the settlement was insufficient, struck without their input by bad lawyers who simply wanted a payout: “Despite this clear abdication of their duties to class members, counsel … are now trying to ram an inadequate, collusive settlement through this court.”
In Wednesday’s ruling, however, Judge Robart said those allegations had little basis. He pointed out there was “no evidence” that MoFi had “shopped” the case in search of a settlement — and that the plaintiffs’ lawyers had actually capped their own fees lower than necessary.
“This is one of the lower proposed fee awards this court has encountered in a class action settlement,” the judge wrote.
Following this week’s ruling, the settlement must still be granted final approval; during the process, the aggrieved MoFi buyers will still have additional chances to object to the terms of the deal or to opt out of it entirely. A hearing on final approval is tentatively set for October.
In a statement to Billboard, Duncan C. Turner — lead counsel for the customers that settled with MoFi — praised the judge’s decision: “There was never any substance to the intervenors’ made-up collusion story. The settlement terms are sound and fair, so we will be turning our attention to executing the notice program and getting the class members their compensation.”
Months after a high-profile mistrial, T.I. is headed back to federal court Wednesday for a second trial in his lawsuit claiming that toymaker MGA stole the design of its “OMG” dolls from the OMG Girlz – a defunct teen pop trio created by his wife Tameka “Tiny” Harris.
The intellectual property case initially went to trial in January, but Judge James V. Selna granted a sudden mistrial after jurors heard inadmissible racially-charged testimony, including a claim that MGA “steals from African Americans.”
The battle began in 2021, with T.I. (real name Clifford Harris) and Tiny claiming that MGA had committed both “cultural appropriation and outright theft of the intellectual property” by stealing the look of a group of “young multicultural women.”
Their complaint against MGA included side-by-side images, aiming to show how each OMG doll was directly based on a particular member of the OMG Girlz, a group that included Tiny’s daughter Zonnique Pullins.
“This cultural appropriation is legally actionable where, as here, it has resulted in MGA’s unlawful copying and dilution of the OMG Girlz brand, and misappropriation of their name and likeness,” lawyers for T.I. and Tiny wrote.
MGA, for its part, says it has done nothing wrong – that the dolls were more often branded as L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G., and that consumers would not confuse the toys for the “short-lived” band.
The case went before a federal jury in January, seeing five days of testimony. But on the fifth day of the trial, jurors heard videotaped deposition testimony from a woman named Moneice Campbell, a former MGA customer who said she would no longer purchase the company’s products because MGA “steals from African Americans and their ideas and profit off of it.”
Earlier in the case, Judge Selna had already expressly prohibited such testimony from the trial. After MGA’s lawyers demanded an immediate mistrial, the judge agreed to grant one.
“There is no way to unring the bell of the jury’s hearing Ms. Campbell’s emotionally charged accusations that MGA has been ‘stealing’ from the African-American community,” the MGA attorneys wrote. “Her improper testimony cannot be challenged, rebutted or cured without drawing further attention to it.”
The new trial began with jury selection on Tuesday and will see opening statements on Wednesday.
A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday (May 9) dismissed much of Marilyn Manson’s defamation lawsuit against his ex-fiance, Evan Rachel Wood, ruling that many of his claims were barred under a California law aimed at protecting free speech.
Manson (real name Brian Warner) sued Wood last year, claiming her 2021 accusations of sexual abuse against him had been false and that she had “secretly recruited, coordinated, and pressured” other women to make similar allegations against him to destroy his career.
But Judge Teresa A. Beaudet ruled Tuesday that Manson had not sufficiently shown that he would ultimately be able to prove many of those accusations against Wood, including that she had been “pressuring multiple women to make false accusations,” as well as the allegation that she had forged a letter from the FBI.
The ruling came under California’s so-called anti-SLAPP statute — a law that aims to make it easier for judges to quickly dismiss cases that threaten free speech. Wood’s lawyers claimed Manson’s case was exactly that: a prominent musician using a lawsuit to try to silence someone who was speaking out publicly about years of alleged abuse.
