Suits and Litigation (Civil)

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    Jimmy Buffett’s Widow Sues in Battle Over $275 Million Estate

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    Jane Buffett wants a court to replace her co-trustee, claiming that he mistreated her and neglected to provide key financial information.A vicious legal battle has erupted over Jimmy Buffett’s $275 million estate, with his widow and his accountant filing lawsuits this week seeking to remove each other as co-trustees of a trust containing the “Margaritaville” singer’s sprawling holdings.The widow, Jane Buffett, is angry with the way her husband’s estate has been managed since his death nearly two years ago and has filed a petition seeking to oust her co-trustee, the accountant Richard Mozenter. She complains that the marital trust set up by the singer — who built a musical empire off his laid-back, beach-bum persona and infectious, often self-deprecating country-rock and calypso-inflected songs — is producing far too little income.Mrs. Buffett asked a judge in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday to appoint an independent third party to replace Mr. Mozenter. Her petition accused Mr. Mozenter of failing to provide her with basic information about the trust’s assets and finances, keeping her “in the dark with regard to the state of her own finances.” The complaint also said that Mr. Mozenter had “belittled, disrespected and condescended to Mrs. Buffett.”“As a result, the majority of Mrs. Buffett’s net worth is controlled by someone she does not trust, and to whom the trust for her benefit must pay enormous fees — more than $1.7 million in 2024 to him and his firm — no matter how badly he treats her,” the petition said.Mr. Mozenter filed his own lawsuit in Palm Beach County, Fla., this week, asking the court to remove Ms. Buffett as co-trustee. His suit said that he was a “trusted financial adviser” to Mr. Buffett for more than 30 years and that he was also the singer’s business manager.He claimed that during their partnership, Mr. Buffett expressed concerns about his wife’s ability to manage and control his assets after his death. The singer was careful to set up the trust “in a manner that precluded Jane from having actual control” over it, the lawsuit said. “Other than serving as a noncontrolling trustee, Jane has no ability to manage the trust,” the filing said. “This fact has made Jane very angry.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Woman Expected to Testify That Sean Combs Held Her Over a Balcony

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      Bryana Bongolan, a friend of the mogul’s former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, is set to give her account of being dangled from a 17th-floor balcony.A woman is expected to take the stand at Sean Combs’s federal trial on Wednesday to give her account of the music mogul dangling her over a 17th-floor apartment balcony.Bryana Bongolan, a friend of Casandra Ventura, Mr. Combs’s former girlfriend, filed a lawsuit against Mr. Combs last year. In her complaint, Ms. Bongolan said she had been staying in Ms. Ventura’s Los Angeles apartment when, early one morning in 2016, Mr. Combs stormed in, yelled at Ms. Bongolan and held her over the balcony railing — “with only Combs’ grip keeping her from falling to her death” — before he pulled her back and slammed her onto a patio table.Her full account has been anticipated for months. The indictment that charges Mr. Combs with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy made brief mention of what appears to be Ms. Bongolan’s account, saying that “on one occasion, Combs dangled a female victim over an apartment balcony.” Her story was also referenced in Ms. Ventura’s bombshell civil suit in November 2023, which led to the government’s investigation and Mr. Combs’s arrest.The racketeering charge against Mr. Combs involves accusations that the mogul engaged an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees to help him commit a series of crimes over two decades.Mr. Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His lawyers have said that he and his employees were involved in legitimate business operations, not a criminal conspiracy, and that the sex at issue in the government’s case was entirely consensual.Prosecutors, nearing the halfway point of what they expect to be an eight-week trial, said they will soon call “Jane,” the second woman — after Ms. Ventura — who the government says was a victim of sex trafficking by Mr. Combs.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Smokey Robinson Accuses Housekeepers of Defamation in Countersuit

