Legal news
Houston Police Arrest Suspect in Murder of Takeoff
Houston police have arrested two people in connection with the November 1st killing of 28-year-old Migos rapper Takeoff. 33-year-old Patrick Clark was brought into custody and charged with murder on December 2nd, NBC News, reports, while Cameron Joshua was arrested on Nov. 22 and accused of felony possession of a weapon. Takeoff, born Kirshnik Khari Ball, was shot outside a downtown Houston bowling alley after leaving a private party with his uncle, 31-year-old Quavo, aka Quavious Keyate Marshall. According to officials, he was an innocent bystander to a heated argument that broke out at the entrance to the bowling alley, and at the time he was shot, he was not armed and not participating in the altercation. Houston Police Chief Troy Finner called Takeoff “well-respecte...
Horatio Sanz Sexual Assault Lawsuit Dismissed
A 2021 lawsuit against Horatio Sanz, which accused the comedian of grooming and sexually assaulting an underage girl in 2002, has been dismissed. The suit was dismissed with prejudice by both parties, meaning it cannot be refiled. “All claims asserted by Plaintiff Jane Doe … are hereby dismissed with prejudice, without costs and attorneys’ fees to any party or against any other party,” the filing said (per NBC News). An attorney for the unidentified plaintiff said in a statement, “The parties have resolved their dispute and have moved on.” Last August, the plaintiff accused Sanz of groping and digitally penetrating her at a May 2022 Saturday Night Live afterparty when she was 17 years old (Sanz would have been 32 at the time). What’s more, the woman said Sanz had been grooming her since sh...
Squid Game Actor Oh Yeong-su Indicted for Sexual Misconduct
Oh Yeong-su, the Korean actor who recently won a Golden Globe for his role on Squid Game, has been charged with sexual misconduct. According to Variety, the 78-year-old actor was indicted in Korea on Thursday (November 24th) over an allegation that he inappropriately touched a woman in 2017. Oh denied the charges, saying in a statement to local media that he had held a woman’s hand to guide her around a lake. “I apologized because [the person] said she wouldn’t make a fuss about it but it doesn’t mean that I admit the charges,” Oh said. Advertisement Related Video A court official in a Suwon, South Korea said that “everything reported by local media is not factually correct.” The alleged victim initially filed the complaint against Oh last December. The case was closed earlier this year, b...
Squid Game Actor Oh Yeong-su Indicted for Sexual Misconduct
Oh Yeong-su, the Korean actor who recently won a Golden Globe for his role on Squid Game, has been charged with sexual misconduct. According to Variety, the 78-year-old actor was indicted in Korea on Thursday (November 24th) over an allegation that he inappropriately touched a woman in 2017. Oh denied the charges, saying in a statement to local media that he had held a woman’s hand to guide her around a lake. “I apologized because [the person] said she wouldn’t make a fuss about it but it doesn’t mean that I admit the charges,” Oh said. Advertisement Related Video A court official in a Suwon, South Korea said that “everything reported by local media is not factually correct.” The alleged victim initially filed the complaint against Oh last December. The case was closed earlier this year, b...
Kris Wu Sentenced to 13 Years in Chinese Prison for Sex Crimes
HONG KONG — Chinese-Canadian pop star Kris Wu was sentenced to 13 years in prison for rape and other sexual offenses, a Chinese court said on its official Weibo account on Friday (Nov. 25). The Chaoyang District People’s Court in Beijing said that from November to December 2020, Wu, also known as Wu Yifan, raped three women at his home when they were under the effect of alcohol. Wu was sentenced to 11.5 years for rape and 22 months for “assembling a crowd to engage in promiscuous activities” in July 2018, according to the Weibo post. Wu, who is a Canadian citizen, will serve a 13-year term in China before being deported. “Justice was delayed, but now it’s here,” Du Meizhu, the Chinese influencer who blew the whistle on Wu, wrote on Weibo after the announcement. Born in Chi...
Tom Petty Estate Hits Kari Lake with Cease and Desist Over “I Won’t Back Down” Usage
Tom Petty’s estate has sent a cease and desist notice to failed Arizona gubenortial candidate Kari Lake over her use of Petty’s song “I Won’t Back Down.” The Republican candidate — who was endorsed by Donald Trump and spouted misinformation about the 2020 election throughout her campaign — lost her gubernatorial race to Katie Hobbs, a Democrat Lake has said should be imprisoned for helping “steal” the presidency from Trump. Lake posted a video using “I Won’t Back Down” to social media, implying that she refused to concede the position to Hobbs, but it was later taken down. “The Tom Petty estate and our partners were shocked to find out that Tom’s song “I Won’t Back Down” was stolen and used without permission or a license to promote Kari Lake’s failed campaign,” the late artist’s fami...
