A businessman who settled a previous lawsuit he filed against Reggie Bush will have to arbitrate a second case he brought against the former USC running back alleging defamation, a judge has ruled.
Bush, 38, resolved the first suit in 2010 with plaintiff Lloyd Lake, who claimed he provided Bush with cash and other benefits while Bush played for the Trojans in 2004 and 2005. Lake’s initial case alleged breach-of-contract.
Lake, along with his parents, Roy and Barbara Gunner, who are both in their 80s, then sued Bush again in Van Nuys Superior court on Feb. 10, this time for defamation. Bush filed a motion to compel arbitration of the second suit, abiding by what he said are the terms of the accord in the first suit requiring that an arbitrator and not a jury decide any future claims.
On Friday, Judge Valerie Salkin ruled that Lake’s current claims will be decided in arbitration, finding they are “plainly covered by the settlement’s broad arbitration provision,” but the judge also ruled that his parents’ part of the case will go before a jury.
Salkin put a stay on the entire case pending the outcome of the arbitration and directed that it take place within 120 days in order to avoid prejudice to the Gunners.
The plaintiffs’ attorneys argued in their court papers that the arbitration clause only applied to contractual disputes. The same lawyers attached to their court papers an image of two sides of a wall separating a gate outside the Gunner home.
On one side of the wall someone used spray paint to scrawl “187,” possibly referring to murder under the state Penal Code, while the other side of the walls is defaced to state, “Help Reggie Bush Get His Trophy Back (epithet) Crook.”
The plaintiffs’ attorneys blamed the graffiti on “unknown bad actors on behalf of or at the direction of Bush criminal” and they further state in their court papers that Bush “created a firestorm of vitriol that now has engulfed Lake’s parents.”
The current suit alleges Bush defamed Lake and the Gunners with remarks he made on YouTube last September and on Twitter three months later. In the YouTube interview, Bush allegedly said, among other things, that Lake was trying to blackmail him and that Lake had a police record as long as a Cheesecake Factory menu. Both statements are untrue, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys’ court papers.
On Twitter, Bush allegedly referred to Lake as a “convicted felon who was in prison for rape,” an allegation the plaintiffs’ attorneys state in their court papers was “false and without any substance.”
“These statements are violative of the settlement’s non-disparagement clause,” according to the judge, who scheduled a post-arbitration status hearing for Nov. 13.
Lake and the Gunners have suffered severe emotional distress and financial harm, the current suit states.
In addition to winning the 2005 Heisman Trophy, Bush also won the 2005 Doak Walker and Walter Camp awards. However, an NCAA investigation of the USC football program raised allegations that he received improper benefits and Bush forfeited his Heisman Trophy.