In trial testimony, Metro Boomin calls sexual assault allegation 'beyond insulting'
Rapper Jeffery "Young Thug" Williams was at the Roybal federal courthouse in Los Angeles on Wednesday to support Metro. Closing arguments are Thursday.
Music producer Metro Boomin testified Wednesday that he “no way in the world” sexually assaulted the woman suing him and didn’t know she was upset until she filed her lawsuit eight years after they had sex.
Legal name Leland Tyler Wayne, 32-year-old Metro was the second and final defense witness in a trial over a federal lawsuit he called “beyond insulting.”
“Not to get too deep, but me and my mom worked so hard to build an upstanding brand and reputation for me and myself and everything I do, and then they’ll accuse me of something like this, which I would never even dream or fathom,” Metro testified. “I can’t even believe I’m living this right now, or up here doing this, or wasting my time and everybody else’s time with this.”
The only plaintiff’s witness was the 39-year-old woman who accuses Metro of sexually assaulting her in a Beverly Hills hotel room in 2016 when she was unconscious after drinking a liquor shot he gave her. She testified on Tuesday that she realized she should sue Metro for what happened last year while high on the psychedelic plant Ayahuasca during a therapy session in Peru.
Jurors have seen writings from around that time that detail her plan to sue Metro and spread the news on the Internet, and they mention enlisting the lawyers who represented Cassie Ventura in her lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs. She did so, and they sued Metro in October 2024. The Ayahuasca-related writings mention damages of $3.4 million to $3.7 million, but jurors heard no testimony about financial expenses the woman endured or other potential damages.
Metro, a seven-time Grammy nominee, spent about an hour and 15 minutes on the witness stand in U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner’s courtroom in Los Angeles on Wednesday, first testifying about his rise from making music beats as a teenager in St. Louis, Missouri, to producing chart-topping songs for some of the world’s most successful recording artists. His nickname Metro references the St. Louis public transportation system he rode as a teenager.
He said his mother raised him “to be God fearing,” “respectful,” and “to always move with grace, to always help when we can.” He studied briefly at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he already had connections because his mother drove him to the city monthly in high school “to work with different artists and things like that.”
“Within my first month of college, my first big song started kind of like blowing up, and I saw the opportunity and … made the decision to just focus on music full time,” Metro testified. He established a scholarship in his name “to take one young man from St. Louis, where I’m from, and put them through college at Morehouse.”
Metro said he attributes much of his success and work ethic “to watching her work so hard to have to compensate for my father not being around.”
Metro’s mother, Leslie Joanne Wayne, was killed by her husband in a murder-suicide near Atlanta in 2022. Metro testified Wednesday that he “lost my mother to domestic abuse.”
“So for someone to come out of the blue with something like this, someone I haven’t seen in like a decade, like, it’s beyond insulting,” he said.
Rapper Jeffery “Young Thug” Williams watched the first 30 minutes of Metro’s testimony from the gallery after arriving at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and United States Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles shortly after court recessed for 90 minutes about 11:30 a.m. He joined Metro and his lawyers during the break and walked with them into the courtroom. He removed his black Converse shoes but kept his hat on until a courtroom security officer asked him to take it off. The officer also later warned him that he appeared to be dozing during testimony; he left the courtroom for a few minutes then returned with a coffee.
Metro didn’t mention Young Thug or other artists he works with in testimony, but jurors already heard some names during opening statements on Tuesday. Plaintiff Vanessa LeMaistre’s lawyer Michael Willemin of Wigdor LLP in New York named Young Thug, 21 Savage, Drake, Migos, Quavo, Future and Post Malone; Metro’s lawyer Lawrence Hinkle of Sanders Roberts LLP in Los Angeles added Nicki Minaj, Coldplay and The Weeknd.
Young Thug, who’s on probation for 15 years out of Georgia over the year-long Young Slime Life / Young Stoner Life gang racketeering trial, was in the courtroom for most of the hour-long testimony from the first defense witness, April Thames, a professor who is UCLA’s chief of psychology.
Thames met with LeMaistre in person for about 90 minutes to two hours after being hired by Metro’s lawyers to assess her. She testified Wednesday that LeMaistre has borderline personality disorder with psychotic features, post-traumatic stress disorder and major depressive disorder. None appear related to “this alleged assault,” Thames said.
“My opinion is that her psychological functioning has been like this for a very long time, and I think there have been moments throughout her life where sometimes it’s better and sometimes it gets worse, and that seems to be consistent with whether or not she’s getting treatment,” Thames testified. “But I do not think that there is a connection between this and the allegations that have been made in this matter.”
In cross-examination, Willemin entered as evidence an audio recording of Thames’ interview with LeMaistre, apparently hoping to play it for jurors to try to counter LeMaistre’s testimony, but he never did so. Instead, he questioned her about details that she didn’t include in her report, such as LeMaistre saying she awoke to Metro on top of her, and Thames said she’d assume that’s in her report Thames said she wouldn’t deny it.
She said she doesn’t recall if LeMaistre told her she’d told her therapist she’d been sexually assaulted, but she answered “absolutely not” when Willemin asked “if the audio tape of the interview reveals that she said that, you wouldn’t dispute that?”
Willemin also encountered trouble when he tried to question Metro in cross about jokes on social media posts related to sexual assault.
Before trial, Judge Klausner granted a motion from Metro’s lawyers to exclude social media posts from Metro that LeMaistre’s lawyers said made light of sexual assault, eluding a post on March 7, 2013, that said “She gon suck me whether she like it or not. That’s what the molly for.” Other posts included a 2011 comment laughing the comment, “Chris Brown’s album #Graffiti is already outselling Rihanna’s album… he just can’t stop #beating her.” Metro’s lawyers emphasized in their motion in limine that Metro was a teenager when he wrote the posts.
