Megan Thee Stallion's lawyers call man suing her a 'con artist' w/ a 'frivolous' case
Also, the Ninth Circuit ruled on a defendant's ankle monitor argument, the Young Thug trial had a few interesting witnesses recently and I've still got some mugs available.
Rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s lawyers say a photographer suing her for lost wages and hostile work environment harassment is “a con artist” who wants to tarnish her reputation after he was fired for falsifying invoices and overcharging her.
A new 18-page filing says Emilio Garcia is “manipulating the judicial system to act as his publicist and bullhorn” through a “factually and legally frivolous” lawsuit that’s “plagued with falsehoods, misrepresentations of fact, and outlandish claims.”
The filing says Garcia never witnessed Megan having sex with another woman in a car as his lawsuit claims, and it says Garcia’s lawyer only included the allegation to bolster the “media firestorm” that followed.
“Plaintiff took a run of the mill wage and labor dispute governed by New York law under the terms of his contract and trumped it up with sensationalist claims of sex, debauchery, and workplace harassment for the sole purpose of seeking attention for his own middling amateur artist career and to tarnish the reputation of Ms. Pete,” according to the filing, which refers to Megan’s legal name, Megan Pete.
Megan’s attorneys at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP included dozens of pages of invoices and payment records, Megan’s 2022 tour schedule as well as recent posts from Garcia’s Instagram page that tag his location as Houston, Texas, to support the lawsuit’s removal to federal court from Los Angeles County Superior Court, where Garcia’s lawsuit was filed on April 23.
They say the lawsuit falsely claims Garcia is a California resident, and they say Megan’s management company, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, is “a sham defendant” sued only so the case could be filed in California state court because the company has offices there.
Because of that, they want the judge to ignore Roc Nation’s involvement when determining if the case can proceed in U.S. District Court under diversity grounds, which allows lawsuits seeking more than $75,000 to be filed in federal court if all plaintiffs and defendants are based in different states.
“At first blush, the forum defendant rule would prevent removal based on diversity jurisdiction because Roc Nation is a California citizen,” according to the notice of removal, which says Megan currently lives in Florida and has not been served with the lawsuit. “However, Roc Nation is a sham defendant improperly joined to this action. As such, its citizenship is not considered on removal, and the forum defendant rule is not a bar to diversity jurisdiction.”
Sean Mulvehill, Roc Nation’s chief financial officer, said in a declaration that the company “has no ownership in or legal affiliation” with Megan’s companies Megan Thee Stallion Entertainment, Inc., and Hot Girl Touring, LLC, nor did Roc Nation employ or contract with Garcia. Because of that, Garcia “has no possibility of stating a cause of action against Roc Nation,” according to Thursday’s notice from Megan’s lawyers Alex Spiro, Maria F. Henderson, Janet Shamilian and Julian T. Schoen.
The Quinn Emanuel team removed the case to federal court the same day they filed their answer to the complaint in state court, which says Megan’s companies “vehemently deny Plaintiff’s baldfaced misrepresentations and distortions of fact.”
Their defenses include arguing Garcia suffered no injury or damages, that he failed to state facts that sufficiently support his claims or his request for punitive damages, that Garcia has “unclean hands” because of “the acts of omissions in the matters relevant to this complaint” and that Garcia was not an employee of either company because he was an independent contractor.
Garcia’s contract is at the core of his lawsuit, which argues Megan improperly hired him as an independent contractor and owes him for overtime and rest breaks that he’d be due as a full-time employee. Megan signed the March 1, 2020, contract, which promised Garcia $5,500 a month, on behalf of Hot Girl Touring LLC.
Garcia’s lawyer, Ronald Zambrano of West Coast Trial Lawyers, told Legal Affairs and Trials he’s not concerned about being in federal court.
“The removal is insignificant procedural from our perspective,” Zambrano said in an email Thursday evening. “I knew it was an option for the defense from the get-go, and not one I’m afraid of.”
The case is currently in the Central District of California in Los Angeles, but if it stays in federal court it could move to the Southern District of New York in Manhattan because Megan’s lawyers say Garcia’s contract specified disputes have jurisdiction in New York.
The assigned judges in L.A. are U.S. District Judge Hernan D. Vera, a 2023 President Biden appointee, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephanie S. Christensen.
Previous coverage:
In other news…
A criminal defendant’s ankle monitor beeped during jury selection. Should she get a new trial? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said no on Wednesday in a published opinion written by Judge John B. Owens, with concurrence from Patrick J. Bumatay.
Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr. wrote a concurring opinion that takes issue with his colleagues assuming at least one juror heard the ankle monitor beep.
“That assumption lacks even a modicum of support in the record,” Bumatay wrote.
You can read the opinions here. Also, the defense opening brief is here and the U.S. Attorney’s Office answering brief is here.
Here’s the oral argument from February:
Merchandise update
I have a dwindling number of Googly Eyed B!tch mugs for sale. You can order yours here. (Googly Eyed B!tch is what Tory Lanez called me in his final court appearance before heading to prison for shooting Megan Thee Stallion.) I also have stickers, t-shirts and hoodies, and there’s a cool Meghann Thee Reporter logo, too.
Your support makes my work possible. Thank you!
Young Thug trial update
I’m planning an in-depth article, but for now, a recent highlight has been testimony from men who were in and around the Atlanta barbershop where Donovan Thomas was the night he was gunned down on Jan. 10, 2015.
The trial should be going strong most of this month. You can watch more on my YouTube channel and look for an article next week previewing rapper Rich Homie Quan’s testimony.
The Trump verdict
Last but certainly not least, I like so many others have been following Donald Trump’s criminal trial from afar.
I’ve been regularly updating listeners on various BBC radio shows throughout the trial. I don’t have clips to share right now, but if you live in Scotland and Ireland (particularly the Ulster region) and you listen to BBC radio, you may have heard me.
I’ve also been on BBC Radio 5 Live in Britain several times, and I’ll be on BBC Radio Ulster again soon with a pre-record scheduled tonight. Stay tuned for more radio and TV ventures from me, and I’ll have an article soon on Stormy Daniels’ lawyer, Clark Brewster.
I close with this photo I took of Michael Cohen when I met him outside the 500 Pearl St. courthouse in Manhattan before opening statements in Michael Avenatti’s trial for defrauding Stormy.
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