Tyler Perry Gets $77M Sexual Assault Lawsuit Under the Tree

00:00:10
Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Saturday, December twenty seventh, and what the actual hell waking up to the news that Tyler Perry was served with a seventy seven million dollar sexual assault lawsuit on Christmas Day? With that, welcome to this episode of Amy and tj H. There was something. I don't know what day? Does it matter? Do you think this was intentional? Why would you file something on Christmas Day?

00:00:38
Speaker 2: That seems like it would have had to be intentional. Who is thinking about filing a lawsuit on Christmas Day? You're doing it? I think to say, f you, I think to say, hey, Mary fing Christmas because that's gonna obviously that's going to ruin. I would think maybe I'm taking a license here to assume what Tyler Perry felt when he saw this or actually was aware of it. But yeah, that would dampen the mood on Christmas Day.

00:01:05
Speaker 1: So yeah, and again I guess they're able suit because you can file electronically now, so you can do it anytime you want. So obviously a court wasn't open on Christmas Day, but by all reporting out there, this thing officially got filed on Christmas Day. And what we're talking about now, Robes is this is now the second I guess you could call maybe aspiring or up and coming actor to hit him with a sexual assault lawsuit. This one is graphic as hell and it wants a lot of money.

00:01:31
Speaker 2: Yes, this was filed by Mario Rodriguez, so he is putting his name to the lawsuit. That isn't always the case. But both of the accusers now who accused Tyler Perry of similar wrongdoing sexual misconduct, they both put their names on the lawsuits. They were not John Doe. This one is Mario Rodriguez and he is asking for seventy seven million dollars in damage.

00:01:56
Speaker 1: Can I s guy, ask you about that point for a second, because you talk about this oftentimes it's usually a woman that's come forward ensuing, but you always and I think the debate has been out there. Why should someone be allowed to remain anonymous and essentially ruin somebody else's life, reputation, and career when we don't know if these allegations are true. You have always said when somebody puts their name on it, it reads a little different.

00:02:20
Speaker 2: It does read differently. And I am somebody who is of the belief when it comes to something criminal. So if this Mario Rodriguez wanted to take this to police, I absolutely do think there should be some sort of protection involved because it discourages folks obviously from coming forward to say what happened to them. So when it's a criminal procedure, I fully support being anonymous because I think it has to be I understand how much that is. That's terrible when you're the one being accused, but for the accuser, that does get people to feel safer to come forward. Now, when it comes to a civil lawsuit, when you want money, I fully think you need to put your name on it, like put your name on it, because now you're not asking for or criminal justice or some sort of authority where you're actually trying to stop a criminal act. You want money. And I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with that. Obviously we have a civil court system for a reason. But I do think you need to put your name on that. I do.

00:03:17
Speaker 1: He absolutely has and the name is Mario Rodriguez, even though robes most people have no idea who he is. Because I was saying to you downstairs, you said, wait, are you serious? We were just talking about it downstairs with Ava and like, what was he in? What does he do? And I immediately said he was frat guy number ten in Boo a Medea Halloween. So I laughed, you laughed out loud.

00:03:40
Speaker 2: I thought you were making just like you're clever like that, coming up with some funny, obscure role that somebody might have in a Tyler Perry movie. And turns out that's exactly what his credits are, frat guy number ten.

00:03:54
Speaker 1: So we say that to say, not to make light of this guy and make fun, but he was an up and coming actor who got this role in this movie. So what he's alleging in the lawsuit very much has to do with that movie, because he says he was approached at a gym in twenty fifteen by an Equinox trainer saying, hey, Tyler Perry wants to meet you, wants to talk to you, wants to offer you a role. That's he says, that happened. It's yes, Bizaarre.

00:04:22
Speaker 2: Yes. That seems a little strange that somehow Tyler Perry would use an Equinox trainer as his Yeah. I I was gonna say, madam, but his I don't know his why his casting director, Okay, why do I need a guy at the gym? It seems so strange, it seems odd.

00:04:41
Speaker 1: So again, that's just what he's claiming. He does say that after that interaction with the trainer, he was able to get on the phone with Tyler Perry, who ended up letting him audition for and he got this role of frat guy number ten in the movie In and Now. At this point things started happening roles, and he described several incidents in which he was with Tyler Perry at certain moments, and he described, and this thing is pretty graphic at times, of what he claimed Tyler Perry did.

