Kanye West is being sued by an autograph hunter who claimed he was punched by the rapper.
The ‘Stronger’ rapper is the subject of a lawsuit from Justin Poplawski and his wife Tiffany Marshall, with the man claiming he was “severely injured” by the 46-year-old star during an altercation on 13 January, 2022, near the Soho Warehouse in Los Angeles.
In documents obtained by The Blast, Justin descried himself as a “well-respected autograph dealer” who had previously obtained Kanye’s signature “without incident”, but things were different this time because he claimed the Yeezy designer pledged to “make an example” of him as he referenced his “f****** divorce” from Kim Kardashian.
The lawsuit states Kanye went on to rant: “Go the f*** [out of] here before I beat the f*** out of you. I’m going to make a f****** example of you.”
The man – who stressed he was “lawfully standing on public property” – alleged he was then struck by Kanye several times, “severely injuring him” and one of the people with the rapper demanded he stopped.
The ‘Bound 2’ hitmaker is accused of trying to “physically assault, harm, batter, and injure Poplawski, with the intent of committing such assault, harm, battery, and injury, when, without limitation, [Ye] unlawfully and intentionally struck him. Physically and violently attacked and battered him; and repeatedly struck him while he was defenseless and in fear for his safety causing Plaintiff to sustain damages.”
The lawsuit – which was filed by noted attorney Gloria Allred – alleged Kanye “engaged in with a conscious disregard of the rights and safety of [the autograph seeker] and others and was despicable.”
Justin is suing for assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and loss of consortium, while his wife is also suing for loss of consortium.
It is unclear how much they are seeking in damages.
Video footage of part the alleged incident, which didn’t include any violence, previously circulated online but police decided not to charge Kanye with a crime at the time.
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office said: “After a thorough and careful review of all the evidence, our office is declining to file based on no reasonable likelihood of conviction.”
