Law&Crime Sidebar - 11 Most Disturbing Kanye West Accusations in New Civil Lawsuit

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

A former employee of rapper Kanye West’s Donda Academy is suing West and several codefendants, alleging he was subjected to a hostile work environment, discrimination, retaliation, and more. In addition to tirades against Jewish people, the suit claims West ranted about the LGBTQ community and the Chinese. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber analyzes the shocking claims in the legal filing.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’re ever injured in an accident, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. You can submit a claim in 8 clicks or less without having to leave your couch. To start your claim, visit: https://www.forthepeople.com/LCSidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. I have read a lot of lawsuits before. This one is on a whole other level. We are going to break down the shocking allegations rapper Kanye West is now facing from a former employee who accuses him of discrimination, harassment, and inflicting emotional distress. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber.

Well, it turns out that Diddy is not the only rapper in hot water right now. No, no, no, no. There is a new lawsuit that was filed against Kanye West or Ye. And this lawsuit, let me just tell you, the allegations are just insane. This centers around Donda Academy, the purported K-12 Christian private school out in California that was founded by West in 2022. Now, you might recall that West said back in 2022 that Donda was to be a performing art school, design school, architecture school, farming school, an automotive engineering

school, computer hardware and software school, and to quote, to teach the gospel. Now, this latest legal action comes after several former employees have filed civil suits against West in 2023, a mother and daughter who both worked at the school, claimed that the school failed to acknowledge their complaints after, quote, multiple health and safety violations as well as unlawful educational practices. They also allege racial discrimination and said that they were fired in retaliation for some of their health reports. Then a third teacher joined their lawsuit just a few months later.

Then a fourth employee filed his own separate lawsuit a month later saying he was also fired in retaliation for voicing safety concerns. And now we have this lawsuit that, again, I was sure. shocked. Shocked, sort of not shocked with what I was reading. I'll get into that. But this lawsuit, it was filed out in Los Angeles by a man named Trevor Phillips, who worked at Donda Academy. And Phillips is suing West, Donda Academy, West's Yeezy entities, and one to a hundred unnamed co-defendants for discrimination, hostile work environment, retaliation, labor code violations, wrongful termination, intentional infliction of emotional

distress and breach of contract. He claims that West treated black staff worse than white staff, and in particular, targeted Phillips, a black man and showed him, quote, complete and utter disdain. Now, at the beginning of this lawsuit, at the beginning of this complaint, there is a synopsis that I think is a good summary of what we're about to hear. Quote, Phillips also witnessed Kanye spew forth hate, profess anti-Semitic tropes and lies, threaten the LGBTQ community and even on one occasion

almost sexually stimulate himself already at a disadvantage because of his skin color once Phillips pushed back against Kanye's bigotry and instructions to violate the law he became an even bigger target and then he goes on to say that in return Kanye respond without mercy with incessant harassment humiliation and attempts to both mentally control

and destroy Phillips goes on to say quote Kanye's ill will towards the plaintiff ultimately culminated in a vote olger lashing in front of school children and their parents. Kanye even threatened Phillips with physical violence. Okay, so now let's break it down. The lawsuit begins with Phillips explaining how he was hired by West, and he was placed on a team called the vertically integrated crew or VIC.

And the first red flag was about payment. So Kanye allegedly told the VIC, quote, I can't have you guys working without paying you. And according to Phillips, Kanye then told the team that he expected them to work 60 to 80 hours a week and promised to pay them $100 per hour. However, Philip says that Kanye ultimately paid Phillips substantially less than $100 per hour. Now, this was a verbal agreement. We'll get to that in a minute.

