Soulja Boy ordered to pay ex-assistant over 4m
Soulja Boy has been ordered to pay his former assistant more than $4 million in damages after being found liable for claims he assaulted, harassed and sexually battered the anonymous woman.
Soulja Boy has been ordered to pay his former assistant more than $4 million in damages.
The 'Crank That' hitmaker - whose real name is DeAndre Cortez Way - has been found liable for claims he assaulted, harassed and sexually battered an anonymous woman while she worked as his personal assistant, lived with him and embarked on a sometimes-consensual intimate relationship with him in 2019 and 2020.
In a mixed decision after two days of deliberations, jurors found the 34-year-old rapper had put the woman in fear and subjected her to sexually offensive contact, gender violence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
While they also ruled she suffered workplace harassment during 10 January and 20 July 2019, the jury found Soulja did not falsely imprison the woman.
According to Rolling Stone, the rapper appeared to have a slight smile when the woman was awarded $760,000 for her assault claim, but his expression "dropped" when the jury awarded $1.5 million for sexual battery, and fell even further when the clerk announced the jurors also decided he should face punitive damages too, of an amount yet to be determined.
During the trial, the woman's lawyer claimed she deserved $73.6 million in past and future damages as he painted Soulja Boy as a brutal boss who regularly raped and beat his client.
Ronald Zambrano told the court: “He raped her, he punched her, he kicked her, he cut her. He picked up and then slammed her, choked her, left bruises from squeezing her arm. He grabbed her head by a mirror and said, ‘No one will love you.'
"He pointed a Draco gun at her. He locked her in a room, threatened her family, threatened her, denied her food.”
Soulja Boy's lawyers argued he had been a victim of an ex-girlfriend who created a "false story" for money.
Lead lawyer Rickey Ivie said: “Plaintiff is motivated by jealousy, revenge and financial gain. She wanted to be paid. That’s what this case is all about. It’s not about the truth, it’s just not.”
During the four-week civil trial, the woman claimed she "feared" for her life and the 'Squid Game' rapper had told her he knew where her mother lived and threatened to "send shooters" there.
She added: “I was scared of what he would do to my family. I didn’t want him to hurt anybody because of me."
The rapper denied ever abusing the woman, claiming they had "bonded" and always acted voluntarily.
He insisted the woman did errands for him because he had offered her a free place to live and they embarked on a personal relationship, not because she was a paid employee.
