50 Cent ‘destroyed’ woman’s reputation with sex tape: lawyer
Scott Roth/Invision/APRapper 50 Cent, at the Hot 97 Summer Jam at MetLife Stadium June 7, was in court Monday for the opening statements in a sex tape lawsuit.
Rapper 50 Cent “hurt” a Florida mother’s reputation by doctoring and publishing her private sex tape on the Internet to get back at rival Rick Ross, the woman’s lawyer told jurors Monday.
Fitty, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, had posted the graphic video to taunt Ross, who fathered a child with the woman, Lastonia Leviston, lawyer Philip Freidin said.
“She dead,” Fitty says toward the end of the tape, which he narrated on his website, calling the woman vile names, describing her private parts and reminding Ross that his daughter came from her.
“She dead!’ … meaning he’s done hurt her — hurt her reputation,” Freidin said.
Leviston peacefully sobbed in the front row of the Manhattan Supreme Court courtroom as Freidin spoke, her shoulders shaking as she wiped her eyes with a tissue. Her aunt, sitting next to her, also teared up.
Victoria Will/Invision/APThe sex tape was allegedly published to spite the rapper’s rival Rick Ross (pictured), while Fitty argues Ross really posted it.
Leviston, 36, is suing Jackson, 39, for violating her civil rights by publishing the tape on the Internet where it immediately went viral and by inflicting emotional harm.
But a lawyer for the “21 Questions” rapper countered that Leviston’s situation has improved since taking Fitty to court, noting that she “has never held down a full-time job for any appreciable time.”
“Her life is better because she filed this lawsuit against Rick Ross’ rival,” said lawyer James Renard.
Renard said that after Leviston filed suit, Ross went her into a three-bedroom home with a swimming pool and palm trees in a gated community in Pembroke Pines, Fla.
Alec Tabak/for New York Day after day NewsLastonia Leviston is suing 50 Cent for violating her civil rights.
The lawyer also argued that someone hacked into Fitty’s computer and stole the tape before he could post it.
“The bottom line is, Mr. Jackson is not the one who first published it,” said Renard.
But Freidin said Jackson has never produced proof that his computer was hacked.
Freidin told jurors that in March 2009 when the tape went viral, Jackson was engaged in an increasingly profitable “beef” with Ross, who used to date Leviston and had a baby by her in 2003.
Jackson, according to Freidin, used the feud with Ross to make more traffic on his website where he sold concert tickets, his own brand of underwear, memorabilia and albums. By late February 2009, web traffic to Fifty.Com was up 60%, he said.
Jackson didn’t know Leviston, but when her ex-boyfriend, Maurice Murray, brought him an amateur tape of their having sex, Jackson accepted it, doctored it and published it, Freidin said.
“The point of this is business,” the lawyer told jurors, explaining the steps Jackson took to promote the tape before publishing it, including the creation of a trailer with his own composition.
In the sex tape, Jackson blurred Murray’s face and inserted his own “cartoon” character called “Pimpin’ Curly,” which was Jackson himself in a long curly wig and a purple fur coat.
Leviston teared up again when Freidin described how a friend called on her 30th birthday to tell her the tape had hit the Internet.
In pretrial deposition, Jackson claimed that he assumed Leviston agreed to let him use the tape because Murray told him it was OK with her.
“I didn’t think it was necessary to call her,” Freidin quoted Fitty as saying.
Renard stuck to that report on Monday.
“In relying on Murray’s representation that he consented and his long-term girlfriend consented, Jackson formed a reasonable belief that he could use that video. He is not a lawyer,” Renard said.
The courtroom drama comes after Ross was arrested last week in Georgia on a misdemeanor marijuana charge when cops pulled him over for a tinted-window violation and found pot in his Bentley.
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