Legal news
A Timeline of Ezra Miller’s Legal Troubles
Ezra Miller has been in the news a lot lately, and it hasn’t been about The Flash. The embattled actor has been arrested three times this year alone on charges of disorderly conduct, assault, and felony burglary, and they’ve faced accusations of grooming underage children and running a cult. To quote one person on Twitter, “Every time I see the words ‘Ezra Miller’ I know it’s about to be followed by the strangest combination of crime and location.” Needless to say, it’s a lot to keep track of, which is why we’ve compiled a timeline of Miller’s mounting controversies. June 28th, 2011: Teenage Hijinks Miller’s first brush with the law was hardly as serious as their more recent incidents, but it’s worth noting that their legal troubles didn’t begin in 2022. Back in 2011, while filmi...
A$AP Relli Comes Forward as A$AP Rocky Shooting Victim
Back in April, A$AP Rocky was arrested in connection to a November 2021 shooting in which he allegedly shot an unnamed man in the hand. Now, Terell Ephron, aka A$AP Relli, a former member of the A$AP Mob, has come forward as the alleged victim. Rocky, born Rakim Mayers, was coming back from a vacation with his then-pregnant girlfriend, Rihanna, when police detained him at LAX. He has yet to be formally charged with a crime, but has been listed as a person of interest and is due in court on August 17th. Additionally, Ephron has filed a civil lawsuit against Rocky. In statement provided to Rolling Stone, Ephron said Rocky asked him to meet that November night “to discuss a disagreement between the two of them.” Yet, “unbeknownst to Mr. Ephron, A$AP Rocky was not just planning for a conversat...
Ezra Miller Charged with Felony Burglary
Ezra Miller has been charged with felony burglary in Stamford, Vermont, the latest in a string of arrests for the embattled Flash actor. As Variety was first to report, Miller was arrested on Sunday, August 7th on charges stemming from a burglary complaint filed on May 1st. According to Vermont State Police report, officers found that several bottles of alcohol were stolen from an at-the-time unoccupied residence. “As a result of an investigation that included surveillance videos and statements, probable cause was found to charge Ezra M. Miller with the offense of felony burglary into an unoccupied dwelling,” the police report noted. Law enforcement officials issued Miller a citation to appear in Vermont Superior Court for arraignment on September 26th. Advertisement Related Video Miller o...
Kevin Spacey Loses Appeal to Overturn $31 Million House of Cards Damages
Last year, Kevin Spacey was ordered to pay MRC, the producer of Netflix’s House of Cards, $31 million in compensatory damages following his termination from the show. He later petitioned to have the order reversed, but at an August 4th hearing, a judge determined the actor’s appeal had no standing. Spacey was fired from House of Cards in 2017 after eight employees of the show accused him of sexual misconduct. After his termination, MRC was forced to rewrite the show’s sixth and final season to exclude Spacey from the plot, and cut the season down from 13 episodes to eight in order to meet streaming deadlines. After an internal investigation and an evidentiary hearing, a neutral arbitrator concluded Spacey had violated the show’s anti-harassment policy and ordered him to...
Jury Orders Alex Jones to Pay Sandy Hook Parents $4 Million in Damages
A Texas jury has ordered conspiracy theorist and Infowars owner Alex Jones to pay the parents of a Sandy Hook shooting victim $4 million in compensatory damages in an ongoing defamation lawsuit. Jones has spent almost a decade arguing that the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School — which left 28 people, including 20 children, dead — was a hoax, and that the parents of the victims were “crisis actors” upholding the lie. One set of parents, Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, sued Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems, in 2018 for defamation, and originally asked for $150 million in compensatory damages. In a verdict signed by 10 members of the 12-member jury, the group landed on $4 million, but a separate trial to decide how much Jones will pay in punitive damages is still forthco...
Lady Gaga Dognapper Receives Four-Year Prison Sentence
One of the three men charged with the armed robbery of Lady Gaga’s former dog walker Ryan Fischer has been sentenced to four years in state prison after accepting a surprise plea deal. Jaylin Keyshawn White pleaded “no contest” to second-degree robbery on Wednesday, August 3rd in return for prosecutors dropping two other charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit robbery. Judge Richard Kemalyan sentenced White to three years for the robbery conviction and gave an extra year for gun enhancement because another defendant involved in the case, James Howard Jackson, was armed. Fischer, who was shot during the February 2021 dognapping, suffered from nerve damage and a collapsed lung as a result of the attack. Rolling Stone reports that he gave a tearful speech in court. “You left me b...
