Kim Kardashian says in new court papers that her team accidentally used a photo of the wrong man with the same name as an inmate when posting a commentary about a person awaiting execution in Texas in early 2024, but that the error was corrected within hours.
Kardashian’s sworn declaration was filed Friday as part of her anti-SLAPP motion brought in opposition to plaintiff Ivan Cantu’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit. Originally filed Feb. 20 to allege defamation, false light invasion of privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence, the suit was amended May 28 to add a claim for misappropriation of likeness.
“Cantu did not consent to, authorize or otherwise permit Kardashian to use his photograph and/or likeness in her … Instagram post,” the revised complaint states.
Cantu is seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. But in her declaration, the 44-year-old Kardashian says she was quick to acknowledge the Feb. 26, 2024, photo posting mistake and take responsibility.
“I immediately instructed my team to delete the … story from Instagram and Facebook and they did so,” Kardashian says. “In a subsequent story that was posted on Instagram and Facebook that same day, I publicly apologized to plaintiff for the mistaken use of his photo.”
Kardashian says she continued to post stories about the inmate Ivan Cantu’s execution — which took place Feb. 28, 2024 — after the mistaken posting was deleted.
“Each of those subsequent stories used images of Mr. Cantu, not plaintiff,” Kardashian says.
According to Kardashian, during the past eight years she has used her resources and platform to lobby for criminal justice reform and advocate for those wrongfully convicted or subjected to allegedly disproportionate sentences. She cites President Donald Trump’s 2018 commutation of Alice Marie Johnson’s life sentence after the woman spent 22 years incarcerated for a non-violent drug offense.
In their court papers, Kardashian’s attorneys state that Cantu’s suit is “an attempt to cash in on a mistake that occurred in connection with, and as a direct result of, Ms. Kardashian’s exercise of her constitutional rights of free speech and petition.”
The state’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) law is intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights. A hearing on Kardashian’s motion is scheduled Dec. 24 before Judge Michael Small.
Kardashian’s attorneys are asking the judge to dismiss the entire complaint, or at minimum those claims in which Cantu cannot show a probability of prevailing.
According to Cantu’s court papers, he is a New York resident and was not awaiting execution. Kardashian’s mistaken posting of his photo on Instagram, where she has 350 million followers, and elsewhere on social media in February 2024 has exposed him to “hatred, contempt and/or ridicule,” his court papers state.