Legal news
Gunman Who Shot Lady Gaga’s Dog Walker Sentenced to 21 Years in Prison
James Howard Jackson, the man who shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker, Ryan Fischer, in 2021 before making off with two of her French bulldogs, was sentenced to 21 years in prison. Jackson, 20, pleaded no contest to attempted murder with great bodily injury in a Los Angeles courtroom December 5th. In a last-minute plea deal, the gunman admitted to a prior strike, allowing prosecutors to drop related robbery and weapons charges. In February 2021, Jackson and two associates confronted Fischer, 41, on a Hollywood street and demanded he turn over Gaga’s three French bulldogs. The men were not aware that the dogs belonged to the pop star, but knew they were of a rare and expensive breed. When Fischer refused to give them the dogs, Jackson shot him with a .40-caliber handgun at close range. The bullet p...
Man Who Shot Lady Gaga’s Dog Walker Sentenced to 21 Years in Prison
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The man who shot Lady Gaga’s dog walker and stole her French bulldogs last year took a plea deal and was sentenced to 21 years in prison on Monday (Dec. 5), officials said. The Lady Gaga connection was a coincidence, authorities have said. The motive was the value of the French bulldogs, a breed that can run into the thousands of dollars, and detectives do not believe the thieves knew the dogs belonged to the musician. James Howard Jackson, one of three men and two accomplices who participated in the violent robbery, pleaded no contest to one count of attempted murder, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Jackson and others drove around Hollywood, the city of West Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley on Feb. 24, 2021 “looking for French bulldo...
Taylor Swift Fans Sue Ticketmaster Over “The Eras Tour” Pre-Sale
Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” broke Ticketmaster when its pre-sale launched, so much so that the general sale never even occurred. Now, scorned Swifties are suing the ticketing platform over its alleged mismanagement of the sale. As TMZ reports, a group of Swift fans initiated the lawsuit in Los Angeles County, where Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation is based. Alleging fraud, price fixing, and antitrust violations, the suit accuses Ticketmaster of, at best, being ill-prepared for the demand “The Eras Tour” would spur, and at worst, “intentional deception.” For instance, representatives for the company said that they had only planned for 1.5 million fans to buy tickets during the November 15th pre-sale, with a waitlist designed for an additional two million prospective buyers. Inst...
Taylor Swift Fans Sue Ticketmaster Over “The Eras Tour” Pre-Sale
Taylor Swift’s “The Eras Tour” broke Ticketmaster when its pre-sale launched, so much so that the general sale never even occurred. Now, scorned Swifties are suing the ticketing platform over its alleged mismanagement of the sale. As TMZ reports, a group of Swift fans initiated the lawsuit in Los Angeles County, where Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation is based. Alleging fraud, price fixing, and antitrust violations, the suit accuses Ticketmaster of, at best, being ill-prepared for the demand “The Eras Tour” would spur, and at worst, “intentional deception.” For instance, representatives for the company said that they had only planned for 1.5 million fans to buy tickets during the November 15th pre-sale, with a waitlist designed for an additional two million prospective buyers. Inst...
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...