Now, one of the reasons that payment may have been impacted was because of Kanye's public comments. And the lawsuit reminds us what those public comments were. For example, back in October of 2022, you might remember that Kanye tweeted to his tens of millions of followers, quote, I'm a bit sleepy tonight, but when I wake up, I'm going DeathConn three on Jewish people. Philip says shortly thereafter, Twitter removed the statement, Lock Kanye out of his account. And then he doubled down on that rhetoric in a series of interviews saying things like, quote, Jewish underground media mafia and how, quote, every celebrity has Jewish people in their contracts. Quote, Jared Kushner is an example of how the Jewish people have their hand on every single business that controls the world.

businesses had cut ties with him like Gap, CAA, Adidas. And then we learned in this lawsuit that a landlord for one of the Donda Academy properties actually broke the lease with Kanye West. And so West was now on the hunt to convert a different property in Calabasas, California, into the new Donda campus. And remember that because we're going to get into that in a minute, too. But according to Phillips, these anti-Semitic remarks were not just made on public forms for all of us to hear.

No, he claims that West allegedly spewed Jewish conspiracy theories at Donda Academy. And Phillips, on several occasions, says that he witnessed Kanye, preach to his staff, obscenities such as, quote, the Jews are out to get me and, quote, the Jews are stealing all my money. Now, a little side note, as we hear about these allegations of what West said, I got to tell you, based on his public comments that are out there for all of us to hear and read, it's really not. that much of a stretch to believe he said these new remarks. It seems pretty on brand if you ask me. But, of course, this is a lawsuit. Phillips will ultimately have to prove it. Having said that, let's move on. Phillips claims that this, quote, dangerous rhetoric continued in front of school children, no less. He alleged that West started to openly discuss how he only likes to date white women in front of the children and then told the two school children that were in front of

him that he wanted to shave their heads, that he intended to put a jail at the school, and that they could be locked in cages. Phillips also claims that West told employees in a meeting that no staff could be fat, otherwise they would be fired. Now we're going to move on to one of the most allegedly bizarre events in this whole lawsuit. So he talks about this meeting at Nobu, and it's described by Phillips, dedicated several pages of the complaint to this. This was back in December 2020, only a few weeks when Phillips is on the job.

And Phillips describes how West invited him to meet him at the Nobu Hotel in Malibu to talk about business. And this was actually documented in a text exchange with West. He embedded the text conversation in the lawsuit. And he says that he shows up around 9.40 p.m. West is wearing the same outfit that he wore during his InfoWars interview with Alex Jones, the jacket. Remember, he wore that ski mask. on his head? Well, he says that he had it in his hand. And he shows up to the Nobu Hotel like this. And Philip says this is bizarre. They're taken to one of the rooms in the

hotel. And West starts talking about how he wants to fire a Donda Academy employee. Well, according to Phillips, he tries to defend the guy. And West allegedly barks back, no, he is fired. Don't defend him. Then, West allegedly grabs the hotel phone and tells the operator, quote, I asked you to put on Batman, come put on Batman now. Yes, the 2022 Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson and Zoe Gravitz. So then Phillips recounts that the hotel staff put the movie on for West, and West basically mutes the movie, and he and Phillips watch it in complete silence. Again, bizarre set of circumstances alleged by Phillips.

But this is where it takes a sinister turn. according to phillips west then just breaks the silence by going into an unprovoked tirade against jewish people calling them miserly west allegedly said these jews are greedy i hate jewish people adidas did me wrong and then he said allegedly hitler was great hitler was an innovator he invented so many things he's the reason we have cars so then philip says that he responded with, well, if Hitler was so great, then what about the Holocaust? West allegedly responds with, that was fake. He goes on to say Hitler was a good person.

The Jewish people are bad, and they run America, and Chinese people run them. The Zionist Jews are out to get me. They are a part of human sex trafficking. The Jews are working with Adidas to freeze up my money to try and make me broke. The Jews can't stop me. Adidas can't stop me. I will be the richest person in the world. again honestly disgusting stuff to even even for me to read it but based on west's public comments

does it seem more likely than not he said it by the way that is the standard in a civil case to prove in a civil case it's preponderance of the evidence more likely than not did this happen but then the attention turns back to the batman movie that was playing so phillips claims that west said quote you look like zoe cravitz yeah you look like her but not like that You were handsome like in a Lenny Kravitz type of way. So Philip says that he was very uncomfortable during all of this, but then says it only got weirder. Quote, just a few moments later, while lying flat on the bed and staring up the ceiling,

Kanye began to make slow up and down motions with his hand just above his genitals, as though he was, you know what I'm talking about here. According to Phillips, West then says how he used to have multiple sex parties a day and how he can't even lay down without pleasuring himself. And then West allegedly said, quote, I got to keep my hand away from my phone to keep me away from looking at pornoes. Phillips explains, though, that the conversation didn't just stick to Jewish people and sex. No, he says that Kanye then began threatening the LGBTQ community.

