A judge Tuesday approved Ye’s removal of a discovery referee the judge only recently appointed to monitor the exchange of information in a lawsuit brought by a former Donda Academy employee who alleges the rapper often treated him in a disparate way because the plaintiff, like Ye, is Black.
Los Angeles Superior Court Kerry Bensinger accepted the rapper’s challenge to retired Judge Stephanie Bowick. Although Bowick was acceptable to plaintiff Benjamin Deshon Provo, Ye’s attorneys maintained she is prejudiced.
Bensinger gave the attorneys the choice of another retired judge, Craig Karlan, or attorney Barbara Reeves, as the new discovery referee. The judge directed Provo’s attorneys to check on the candidates’ availability.
During a May 27 hearing, Bensinger said appointing a referee was necessary to help the parties through their discovery disagreements, adding that it is apparent to him based on what he has seen so far that the opposing attorneys “cannot communicate with each other in a reasonable and amicable manner.”
Provo’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit also names as defendants Ye’s academy as well as his company, Yeezy LLC. The suit filed in April 2024 states that Provo was hired in August 2021 as a security guard at the academy founded by Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.
Provo alleges Ye, now 48, also chided him for styling his hair according to the plaintiff’s Muslim religion, forcing Provo to wrestle with maintaining his self-identity.
Provo was eventually fired for not following Ye’s hair edict, according to the suit, which also alleges that Ye banned books about such famous Black civil rights figures as Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X.