Anti-SLAPP laws work by putting more burden than usual on defamation plaintiffs like Manson, forcing them to clearly show at the outset that their case is legitimate. In Tuesday’s decision, Judge Beaudet said Manson had failed to do so.
“The court does not find that plaintiff has demonstrated a probability of prevailing on his [intentional infliction of emotional distress] claim based on the FBI Letter,” the judge wrote, referring to one of Manson’s specific legal claims.
Importantly, the decision did not dismiss Manson’s case entirely, and several claims remain pending against Wood. Those claims will continue into discovery and toward an eventual trial. But the ruling was still a major victory for Wood.
In a statement to Billboard following the decision, Wood’s attorney, Michael Kump, said: “We are very pleased with the court’s ruling, which affirms and protects Evan’s exercise of her fundamental First Amendment rights. As the court correctly found, plaintiff failed to show that his claims against her have even minimal merit.”
Wood is one of several women to accuse Manson of serious sexual wrongdoing over the past two years. Manson has denied all of the allegations, and many of the lawsuits filed against him have since been dropped, dismissed or settled.
Manson filed the current lawsuit against Wood in March 2022, accusing her and a woman named Illma Gore of launching an “organized attack” that had derailed his career. His lawyer said the women had carried out “a campaign of malicious and unjustified attacks.”
But Wood quickly fought back, moving to strike Manson’s case under the anti-SLAPP law: “For years, plaintiff Brian Warner raped and tortured defendant Evan Rachel Wood and threatened retaliation if she told anyone about it,” her attorneys wrote. “Warner has now made good on those threats by filing the present lawsuit.”
Tuesday’s ruling came despite a bombshell recantation by Ashley Morgan Smithline, another woman who has accused Manson of wrongdoing. In a February filing submitted by Manson’s lawyers, Smithline said she had “succumbed to pressure” from Wood to make “untrue” accusations against Manson.
But Wood strongly denied those allegations, and Judge Beaudet ultimately refused to consider Smithline’s statements entirely, saying they had been filed far past a key deadline for submitting evidence. That means the statements about Wood’s “pressure” played no role in Tuesday’s decision.
In a statement to Billboard, Manson’s lawyer, Howard King, said the ruling was “disappointing but not unexpected.”
“The court telegraphed this outcome when it refused to consider the bombshell sworn declaration of former plaintiff Ashley Smithline, which detailed how women were systematically pressured by Evan Rachel Wood and Illma Gore to make false claims about Brian Warner,” King said.
“The failure to admit this critical evidence, along with the court’s decision to not consider Ms. Gore’s iPad, the contents of which demonstrated how she and Ms. Wood crafted a forged FBI letter, will be the subject of an immediate appeal to the California Court of Appeal,” King added.
A Los Angeles judge is refusing to grant Tory Lanez a new trial after he was convicted last year of shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot, setting the stage for the rapper to be sentenced to as much as two decades in prison.
Attorneys for Lanez (real name Daystar Peterson) had called the case a “miscarriage of justice,” arguing that Judge David Herriford made numerous errors during a star-studded, two-week December trial that resulted in a guilty verdict. But prosecutors later called those claims “vague and unsupported” and urged the judge to uphold the jury’s decision.
At a hearing on Tuesday (May 9) in Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge Herriford sided with prosecutors and denied Lanez’s motion, according to a person with knowledge of the proceedings. Neither prosecutors nor Lanez’s legal team immediately returned requests for comment.
The ruling is not particularly surprising. Such requests for a judge to overturn a jury verdict are rarely granted, reserved for major revelations about procedural errors or withheld evidence. Similar arguments could still be successfully raised in a future appeal.
Tuesday’s decision clears the way for Lanez’s sentencing, in which he potentially faces up to 22 years in prison. It had originally been scheduled for January but was repeatedly delayed due to his request for a new trial. Sentencing is now expected within the next month but could be delayed again.
Lanez was convicted on Dec. 23 on three felony charges over the mid-2020 incident, during which the rapper allegedly shot Stallion (born Megan Pete) in the foot during an argument after a pool party in the Hollywood Hills.
