Observe: This text accommodates descriptions of alleged sexual and bodily assault.
Soulja Boy was sued, in January 2021, by a lady who had labored for the musician as a private assistant. A Santa Monica, California, jury has now returned its verdicts within the civil case and located Soulja Boy to be responsible for assault, sexual battery, gender violence, intentional infliction of emotional misery, failure to pay wages, and punitive damages. The girl, recognized as Jane Doe, is to be awarded greater than $4,000,000 in damages.
Soulja Boy was additionally not discovered responsible for damages on a number of counts within the lawsuit, together with false imprisonment and making a hostile work surroundings.
“We’re comfortable our shopper was vindicated and the jury believed her claims of bodily and sexual assault,” one among Doe’s attorneys, Ronald L. Zambrano, mentioned in a press release. “We’re trying ahead to transferring on to the punitive damages section of the case.”
“Immediately’s verdict is only the start of justice for Soulja Boy’s victims, and different victims within the music business,” lawyer Neama Rahmani added.
Jane Doe, based on her lawsuit, started working for Soulja Boy, whose actual title is DeAndre Cortez Manner, in December 2018. “Shortly after Plaintiff [Jane Doe] started an employment relationship, a romantic relationship additionally developed,” the lawsuit contends. “Defendant Manner then started to behave abusively and violently in direction of Plaintiff. These abusive acts started on or round January 23, 2019 and included: quite a few cases of bodily violence (kicking, throwing, and punching), sexual assaults, spitting on her physique, and threats of bodily violence and demise.”
In keeping with the lawsuit, the alleged abuse continued till Wednesday, December 23, 2020. The ultimate incident, Doe says, was when she “was violently attacked once more after making an attempt to retrieve her belongings” from the rapper’s house.
The civil trial started in March. In court docket, Doe testified that Soulja Boy raped her a number of instances and commonly abused her bodily. “I used to be about 86 kilos once I managed to get away from him,” she mentioned. “I didn’t even really feel human anymore. I felt like an animal.”
Soulja Boy, who remains to be going through a distinct lawsuit alleging assault and sexual battery, has denied Jane Doe’s allegations, and one among his attorneys, Rickey Ivie, instructed in court docket that the lady was mendacity to attempt to make cash. Pitchfork has reached out to Ivie and Soulja Boy’s different lawyer within the case, Jacque LaMont Shirley, for touch upon the decision.
When you or somebody you recognize has been affected by sexual assault or home abuse, we encourage you to succeed in out for help:
RAINN Nationwide Sexual Assault Hotline
https://www.rainn.org
1 800 656 HOPE (4673)
Disaster Textual content Line
SMS: Textual content “HELLO” or “HOLA” to 741-741
The Nationwide Home Violence Hotline
https://thehotline.org
1-800-799-SAFE (7233)