A judge ruled Monday that a former personal assistant who alleged she was sexually abused by rapper Soulja Boy will have to accept a steep reduction in the $250,000 in punitive damages she won as part of an overall $4.25 million verdict if she wants to avoid a retrial on the punitive amount.
Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Mark H. Epstein issued his ruling Monday after hearing arguments Thursday on a defense motion for a new trial and then taking the case under submission. Epstein said that if the woman accepts a reduced punitive damages award of $50,000, he will let the verdict on all issues stand. She has 15 days to decide.
In his ruling, the judge noted that the plaintiff also is seeking $2.9 million in attorneys’ fees in a hearing scheduled July 30.
“While it could well be that defendant could afford the $250,000, even after paying the compensatory damages and fees, the court simply has no evidence of it,” the judge wrote. “And while one might argue that it would be more just to put the burden on the defendant to show that he cannot pay the judgment, the law is clear that the burden is on the plaintiff to show that the punitive damages figure is not such as would drive defendant to bankruptcy.”
The major portion of the woman’s award, $4 million, was obtained in compensatory damages in winning the case over the 34-year-old “Crank That” singer on April 10. The singer’s real name is DeAndre Cortez Way.
The case was cleared for trial in 2024 when Epstein denied a motion by the singer’s attorneys to dismiss multiple causes of action in the lawsuit brought by the plaintiff, including gender violence, hostile work environment and negligence.
“Way seems to contend that he owes plaintiff no duties outside the employment relationship.” the judge wrote. “The court is not sure what defendant means. If defendant means that he did not owe plaintiff a duty not to sexually assault her, the argument is frivolous. If it is something else, the court does not know what it is. Similarly meritless is the argument that the sexual assault had nothing to do with gender.”
The judge also scoffed at Way’s claim he didn’t pay the woman overtime because he did not know she worked it.
“If the OT was worked, it must be paid,” the judge wrote.
In their court papers, Way’s attorneys contended that the singer and the woman had a “consensual, intimate relationship” for about a year before that he never employed her.
In her suit filed in January 2021, the plaintiff said she was hired by Way in December 2018. Her duties included cooking and bringing food and snacks, carrying personal belongings or luggage, styling Way’s hair, driving him and handling travel plans, the suit stated.
Way paid the plaintiff $500 weekly for her services and she lived and worked seven days a week, 20 hours daily, at his homes in Malibu and Bell Canyon, the suit stated.
The two became romantically involved, but from January 2019 to December 2020 he sexually abused her and did not pay her overtime while also committing other wage and hour violations, her suit alleged.