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      Four of Mr. Robinson’s former employees had sued the Motown singer, saying he sexually assaulted them for many years. He argues their anonymity is a reason to dismiss their suit.Lawyers for the Motown singer Smokey Robinson, whom four former housekeepers have accused of sexually assaulting them dozens of times, filed a cross-complaint on Wednesday that accuses the women and their lawyers of defamation.Mr. Robinson’s lawyers also filed a motion to dismiss the women’s lawsuit, arguing that they should not have been granted anonymity.In the legal filings, Mr. Robinson’s lawyers said the housekeepers had “fabricated” the abuse allegations “in support of their extortionate scheme.” The countersuit describes a caring relationship that Mr. Robinson and his wife, Frances Robinson, had with the women, noting that they vacationed together, celebrated holidays and doted upon them with concert tickets and, in one case, a car.The court papers, which were filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court and ask for $500 million in damages, offered as evidence text messages in which the women wished Mr. Robinson a happy birthday, invited him to celebrations and gave other expressions of support. The filings said Ms. Robinson had considered at least one of the women a friend, including her in a will.“The Robinsons did not abuse, harm or take advantage of plaintiffs; they treated plaintiffs with the utmost kindness and generosity,” the countersuit said. “Unfortunately, the depths of plaintiffs’ avarice and greed knows no bounds.”John Harris and Herbert Hayden, lawyers for the former housekeepers, said in a statement that the countersuit was an attempt to silence and intimidate the women.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Kevin Costner Is Sued by ‘Horizon’ Actor Over Rape Scene

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      A stunt double said she was left with trauma by an unscripted scene that did not include an intimacy coordinator. Mr. Costner’s lawyer said the claims were meritless.A stunt double who worked on the western “Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2” sued its director, Kevin Costner, and producers on Tuesday for what she called forced participation in a “violent unscripted, unscheduled rape scene” without advance notice or an intimacy coordinator.The plaintiff, Devyn LaBella, who was the lead stunt double for the actress Ella Hunt, who plays Juliette, said she was left with permanent trauma after the scene and was seeking a public apology and unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. A lawyer for Mr. Costner said the claims were meritless.According to Ms. LaBella’s complaint, the unscripted rape scene took place in May 2023, one day after she had filmed a similar one without incident. Mr. Costner, the suit said, inserted additional scenes to be shot with a different male actor in which he would climb on top of Ms. Hunt and violently rake up her skirt.The additions, the suit said, were not outlined in the day’s call sheet and no arrangements were made for an intimacy coordinator, who works with actors before and during scenes involving nudity or simulated sex to make sure they are comfortable.“Ms. Hunt became visibly upset and walked off the set, refusing to do the scene,” the complaint said.At that point, Ms. LaBella was asked to stand in. She had not been prepared for the scene, the suit said, and learned its details after filming had already begun. There were multiple takes of the scene, according to the lawsuit.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Jussie Smollett Donates $50,000 to Arts Center to Settle Chicago’s Lawsuit

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      Although the actor’s conviction for filing a false police report was overturned because of a previous deal with prosecutors, the city wanted him to pay for its hate crime investigation.Jussie Smollett, the former “Empire” star, announced that he had donated $50,000 to a Chicago charity to settle a lawsuit by the city about his claim that he had been the victim of a hate crime.In 2022, a jury convicted Mr. Smollett of felony disorderly conduct for filing a false police report after he said he had been attacked in downtown Chicago by two men who hurled racist and homophobic slurs at him. His conviction was overturned last year by the Illinois Supreme Court, which said the special prosecutor’s case violated a previous agreement with Mr. Smollett.Mr. Smollett shared details of his settlement with the city in a statement posted to Instagram on Friday, saying that he had made a $50,000 donation to the Building Brighter Futures Center for the Arts. According to its website, the organization’s mission is to “improve the quality of life for underprivileged youth and their families by providing safe, stable and nurturing experiences.”The City of Chicago had sued Mr. Smollett six years ago, seeking more than $130,000 to cover the costs of its police investigation. It said the settlement with Mr. Smollett required the charitable contribution.“The city believes this settlement provides a fair, constructive and conclusive resolution, allowing all the parties to close this six-year-old chapter and move forward,” a city spokeswoman, Kristen Cabanban, said in a statement. She said that Mr. Smollett also made a $10,000 payment to the city in 2019, and that he had faced additional accountability through his criminal trial.Mr. Smollett posted on Friday that, in addition to the settlement, he had also donated $10,000 to the Chicago Torture Justice Center, an organization that “seeks to address the traumas of police violence and institutionalized racism,” according to its website.A representative of the Building Brighter Futures Center confirmed in an email that it had received the donation. The Chicago Torture Justice Center confirmed Mr. Smollett’s donation in an Instagram post last week.Mr. Smollett originally said that the men who hurled slurs at him also tied a rope around his neck and doused him with a chemical substance. The story initially inspired outrage and sympathy for the actor, but prosecutors became suspicious of his account and charged him with felony disorderly conduct.Those initial charges were dropped in 2019 after Mr. Smollett agreed to perform community service and forfeit a $10,000 bond payment. But after an outcry from the mayor and the police, a special prosecutor revived the case.Chicago’s lawsuit had been on pause while the criminal charges worked their way through the courts. Mr. Smollett, who has maintained his innocence and countersued city officials, said in his Instagram post that he was aware the settlement “will not change everyone’s mind about me.”“What I have to do now is move forward,” he wrote. More