The shooting happened in the early-morning hours of July 12, 2020, when a driver was shuttling Lanez, Stallion and her assistant and friend Kelsey Harris from a party at Kylie Jenner’s house. According to prosecutors, Megan got out of the vehicle during an argument and began walking away when Lanez shouted “Dance, bitch!” and proceeded to shoot at her feet.
Following the incident, Stallion initially told police officers that she had cut her foot stepping on broken glass, but days later alleged that she had been shot. Lanez was eventually charged with the shooting in October 2022.
During the blockbuster trial, Lanez’s lawyers made their best effort to sow doubt over who had pulled the trigger, painting a scenario in which Harris could have been the shooter. But a key defense witness offered only confusing eyewitness testimony, and prosecutors pointed to an earlier interview in which Harris pinned the blame squarely on Lanez. Stallion herself offered powerful testimony that Lanez had been the one to shoot her; neither Lanez nor the driver took the witness stand.
In a motion for a new trial filed in March, Lanez attorneys Jose Baez and Matthew Barhoma argued that Judge Herriford made numerous errors during the course of the trial. Among others, they said he should not have allowed jurors to see an Instagram post that appeared to undermine the rapper’s central defense that Harris actually pulled the trigger. In it, Lanez appeared to personally post a comment that such a suggestion was “not true.”
“The court erred on numerous questions of law in allowing the People to introduce this post, depriving defendant of a fair trial,” Lanez’s lawyers wrote. “The only acceptable remedy for this miscarriage of justice is a new trial.”
Lanez’s lawyers made numerous other arguments, too. They said that key DNA evidence had been mischaracterized and improperly admitted; that Lanez had been denied his right to counsel because his longtime attorney withdrew at the eleventh hour; and that prosecutors had run afoul of a new California law that bans the use of creative expression in criminal trials.
But prosecutors argued back last month that the request for a new trial was groundless. The Instagram comment was a “relatively insignificant piece of evidence,” they argued, among an “overwhelming” amount of testimony and other evidence showing that Lanez had been the one to shoot Stallion.
“The defendant’s brief is replete with colorful rhetoric and conclusory statements, but it lacks substance,” prosecutors wrote. “Despite being nearly 80 pages long, the defendant has failed to cite a single instance of error in the trial court.”
Following Tuesday’s decision, Lanez can still file an appeal of the verdict at a state appellate court. But such a challenge will face an uphill climb: In 2022, California appeals courts overturned a defendant’s guilty verdict in just 19% of cases.
Ed Sheeran gave his first interview on Friday (May 5) in the wake of winning his court case in defense of “Thinking Out Loud.”
“The one thing that felt like the biggest win for me was, afterwards, Katherine Griffin Townsend and her family and everyone came up to me, hugged me and said, ‘We believe you,’” the singer-songwriter said on The Elvis Duran and the Morning Show. “And I got to walk away … from it knowing I did the right thing.”
The star added that he felt in some ways that the court case, in which he’d been accused of stealing parts of Marvin Gaye’s 1973 classic “Let’s Get It On” for his 2014 smash by Gaye’s producer Ed Townsend, had “overshadowed” the other major things happening in his life, such as the premiere of his new documentary Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All and the release of his latest album Subtract.
“On both sides, it takes a massive toll — both personally and financially — but it’s about heart and integrity, and that’s why I fought it was, I can’t be accused of something that I didn’t do. So I just had to prove that,” he explained.
During the trial, Sheeran took the stand in his own defense, offering an education in songwriting and chord structures, and even breaking into song in different parts of his testimony to prove his point.
However, he’s now ready to focus on moving forward and celebrating his album release and docu-series, which is now airing on Disney+. “I very much see the two things as coming hand in hand,” he told Duran. “You know, the documentary goes with the album and the album goes with the documentary. ‘Cause the last thing I want to do is bring more attention to my personal life, but I felt that opening up that door gave more context to the record.”
Watch Sheeran’s full post-win interview above.