Judge Klausner granted the motion on Sept. 8. Metro’s lawyers cited the order when objecting to Willemin’s trying to show Metro in cross a tweet he wrote. It was a key part of Willemin’s cross: He began by asking Metro about his testimony in direct that he believes people who rape should be tortured and killed.
“You wouldn’t be the one to make that a joke about sexual assault, correct?” Willemin asked.
“I’m not talking about a victim. I’m talking about a person that assaults another person. Yes, that’s my belief,” Metro answered.
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Willemin tried to enter a tweet from Metro as evidence and told Klausner, “That’s his own words to the world,” but the judge sustained the defense objection for violating the motion in limine order.
Willemin tried again at the end of cross.
“Have you made social media commentary about sexual assault?” Willemin asked.
Judge Klausner overruled a defense objection for relevancy, and Metro answered, “Yes.”
“And can you remember any of the social media commentaries you made regarding sexual assault?” Willemin asked.
Klausner interjected
“We’re really drifting off the course of this case. What he did on the outside not related to this case really doesn’t make any difference. Go ahead. Next question,” the 2002 George W. Bush appointee said.
Willemin asked no more questions. Metro’s lawyers asked no questions in re-direct, then rested their case, though they had another expert who could’ve testified.
In direct-exam, Metro testified he and LeMaistre had sex on two occasions, and
“Apologies to the court, but was there a time when you were having sex with her doggy style?” Hinkle asked.
“Yes,” Metro answered.
After clarifying what that means, Hinkle asked, “Now was she conscious the entire time?”
“Absolutely,” Metro answered.
“Did she ever do or say anything that would suggest to you that she did not want to have sex?” Hinkle asked.
“No,” Metro answered.
“Did you ever force or pressure her into any sexual encounter?” Hinkle asked.
“No,” Metro answered.
“Did she ever say no or indicate that she was uncomfortable?” Hinkle asked.
“No,” Metro answered.
“I ask you again, did you sexually assault Ms. LeMaistre?” Hinkle asked.
“No way in the world. No,” Metro answered.
Metro also said he didn’t write any lyrics for the song “Rap Saved Me,” which he produced for 21 Savage and Offset in 2017 and which LeMaistre testified references her sexual assault with the lines, “She took a Xanny (Yeah), then she fainted (Yeah) | I’m from the gutter (Hey), ain’t no changing.”
LeMaistre testified she saw a music video for the song that also appears to reference her assault, but Metro testified a music video for the song “doesn’t exist.”
“Was there ever a music video created for that song that she could have seen?” Hinkle asked.
“Never,” Metro answered.
Metro and LeMaistre didn’t see each other again, but he testified he “always made an attempt to text her back, because, you know, I thought she was cool, and I thought our experiences were cool.” He said she never told him she was pregnant, and he learned she claims she was from reading the lawsuit she filed last year.
“I never even have sex without a condom. At that time when I met her, me and my high school sweetheart, we were still using condoms,” Metro testified. “So I know it was no way this girl I just met in Las Vegas, I just had unprotected sex right now.”
Asked how LeMaistre’s accusation has affected him, Metro said he “really don’t know where to start.”
“It’s well documented all the different work and things I do for various various, various organizations across this country for women that have been raped, that have been abused, that have been domestically abused,” Metro said.
Asked how the accusation has affected his family, Metro mentioned his younger brother and sister, whom he adopted after their mother died in 2022.
“They have phones and iPads and stuff. People ask them about stuff. I’ve had these weird talks with them,” Metro said.
Did the plaintiff actually date Lil Wayne?
LeMaistre testified Tuesday that she dated rapper Lil Wayne for 10 months.
Metro’s lawyer Justin Sanders indicated on Wednesday that isn’t true.
In his cross-exam of LeMaistre, Sanders displayed an article published in 2023 by a journalist in South Africa headlined, “What’s it like dating a superstar? Vanessa LeMaistre opens up on her relationship with rapper Lil Wayne.”
“Isn’t it true, Ms. LeMaistre, that there’s not one single photograph of you and Lil Wayne together?” Sanders asked.
“Yes, that is correct,” LeMaistre answered.
“And isn’t it true you have no text messages, Instagram messages or emails with Lil Wayne?” Sanders asked.
“At this point in time, no, I do not,” LeMaistre answered.
LeMaistre testified she believes Wayne wrote the song “How To Love” for her.
“Isn’t it true that you’ve never told anyone other than this South African news outlet that you dated Lil Wayne?” Sanders asked.
“That is not correct,” LeMaistre answered.
LeMaistre testified she never told Metro that Wayne is the father of her son who died when he was nine months old, but Metro was adamant that she did.
“We were in the studio, and she said she had lost her son, and that Lil Wayne was the father,” Metro said.
LeMaistre testified on Tuesday that the boy’s father is a professional basketball player in China.
She mentioned another celebrity on Wednesday when Sanders cross-examined her about writings that mention someone named ‘M’ in a favorable way.
Sanders implied she had to have been referencing Metro, but LeMaistre said M may have been rapper Mack 10.
Closing arguments are Thursday at 8:30 a.m., then the jury will deliberate.
Previous article:
Hip-hop producer Metro Boomin begins trial in federal sexual assault lawsuit
A woman suing hip-hop music producer Metro Boomin testified Tuesday in Los Angeles that he raped her in a hotel room in 2016, and she realized she should sue him eight years later when she was high on the psychedelic plant Ayahuasca during a therapy session in Peru.
Court documents from Vanessa LeMaistre v. Leland T. Wayne p/k/a Metro Boomin, 2:24-cv-10378, are available below for paid subscribers. A transcript of Tuesday’s proceedings also is available. Your paid subscriptions make my work possible.