According to documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, Nicki Minaj, 42, is being sued for assault, battery and “intentional infliction of emotional distress” by a former tour employee, who claims she hit him multiple times following a concert in Detroit in April 2023.
Per Billboard, the plaintiff, identified as Brandon Garrett, says he was working as a day-to-day manager on the Minaj’s Pink Friday 2 tour last year when Minaj (real name Onika Maraj) allegedly physically attacked him during an altercation backstage at the Little Caesars Arena on April 21.
Per the court documents obtained by TMZ, Garrett claims in the filing that Minaj summoned him to her dressing room after an April 2024 concert in Detroit, where she confronted him about having another tour employee (hospitality manager Luke Montgomery) pick up Minaj’s prescriptions in his place because he was occupied with other tour responsibilities. As a result, Garrett claims Minaj became “visibly upset and angrily screamed” at him. According to the complaint, things escalated and Minaj “open-handedly struck Plaintiff on the right side of his face, causing his head to swing backwards as his hat flew off his head.” Garrett claims several of Minaj’s security team members “swarmed in close” to them both before the rapper allegedly “struck plaintiff on his right wrist, knocking the documents in Plaintiff’s hand onto the floor.”
The suit states that Garrett ended up taking a flight to Chicago and contacted the Chicago Police Department to file a police report and request a police escort back to his hotel “because he feared for his safety and did not know if his belongings had been removed or tampered with.” He later flew back to Detroit to file a formal police report there.
Minaj’s lawyer Judd Burstein said in a statement that Minaj denies the allegations: “At this time, no complaint has been served upon [Minaj], and therefore, we are unaware of the specific allegations … the lawsuit is completely false and frivolous. We are confident that the matter brought by this ex-assistant will be resolved swiftly in Mrs. Petty’s favor.”
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