A judge has lifted a stay on a hip-hop artist’s defamation lawsuit against A$AP Rocky, who was acquitted of pulling a gun on the plaintiff during a 2021 altercation in Hollywood and then firing at him soon afterward.
The 36-year-old entertainer — whose real name is Rakim Mayers — was found not guilty by a Los Angeles Superior Court jury in February of two counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, along with allegations that he personally used a firearm during the pair of confrontations with plaintiff Terell Ephron the evening of Nov. 6, 2021.
Ephron is also known as A$AP Relli. The hip-hop singer sued Mayers and Mayers’ attorney, Joseph Tacopina, in September 2023, alleging that they falsely portrayed him in the media as a liar, a money grabber and a blackmailer. He also filed suit against Mayers in August 2022 stemming from the alleged shooting. Both cases are in Los Angeles Superior Court.
In July 2024, Judge Randolph Hammock placed a stay on Ephron’s defamation civil case in order to protect Mayers’ right against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment. On Monday, with the criminal case having concluded, Hammock lifted the stay and scheduled a Sept. 8 hearing on Tacopina’s anti-SLAPP motion, which seeks to dismiss the part of the case against him on free-speech grounds.
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.
“The general public was incredibly interested in the allegations against Mr. Mayers and his opinion regarding their validity, or lack thereof,” Tacopina’s attorneys argue in their anti-SLAPP court papers. “The interviews and statements given by Mr. Tacopina on behalf of Mr. Mayers, and himself, absolutely fall under the protection of the anti-SLAPP statute.”