Jada Pinkett Smith is asking a judge to approve an independent medical evaluation of a man suing the actress and television personality for allegedly making threats to him through intermediaries.
The Van Nuys Superior Court lawsuit involves plaintiff Bilaal Salaam’s allegations that Pinkett Smith became upset after Salaam refused to do some crisis management following the 94th Academy Awards incident when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage. Salaam alleges that he was intimidated after Pinkett Smith learned that he planned to publish a memoir talking about her personal business. He maintains he suffered emotional distress.
Salaam filed the lawsuit last Nov. 7 and it was pared through a judge’s partial granting of Pinkett Smith’s anti-SLAPP motion on April 13. The surviving claims concern Pinkett Smith’s alleged threats, coercion and intimidation of Salaam through intermediaries.
On Monday, the 55-year-old Pinkett-Smith’s attorneys filed court papers with Judge Eric Harmon in advance of a Nov. 9 hearing asking that he give his nod to a psychological examination of Salaam.
“The motion is made on the grounds that plaintiff has placed his mental condition in controversy by suing for intentional infliction of emotional distress and claiming severe, ongoing emotional distress and related physical conditions…,” Pinkett Smith’s lawyers state in their pleadings.
Pinkett Smith’s attorneys are proposing that the examination be conducted by Dr. Christopher R. Thompson, a psychiatrist, on Feb. 11 at the doctor’s Wilshire Boulevard office. The lawyers say the exam will last five to six hours, excluding breaks.
In their court papers, Pinkett Smith’s attorneys state that Salaam is seeking $3 million and alleges that in addition to his emotional distress, he lived in four foreign countries for 18 months out of fear, that he was separated from his children, that he lost a long-term romantic relationship, and that the “sustained stress and fear” caused him to gain about 100 pounds and to develop high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes.
Salaam, who is representing himself, further alleges that he continues to experience the “cumulative weight” of an “ongoing course of intimidation,” according to Pinkett Smith’s attorneys’ court papers.
“Plaintiff has also represented that he has no documents evidencing his claimed injuries, leaving his own testimony as the only evidence of his mental condition,” Pinkett Smith’s attorneys state in their pleadings, adding that Pinkett Smith is therefore “entitled to a fair opportunity to test plaintiff’s claims through an examination by a qualified psychiatrist.”