Man Who Killed Nicki Minaj’s Father in Hit-and-Run Sentenced to One Year in Jail
Charles Polevich, the man who killed Nicki Minaj’s father Robert Maraj in a February 2021 hit-and-run, has been sentenced to one year in jail. Polevich, now 71, struck Maraj, 64, while he was walking in the village of Mineola on Long Island, New York. Polevich drove off and hid his car, while Maraj was taken to a Nassau County hospital, where he died. Using security footage, Nassau County police were able to track down Polevich’s vehicle. “He’s absolutely aware of what happened,” Nassau Police Homicide Detective Lt. Stephen Fitzpatrick told CNN. “He got out of the car and he looked at the deceased, got into his car and made the conscious decision to leave. Instead of dialing 911, instead of calling an ambulance for the man, he went and went home and secreted his vehicle.” Advertisement Rel...
Law & Order Writer Says Alex Jones Trial Too “Dumb” for Fiction
Forget about Law & Order‘s dun-dun, this is just dumb-dumb. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones is currently standing trial for a defamation lawsuit brought by the parents of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, but his own legal team have torpedoed the case. On Wednesday, August 3rd, it was revealed that Jones’ lawyers accidentally emailed the full contents of his phone to the attorneys representing the parents, in the process providing dozens of emails and texts that contradicted Jones’ sworn testimony and suggesting he committed perjury. The reveal was so bizarre that longtime Law & Order writer David Slack weighed in, writing that the twist was too outlandish for fiction, because “on Law & Order we wouldn’t have let a lawyer do something that dumb...
Netflix Sues The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical Creators for Copyright Infringement
A scandal worthy of Lady Whistledown’s poisoned pen. On Friday, Netflix filed a lawsuit against the creators of The Unofficial Bridgerton Musical for copyright infringement. In the court papers, which were filed in a Washington DC District Court, the streamer alleges duo Abigail Barlow and Emily Bear “have taken valuable intellectual property from the Netflix original series Bridgerton to build an international brand for themselves.” “Bridgerton reflects the creative work and hard-earned success of hundreds of artists and Netflix employees,” the court filing reads. “Netflix owns the exclusive right to create Bridgerton songs, musicals, or any other derivative works based on Bridgerton. Barlow & Bear cannot take that right — made valuable by others’ hard work — for themse...
Shakira Facing Eight Years in Prison, $24 Million Fine for Tax Fraud in Spain
Prosecutors in Spain are seeking a prison sentence of eight years and two months for Colombian pop star Shakira after she rejected a settlement deal in her alleged tax fraud case. In July 2021, Shakira (full name Shakira Isabel Mebarak Ripoll) was charged with failing to pay the Spanish government €14.5 million ($15 million) in taxes between 2012 and 2014. According to the AP, prosecutors are also seeking a fine of €24 million ($24 million). The indictment includes six charges against Shakira. Prosecutors in Barcelona have alleged she lived more than half of each year from 2012 through 2014 in Spain and thus should have paid taxes in the country, while Shakira has argued that her fiscal residence was in the Bahamas. Advertisement Related Video In a statement issued to The Independent, Shak...
Bob Dylan Accuser Drops Sexual Assault Lawsuit Following Allegations of Destroyed Evidence
An anonymous woman who accused Bob Dylan of sexually assaulting her as a child has dropped her lawsuit against him after being being accused of destroying evidence, Billboard reports. Last year, a woman identified only as J.C. accused Dylan of sexually abusing her over a six-week period in 1965, claims the artist called “false, malicious, reckless and defamatory.” The woman’s case first came under scrutiny after her timeline of events failed to match up with records of Dylan’s 1965 touring schedule. Then, at a hearing on July 28th, she asked the federal judge overseeing the case to dismiss it “with prejudice,” meaning it will be permanently closed and cannot be refiled. J.C.’s request to end the lawsuit came after she failed to turn over texts and emails pertinent to the case pri...
Amber Heard Files to Appeal Verdict in Johnny Depp Defamation Case
Amber Heard has filed to appeal the verdict in the defamation case brought by her ex-husband Johnny Depp, as The Daily Mail was first to report. “We believe the court made errors that prevented a just and fair verdict consistent with the First Amendment,” a spokesperson told TMZ. “We are therefore appealing the verdict. While we realize today’s filing will ignite the Twitter bonfires, there are steps we need to take to ensure both fairness and justice.” Depp’s lead attorney, Ben Chew, responded that the motion is “What we expected, just longer, no more substantive.” Advertisement Related Video A Virginia jury tried to award Depp $15 million — $10 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages — though since Virginia law caps punitive damages at $350,...