Live Nation Faces Justice Department Antitrust Investigation: Report
The US Justice Department has reportedly opened an antitrust investigation into Live Nation. According to the New York Times, the Justice Department’s antitrust division has “contacted music venues and players in the ticket market, asking about Live Nation’s practices and the wider dynamics of the industry.” Specific questions have centered around whether Live Nation has honored a consent decree the company made with the Justice Department upon its merger with Ticketmaster in 2010, in which Live Nation promised not to punish concert venues who used competing ticket platforms by withholding access to Live Nation-promoted tours. The Justice Department previously found evidence of Live Nation engaging in such behavior after launching an investigation in 2018. Under terms of the ensuing settle...
Judge Says Slacker Must Pay $10M Unpaid Royalties, Despite Warning Of ‘Devastating’ Impact
A federal judge says he won’t undo his ruling that Slacker owes nearly $10 million in unpaid music royalties to SoundExchange, seemingly unmoved by the streamer’s warning that the ruling will have a “devastating” impact on the company’s finances. SoundExchange claims Slacker’s parent LiveOne has failed to pay royalties for years, and last month won a ruling requiring the streamer to hand over $9,765,396. Slacker said last month that the huge judgment could trigger financial ruin for the company – a warning SoundExchange urged the court to disregard. In a decision issued Wednesday, Judge André Birotte Jr. did exactly that. He ruled that the seven-figure judgment was simply the result of an agreement that Slacker itself had signed – and noted that the streamer was not actually legally disput...
Kevin Spacey Charged With Seven More Counts of Sexual Assault in the UK
Kevin Spacey will be charged with seven more counts of sexual assault in the UK, ABC News reports. The charges stem from one victim who alleges a number of incidents occurred in 2001 and 2004. According to the Crown Prosecution Service, Spacey will face three counts of indecent assault, three counts of sexual assault, and one count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent. “The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr. Spacey are active and that he has the right to a fair trial,” Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said in a statement. These seven charges follow four counts of sexual assault Spacey faced by the Crown Prosecution Service back in May. The actor was additionally charged with one cou...
Andy Dick Sentenced to 90 Days in Jail, Must Register as a Sex Offender
Andy Dick has been sentenced to 90 days in jail and will be required to register as a sex offender, the The Blast reports. The sentencing comes after the disgraced comedian was recently convicted of sexual battery, stemming from a 2018 incident in which a Los Angeles Uber driver accused Dick of groping him. Dick will check himself into the Los Angeles County Jail starting November 17th. When his sentence is complete, he will spend 12 months closely monitored on “summary probation.” He was also ordered to complete 52 Alcoholics Anonymous sessions, 52 sexual compulsion anonymous sessions, 12 mental health counseling sessions, and pay restitution to the victim. Advertisement Related Video As we’ve reported multiple times in the past, Dick — who’s also defended similarly-shunned Hollywood...
Dua Lipa’s Lawyers Blast ‘Levitating’ Copyright Lawsuit: ‘Devoid of a Shred of Factual Detail’
Attorneys for Dua Lipa are asking a federal judge to quickly toss out a lawsuit claiming she stole her smash hit song “Levitating” from a little-known reggae track, calling the allegations “speculative,” “vague” and supported by little real evidence. Members of the Florida band Artikal Sound System sued Lipa earlier this year, claiming her 2020 smash hit – which spent 77 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart – borrowed its core hook from their 2017 song “Live Your Life.” But in a motion to dismiss the case filed Monday (Nov. 14), Lipa’s lawyers said there was no sign that anyone involved in creating “Levitating” ever even had access to the earlier song – a key requirement in any copyright lawsuit. Artikal Sound System’s attempts to show such a connection, they said, were “tortured.” “They a...
Kanye West Can’t Sell “White Lives Matter” Shirts Because Two Black Men Own the Trademark
There’s a lot of reasons to worry about Kanye West right now, but at least we can cross those White Lives Matter shirts off the list: Should he ever decide to sell the fascist garb he donned with Candace Owens at an October Yeezy fashion show, he won’t be able to legally, because two Black men (brilliantly) own the legal trademark. As Capital B reports, an anonymous longtime listener of the Phoenix-based radio show Civic Cipher applied for ownership of the phrase “White Lives Matter” in an effort to keep it out of the wrong hands. The listener offered to gift it to Civic Cipher hosts Ramses Ja and Quinton Ward, giving them sole ownership of the phrase and the ability to sue anyone who tries to use it for financial gain. “The way the law works is either you’re owning phrases, or it’s u...
