A former judge appointed to help move litigation between Ye and a former security guard at the rapper’s Donda Academy recommends in a new report that most of the demands for clarifications of answers to written questions posed by Ye’s attorneys be denied, including whether the plaintiff speaks English.
Retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig D. Karlan is a discovery referee in Benjamin Deshon Provo’s suit against Ye, who was formerly known as Kanye West. He is assisting Judge Brock T. Hammond, who is overseeing the overall case, by handling motions and other issues.
In a report to Hammond dated Friday, March 27, Karlan says Ye’s attorneys sent an email of more than 150 pages to Provo’s lawyers on Sept. 21, asking to meet and confer regarding Provo’s initial responses to the written questions, which Ye’s legal team maintains were inadequate.
“Here, the referee finds that Yeezy’s effort to meet and confer was suboptimal,” Karlan wrote. “Sending a lengthy email two days before the motion filing deadline, with ambiguous references to plaintiffs in other cases, does not help to informally resolve the discovery disputes at issue.”
But Karlan said given the impasse between the parties, he does not believe the deficiencies regarding the meet and confer requirement warrants an outright denial of the motion.
In his recommendations, Karlan said Ye’s lawyers should be denied more information on such issues as the plaintiff’s name, date of birth, driver’s license, whether he can easily speak English as well as his current living address and employment. Karlan did grant the motion insofar as questions about Provo’s physical, emotional or mental disability or condition at a specific time whether the plaintiff believed his employment relationship with the academy was governed by a written, oral or implied agreement.”
In his lawsuit filed in April 2024, Provo contends Ye, now 48, chided him for wearing his hair in dreads, which Provo practiced in keeping with his Muslim faith. Provo worked at Donda Academy and for Yeezy, Ye’s apparel company.
“Kanye and members of his management team required Provo to choose between these critical aspects of his self-identity and financial stability,” the suit states.
While a Santa Monica Superior Court Judge, Karlan presided over the trial of Judy Huth against Bill Cosby. The Canyon Lake woman testified that Cosby fondled her and forced her to perform a sex act on him while visiting the Playboy Mansion in 1975, when she was 16 years old. The jury awarded Huth $500,000.