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      Smokey Robinson Faces Criminal Investigation After Assault Allegations

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      The Motown legend, who was accused in a lawsuit earlier this month of sexually assaulting four former housekeepers, is being investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has opened a criminal investigation into the Motown legend Smokey Robinson, who was accused in a civil suit this month of sexually assaulting four women, the department said Thursday.Mr. Robinson, 85, was sued earlier this month by four former housekeepers, who accused him of abusing them dozens of times over the years. His lawyer has denied the accusations. Now he is the subject of a criminal investigation.“The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau is actively investigating criminal allegations involving William Robinson a.k.a. ‘Smokey Robinson,’” Nicole Nishida, a spokeswoman for the department, said in a statement. “The investigation is in the early stages, and we have no further comment.”The civil suit, filed in Los Angeles, identified the accusers only as Jane Does 1 through 4. They accused Mr. Robinson of raping them repeatedly over the years while they were employed cleaning several of his homes. The suit claimed that Mr. Robinson’s wife, Frances Robinson, has known about his sexual misconduct but failed to protect the women.Mr. Robinson’s lawyer, Christopher Frost, said in a statement that the unnamed plaintiffs had “filed a police report only after they filed a $50 million lawsuit,” which he said that the police would be required to investigate.“We feel confident that a determination will be made that Mr. Robinson did nothing wrong, and that this is a desperate attempt to prejudice public opinion and make even more of a media circus than the plaintiffs were previously able to create,” Mr. Frost said in a statement. “The record will ultimately demonstrate that this is nothing more than a manufactured lawsuit intended to tarnish the good names of Smokey and Frances Robinson, for no other reason than unadulterated avarice.”The lawyers for the plaintiffs, John Harris and Herbert Hayden, said in a statement that they were pleased to learn that the sheriff’s department had “opened a criminal investigation into our clients’ claims of sexual assault against Smokey Robinson.”“Our clients intend to fully cooperate with L.A.S.D.’s ongoing investigation in the pursuit of seeking justice for themselves and others that may have been similarly assaulted by him,” they said in the statement. More

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      Cassie Settled Lawsuit Against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs for $20 Million