00:05:08
Speaker 2: Yes, he says specifically in twenty eighteen, there was an incident where he grabbed his penis, I guess, for lack of a better way to say it, he said he had to struggle to get away, and that Tyler Perry offered him five thousand dollars in immediate and apologized like dude, I'm sorry, and he invited him with the promise of more movie roles. So he went. He said, he went to go see Tyler Perry thinking he was going to get more roles and advance his career, and instead he received a very unwonted advance.

00:05:39
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, that's awful. If this happened the way he's describing, that's awful. That shouldn't happen to anybody. Man, woman, doesn't matter the five thousand dollars. The claim is that he he actually got in an uber, he was about to take an uber. Oh you know what I'm talking about, and that it wasn't even an offer. I just shoved it in his pain.

00:05:58
Speaker 2: Yes, here you go, five thousand dollars.

00:06:01
Speaker 1: Again, this is just the claim. Now, A couple of issues with this, Robes, I'm curious to what you think about it is that it's coming from what some would say might not be the best source of a lawsuit, not because of the accuser, but because of the accuser's lawyer, who you might not know his name either, but Jonathan Dell Shad. But he also now Robes represents Derek Dixon, the other actor who sued Tyler Berry earlier this year for sexual assault for two hundred and sixty million dollars. In that we'll get into some of those details. But wow, here here we go again. You're trying another one. Is what the suggestion is the same lawyer is well we got nowhere with that one so far, so let's try another one.

00:06:44
Speaker 2: It's correct a claim, yes, and Rodriguez apparently he claims that he decided to take action and apparently even maybe perhaps use this same lawyer when he heard the news of Dixon's case. I don't know why, because that was in June, so I don't know why he waited until Christmas Day to file his civil lawsuit. Maybe he was getting his ducks in a row. I'm not sure. But he says that this is weird that he decided to go forward as with his claims after a Sean Diddy Combe's referencing friend texted him with news about Dixon's case. It's just I don't know. He's saying that he felt like, Wow, I'm not the only one. Tyler Perry has done this before. There is a pattern of abuse, and I need to speak up and step up and file this lawsuit to protect other people. But he wants seventy seven million dollars.

00:07:34
Speaker 1: Again, that could that first part of the claim, You could see that could make sense to a jury. Quite frankly, why in the motivation for stepping forward the numbers, I don't know, But the lawyer says it this way. We hope a jury awards enough money to make Perry regret his actions. Is that why you put those numbers on it? Is that why you have the number that high. But he's claiming what emotional distress? He's claiming what he had?

00:08:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, he has, Actually I have exactly what it was, because he said he has PTSD. He said he has emotional distress and just okay, psychological, emotional, and economic injuries from Tyler Perry's alleged actions against him. So that's what he's claiming.

00:08:20
Speaker 1: Okay, he's talking about that seventy seven million. Lionsgate, the studio that puts out Tyler Perry's media movies, had they have mentioned and named them in this lawsuit as well, claiming that they should have known this was happening, and claims they are kind of a blind eye to their morality clause because this guy's a big deal and he's Tyler.

00:08:37
Speaker 2: Pert That's exactly they say, Lionsgate, although it's been noted they didn't. They didn't print out in this lawsuits. Lionsgate is one word. You know that we've seen that obviously the emblem everywhere.

00:08:50
Speaker 1: Anybody he's seen a movie in the past twenty years, spell lions lions Gate.

00:08:53
Speaker 2: It's so odd that it was spelled lions with a capital L space capital G gate. So it's weird. Misspelled the name of the prominent movie production company that they're suing. So that was just a little strange. But lions Gate, they say, should have known.

00:09:09
Speaker 1: Yes, I thought it was maybe just an oversight. You had the better sasse that weight. Maybe that makes sense.

00:09:15
Speaker 2: What if they like aied this or yes, didn't Actually I feel like we have seen judges chastise attorneys these days, because she was like, I can tell you aied this file. And so for the lions Gate movie company to be misspelled or spelled not in a way that it is supposed to be, I would think maybe they just aied this, which is also bizarre. This is kind of a big deal, a big name, a huge allegation, and a massive lawsuit. So why wouldn't you check.