Kanye said, quote, yeah, I am going for the gays. First the Jews, then the gays. Gay people are not true Christians and gay people are controlled by Bill Gates so that they don't have children for population control. Now, remember, this would be bonkers happening anywhere, but this is a workplace, discrimination, retaliation, and harassment suit. We are talking about West allegedly making all of these comments and doing these things in front of a current employee of his.

And as a matter of law, you don't have to be at the office or on school grounds for this to take place, for discrimination or harassment or retaliation to take place, especially when West allegedly summoned Phillips to Nobu for work purposes. But you might say, you know what, I don't know if I believe this, because if this really did happen and Phillips was so horrified by what West was doing, why didn't he just quit, right?

There is an important line in this lawsuit I want to read, and it says, quote, on one hand, he was disgusted by Kanye's bigoted rhetoric and sexual gestures, making him want to leave. But on the other hand, Phillips felt a duty to his school children, including his younger brother and also daughter who both attended Donda Academy, not only to educate them, but also now insulate them. Leaving and being on Kanye's bad side would not help him with that goal.

Moreover, Phillips was grateful for his job. It was one that his own mother had helped him get and disappointing her was not an option. Moving on from the Nobu meeting, Philip says that West on one occasion admitted to Donda staff that he took $2 million of the school's budget for a Paris trip. And Phillips wondered if that was actually the school children's tuition. And while Phillips doesn't outright accused West of this, what he is alluding to essentially is embezzlement.

That is a crime in California. From there, Phillips moves on to a major theme in this lawsuit that West treated black employees worse than white employees. That is a big component of the discrimination argument. And he provides an example that during a meeting, Phillips had suggested teaching students about solar panels. West then allegedly publicly rejected that proposal in front of the staff screaming, quote, solar panels, don't ever say that again the way you think. But, according to Phillips, only a few weeks later, a white school employee raised the idea of teaching the students about solar panels,

and West said, this is genius. This again, according to Phillips. By the way, a little side note, another side note, if this really was said in front of multiple people, and that's going to be a common theme too, then you have multiple potential witnesses at a trial. Let's not forget that. Just a crazy lawsuit to say the least. And speaking about civil claims like this, let me just take a moment to bring up Morgan and Morgan specialists in this area, the largest injury law firm in America, our proud sponsor here on Sidebar, always love talking about. Morgan and Morgan because they're all about fighting for the compensation you deserve should you get injured. This means not settling for lowball insurance offers as such a big firm. They aren't afraid to

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So if you're injured, you could start by easily submitting a claim at for the people.com slash LC sidebar or by dialing pound law. That's pound 529 on your phone. but here's another example that Phillips lays out there was a white danda employee who proposed a plan for the students to paint garden boxes red according to a text message from this employee west approved the plan that message was embedded in the lawsuit however phillips claims that when the school children started to do it west burst into the classroom screaming at him in front of the children quote why you got my kids painting red have them stop that now. So I'll argue that on the surface, you could make the argument that Phillips is being treated differently because of race. But I do wonder if the counter argument, the defense to that would be, how do you know this is exactly about race? Could it be that Kanye is erratic, that he changes his mind, that he has mental health issues, and maybe you can't believe what he says

one minute and what he says the other? You could also say, maybe West just did it like Phillips. Maybe it wasn't because of race. So that could be a potential counter argument. Having said that, Phillips alleges more that would help support his claim that this was discrimination. He says that during his tenure, he never witnessed Kanye yell and berate a white person, but on countless occasions he saw and or personally experienced, Kanye frenzedly yell at black people.

