A judge has denied a motion by attorneys for a former employee of Ye’s Donda Academy — who alleges in a wrongful termination suit that the rapper formerly known as Kanye West praised Adolf Hitler and called him an innovator — to find the singer liable on all allegations in the complaint for refusing to appear for a deposition.
Trevor Phillips says in his Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that when he objected to the alleged bigotry in his work environment, Ye harassed and humiliated him. Phillips said he was assigned to oversee projects related to growing cotton and other plants and that Ye treated Black employees more negatively than white workers.
On Thursday, Judge Thomas Long said the plaintiff’s motion was improper and that he would not “adjudicate liability.” The judge also said he will not exclude the testimony of the singer’s expert witnesses or tell jurors that Ye has allegedly avoided being deposed.
Had the liability motion been granted, a jury would only have had to assess damages.
Phillips has been prejudiced by Ye’s alleged refusal to appear for a deposition, the plaintiff’s lawyers further alleged in their pleadings. The judge issued his first deposition order to Ye on Feb. 20, but Phillips’ attorneys maintained that the rapper refused for months to sit for the session unless they agreed to a “custom protective order” that included a $50,000 liquidated damages clause.
In September, the judge again ordered Ye to appear for a deposition and pay $4,750 in sanctions to Phillips, all within 30 days.
In the suit filed in April 2024, Phillips, who is Black like Ye, says that when he was hired in 2022 he was at first thrilled to be working for one of the most famous artists of his generation and saw the rapper not only as a boss but as an inspiration who represented the possibilities of what a Black man could accomplish in the United States.
But just a few weeks prior to Phillips’ hiring, the rapper had gone public with a flurry of assaults and threats to Jewish people, according to the suit, which further alleges that the plaintiff became a target when he resisted the singer’s repeated bigotry.
In a rant, Ye said, “Hitler was great. Hitler was an innovator. He invented so many things. He’s the reason we have cars,” according to the suit.
Phillips alleges Ye, 48, once told students at Donda Academy that he was going to put a jail at the school where they could be locked in cages and that the rapper frequently uttered hateful, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ statements that students could hear.
Phillips says Ye told him in a text in 2023 that he was fired. The suit also names as defendants Ye’s clothing line, Yeezy LLC, and the Donda Academy.