00:09:50
Speaker 1: You need to be perfect in your facts, in your details, and your words to that. Okay, I don't know if we should make that much up, but it seems like a judge and we have seen that roes like, if it's big of a deal, you couldn't take it suit. You didn't spell check your damn thing. It's a can you can an intern? Can somebody have made that mistake? I don't know. I don't even know if it should be a big deal, but it was something bizarre that some outlets have pointed out. We talked about this. The second lawsuit, the second actor. The first one was Derek Dixon. Again his roles. He wanted two hundred and sixty million, and he had I mean, he had a lot of details in his he had, I mean, he think like some text exchanges and whatnot. But that case is ongoing, yes.

00:10:32
Speaker 2: And it was filed, as we mentioned in June. It's been moved to federal court now, so it's a little confusing the path it's taking, but it's it's not gone. It's still there and they're trying to move it forward. So now, obviously the second lawsuit, Perry's gonna have to deal with where was this filed in the state of Georgia.

00:10:55
Speaker 1: Uh, the this was LA as well.

00:10:56
Speaker 2: This is LA as well.

00:10:57
Speaker 1: So the first one, yes, Derek Dixon, let's go straight. Derek Dickson's case filed in LA. Something about he didn't live there, So they need to put another jurisdic court in Georgia, and now they moved to Georgia, where Tyler Perry resides. So this other guy, the new allegation is in la as well, so we shall see. But robes that case of of Derek Dixon, this was one where Tyler Perry said that this was a scam. Yes, like this guy was actually had done the work to get close to him. Now they didn't give a lot of details, but that seems like there were some kind of I'm not suggesting romantic relationship, but this was somebody that was in his circle to a certain degree. I didn't watch the show The Oval.

00:11:41
Speaker 2: I didn't either, but he's star He was a.

00:11:42
Speaker 1: Starring role, not like frag Guy Number ten, but this was he had a starring role with that.

00:11:46
Speaker 2: Look, these are these types of cases are so difficult. You and I were talking about this before we came on, and just like what what, who should you believe? What can be believed? It's really these are incredibly difficult cases, and I understand why at the time many people who are actual victims of sexual assault don't go to police. There are a lot of reasons why, especially when you have somebody who is prominent and in a position of power, and you have a career you're trying to build. You don't want to ruffle feathers. You don't want to be the person who's calling out a huge, powerful person. So I understand why people might wait and are afraid to say something or speak up or speak out. But it's tough when ten years have gone by and now you're asking for gobsmacks of money, people start to question the validity of these stories or whether or not they're they happen the way they said that they happened. Do you remember them? Do you just remember how you felt and then you added ten years? Can you remember in detail things that happened ten years ago? It just so?

00:12:47
Speaker 1: Will the answer be to advocates for sexual assault pictures? Yes, right, some of that stuff burns in your memory. Some of that's stealthy. Did you document it though it was? Something? The other side will say?

00:12:56
Speaker 2: But tough cases, they are oms.

00:12:59
Speaker 1: What do you do? Because we used to somebody you have to flat out first thing, one hundred percent believe the accuser is what we have been trained to because so many before have not been believed. So how do you do that? Should we treat it like anything else. He is innocent until proven guilty.

00:13:15
Speaker 2: Yes, I think so, you have to.

00:13:16
Speaker 1: But look what happens if he is not guilty on something like this.

00:13:20
Speaker 2: It's it's it's terrible that the once you have an accusation like this with someone who put their name to it, and he does have text messages, he does have some things that he has provided in this filing, but you can never reclaim your reputation completely ever again, even if you are completely innocent. And maybe he does have relationships outside of his marriage, A lot of people do, Okay, what is the line between inappropriate and criminal and abusive? It's so it's so great, And what he may have thought was inappropriate, someone else might have thought is perfectly fine. And that's how you solicit having affairs or relationships on the down low or on the side. I don't know how things work.

00:14:03
Speaker 1: We make clear nobody's making that suggestion, right, We need to make clear absolutely not. We are not, and nobody else necessarily is. But folks are just trying to piece together what this is and what it means, and scenarios in which two people could see things very differently, and it might not or it might raise to the level of criminality. I don't know, but this isn't a criminal case. It's a civil case. We'll stay with us here, folks. When we come back, we'll tell you what Tyler Perry's lawyer said, but first we'll tell you who he is. And it's clear Tyler Perry is not messing around in this case. Also, Robes and I will give you kind of our personal feelings about a guy we have been around, been time with, and are fans of the Here we continue here on Amy and TJ and Robes. I have to look Tyler Perry. I'm not a madea movie fan. I mean, I don't think that's my lane necessarily, and that's fine, But I am an enormous fan of Tyler Perry for what he has built, what he has done, people, he has employed, careers he has launched. There are so many people, oh so much to this guy. And when you see down in Atlanta era that area, he built a whole movie studio. This guy pulled himself up and is another great Black American entrepreneur story. And so the idea of this stings to think this guy in both cases, one might be guilty of something and two might not. It sucks either way.