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      Casandra Ventura testified in federal court about her 2023 lawsuit against Mr. Combs, whom she had accused of years of physical abuse and sexual coercion.In her final moments of direct testimony at the federal trial of Sean Combs on Wednesday, Casandra Ventura revealed the amount of a civil settlement that Mr. Combs and his businesses paid her after she filed a bombshell lawsuit in November 2023.Mr. Combs’s lawyers had previously disclosed that the payment was a “substantial eight-figure settlement.” Ms. Ventura clarified in court that she had received $20 million.The lawsuit, which accused Mr. Combs of years of physical abuse and sexual coercion, was settled one day after it was filed. But it precipitated a deluge of lawsuits and the federal criminal investigation that resulted in the music mogul’s arrest on racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking charges.Mr. Combs has vehemently denied that he coerced Ms. Ventura — or anyone — into sex and has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him.On the witness stand in Federal District Court in Lower Manhattan, Ms. Ventura testified for hours on Wednesday about injuries she said she received from physical abuse by Mr. Combs, and detailed the drug-dazed sex marathons with male escorts that she said occurred “hundreds” of times throughout their decade-long relationship.The defense first disclosed months ago that before Ms. Ventura filed her lawsuit, a lawyer representing her approached counsel for Mr. Combs and offered to sell the rights to a book she had written that detailed her account of their relationship. The suggested price: $30 million.On the stand, Ms. Ventura confirmed that proposal.“I wanted to be compensated for the time, the pain,” Ms. Ventura testified, as well as for the “many, many years” trying to “fix” her life.Ms. Ventura said she wrote the book during and after she went to rehab in 2023, which she described as involving “trauma therapy” and coming off Valium. She said her mother helped her get the materials organized. She decided to send chapters to Mr. Combs.“I really wanted Sean to read the information,” Ms. Ventura testified. “I wanted him to understand what I had to learn to understand over that period.”Ms. Ventura said she checked with one of his top employees, Kristina Khorram, to check if he read it, but she was told that people did not believe she was the author.Mr. Combs’s lawyers have described Ms. Ventura’s attempt to sell the book rights as “extortion” in court papers. Ms. Ventura decided to ask for $30 million without having done research about book payments, she testified, but she thought that number would get his attention.Olivia Bensimon More

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      Cassie Recounts ‘Violent Arguments’ and ‘Physical Abuse’ by Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs During Testimony

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      The singer began testifying before a federal jury in the sex-trafficking and racketeering case against the music mogul.Casandra Ventura, the singer and model known as Cassie, began testifying for a federal jury on Tuesday morning in the sex-trafficking and racketeering case against Sean Combs, recalling a pattern of physical abuse and psychological control that she said long dominated her life.In the first minutes of her testimony, Ms. Ventura was asked by prosecutors to describe the more than decade-long relationship she had with Mr. Combs.“There were violent arguments that would usually result in some sort of physical abuse,” she answered, later detailing that she would get busted lips, black eyes, knots in her forehead and “bruises all over my body.”Lawyers for Mr. Combs have portrayed the relationship as loving but deeply toxic — they have acknowledged he was responsible for “domestic violence” — while maintaining that any sexual arrangements were completely consensual.Ms. Ventura, 38, wore a brown turtleneck dress that accentuated her pregnant belly. As she entered court, Mr. Combs turned back in his chair to see her walk in. His lawyers had asked the judge to have her present on the stand before the jury entered, a request that the judge apparently denied.During her testimony, which is expected to last through the end of the week, Ms. Ventura was soft-spoken and visibly emotional, dabbing at her nose and eyes with a tissue. Jurors watched Ms. Ventura intently as she spoke.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      In Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s Trial, Cassie Is the Star Witness

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      The identity of the individual referred to in waves of dramatic legal filings as Victim-1 — the woman at the very center of the racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking case against the music mogul Sean Combs — was never much in question.But when she takes the witness stand at a Manhattan courthouse under her own name this week, there will be little doubt that there would not have been a criminal indictment against Mr. Combs without the testimony of Casandra Ventura.A singer and model known mononymously as Cassie, she was Mr. Combs’s on-and-off girlfriend — and employee — almost from the time they met in 2005 (when she was 19, he 37), until she finally severed ties from his storied record label, Bad Boy, in 2019.After months of preparation and anticipation, Ms. Ventura, now 38, is expected to recount for the jury how Mr. Combs instituted a system of abuse and control over her life and career for more than a decade. Prosecutors say the executive dangled ever-disappearing music opportunities; beat her when she stepped out of line; and plied her with drugs, forcing Ms. Ventura to have marathon sex sessions with male prostitutes while he taped the encounters.Lawyers for Mr. Combs have portrayed the relationship as loving but deeply toxic and complex, prone to infidelity and mutual abuse, while maintaining that any sexual arrangements were completely consensual. They depict Ms. Ventura as a bitter ex and extortionist who sought only a payday, not justice.What both sides cannot disagree about is that it was Ms. Ventura’s decision in late 2023, following extensive therapy, to pour her allegations into a federal lawsuit — and Mr. Combs’s choice not to settle the dispute before it became public — that led to this moment, in which Mr. Combs, 55, has fallen from a beloved billionaire celebrity to an inmate facing a potential life sentence.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More