00:15:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's such a good way to put it. He was while we were in Good Morning America. He was almost, I don't want to say, a fixture, but he was a friend of the show. He was on a lot. We saw him, met with him, interacted with him, interviewed him multiple times. He had even reached out to me when I did a story actually it was the Uvaldi shooting, and found a way to get a message to me. I just saw him to be an incredibly kind, respectful, creative person who was who wasn't just there for himself. I saw him reach out and do good. And it's just awful to think that a like you said, some of this might be true, but man, it's even worse to think it might not be.

00:16:37
Speaker 1: The thing is, we don't know, we don't All we have is our experience with this guy and everything there said. Look, we don't hang out with him in his house, no, but it flies in the face and it just it just sucks to be here. However, he has made clear not just in the statements as lawyer put out, but just in the lawyer he tired that he's about to defend himself.

00:16:59
Speaker 2: Yes, he is represented by the Alex Spiro, and we say the Alex Spiro. That name probably sounds familiar to you if you read the news at all, because he most recently repped jay Z and jay Z Man. When he got his accusation, he came out swinging like, I here are the receipts. Here's how I couldn't have done what you just said. I was never in New Jersey on that day. And here's why boom. Alex Spiro was his guy. They came out swinging, we will not be paying money to people who are trying to cash in on the fear of you messing with my reputation. I stand by who I am. Actually, jay Z, that was impressive that.

00:17:41
Speaker 1: One was discussed. It was an allegation that he raked before fourteen. It was that was yeah, damn, I mean.

00:17:47
Speaker 2: But Alex Spiro was his man and their strategy. It was powerful and look, you never know what happens, but man, that was I had to That was a slow clap, like he really came out and said I will be defending myself.

00:18:01
Speaker 1: Period and defended Alec Baldwin as well. As you notice is there's a lot that's happened in that case and a lot of his reputation and all this hean in jail in that case he got dealt with.

00:18:13
Speaker 2: I mean a woman died, another man was severely injured on that movie set.

00:18:17
Speaker 1: Yes, that's who lawyer is that Tyler Perry is now dealing with. And he said this, and he Robes is trying to point out that he is. He is going out to the credibility of the case in the first place, like this isn't even worth us spending time on because just look who this guy is. He's saying, look at who this lawyer is. This is just what he does.

00:18:38
Speaker 2: That's sad. Yes, So here was their official statement. Having recently failed in another matter against mister Perry, the very same lawyer has now made yet another demand from more than a decade ago, which will also be a failed money grab period money might drop a money money grab.

00:18:57
Speaker 1: These are these are awful cases in somebody with that big of a name, that much success, has that much of an influence. Who knows. I don't know how this is going to go. Nothing they're saying seems to be a suggestion that a case will be settled. The first one, the two hundred and sixty million dollars one is continuing to go through the courts twenty twenty six. We might have a lot of headlines in court and whatever else having to do with Tyler Perry. I just it sucks. No matter what robes we can, we don't know, but the only person we know in this situation is and had experience with, is Tyler Perry. And I hate to hear and see this happening. And if these folks are victimized, they should be taken care of and embraced in every way possible. So, like you said, these are difficult cases. What do you do it?

00:19:46
Speaker 2: It's tough, but I think the important thing is to not rush to judgment and to let the court system play out and hope that look, we have to lean on that and hope that a judge who has a much better legal mind than either of us looks at the eviden and is able to make the best decision. But I do appreciate the fact that he isn't settling. I mean, look, he could have I don't know, but you could just pay out and have it all go away and be quiet and no one knows and no one hears. There is something to defending your honor and defending your reputation, and that is exactly what Tyler Perry is doing right now.

00:20:19
Speaker 1: And he put a lot into building in over decades. So there's one to hop on. Give you that update again about a lawsuit filed on Christmas Day against Tyler Perry, whose Medea movies alone have made over half a billion dollars. So, folks, we always appreciate you spending some time here with us on behalf of my dear Amy Robot. I'm TJ. Holme here y