A security guard once allegedly said to Phillips, quote, he loves white people, but why does he hate us? And Phillips alleges that Wes once demanded a black campus security guard, shave his dreads, or threaten that he would be fired. Ultimately, that security guard resigned. From there, we move on to the theme of Phillips being a whistleblower, complaining of a legal conduct. Remember when I said that Wes was trying to find new property for Donda? Well, Phillips claims that West purchased this decrepit church and neighboring building that he intended to make the home of Donda Academy. And West ordered his staff. The school opened in just a few weeks, but after a site visit, Phillips knew this was impossible because the building was dilapidated. He was also concerned

that it would be dangerous for the children, including his little brother and daughter. So Phillips says that he told Wes that the project would legally require planning and building permits, but according to Phillips, West demanded that Phillips and the team complete the renovations without any permits. Quote, Phillips recognized that this was not only illegal, but also would put the school children and staff in potentially serious danger. Phillips built up the courage and responded that they needed to get permits as required by the law. Agitated, Kanye aggressively told Phillips, quote, if you can't do the job, I'll find someone

else who can. Phillips said that West removed him and the rest of the team from the renovation project and demoted them. And Phillips explains that he also noticed another safety hazard at Donda Academy, live electrical wires that were exposed says that that could injure or kill the children, and he allegedly informed school officials and Kanye West but believes nothing was ever done at that the wires could still be exposed today. Now, you might be getting the sense that things are really souring between West and Phillips.

You would be right, because according to him, this only continues. Back to that crazy, anti-Semitic rhetoric, this time, though, it's actually seemingly documented. in a text exchange, again, embedded in the complaint, West appears to be complaining to Phillips and in a text writes, quote, why am I asking the same thing over and over? I am on some complete Hitler-level stuff, minus the gas chambers in Jesus' name. Wow. But things come to a head between Phillips and West on around May 1, 2023. And this was during what Philip says was a religious.

service at Donda. There is a choir. There is an audience of over 100 people, 40 school children, parents, churchgoers, West friends, whole thing. And out of nowhere, Philip says that West starts screaming at the top of his lungs at him in front of everybody, quote, Hey, you, A, get the F out of here. You are effing fired. Get the F out of here. You are effing fired. You are effing fired. Go tell your mother and get the F out of here. Then, Philip says, West's six-foot-nine security guard allegedly grabbed him to escort him off the property. Now, he says at one point, West's assistant allegedly intervenes and asks Phillips about the school's garden. That seems to be what maybe made West angry.

So Phillips responds, I didn't build that section. I was just watering the gardens. That was not me. So the assistant goes to speak to West, and Philip says that West calms down, approaches him and says, quote, just because this looks beautiful to most people and think the garden looks good, doesn't mean it is what I wanted. Philip said that he was visibly shaken, that he was crying, there were tears coming down his face, and he tells West, quote, I am so grateful you gave my mom this opportunity

and me this opportunity for work. And then he points to this large growth on his neck, actually provided a picture of it embedded in the lawsuit, and he tells West, I have this lump on. my neck that my doctors have been trying to diagnose, and I have no idea what it is. I know that this job could be my last. It could be my legacy. So I come every day and put my everything into it. My daughter goes to school here.

My little brother, I want to make a difference here. Now, from there, he claims that West rushed close to his face, started yelling so hard that his neck and face veins bulged and said, quote, F you raised his hands, pointed at Philip's neck and screamed, F your neck, then pointed at the school, and said, and F your daughter, I don't give an F about none of that. Quote, by this time, nearly all the people attending the service were watching. Over 100 people. It included not only Phillips' own mom and daughter, but also Kanye's own friends such as

Rapp Producer 88 Keys. Again, potential witnesses. then West allegedly threatened to physically attack Phillips saying to Phillips quote I was going to punch you in the face even allegedly turned to his project manager named Jake and said quote I was going to punch him huh Jake and Philip says that in response Jake looked down and just shook his head so Phillips asked why how are you going to hurt and punch me what did I ever do and in one of the strangest things that I have heard not only in a lawsuit, but just in quite some time.

Phillips alleges that, quote, Kanye paused, briefly went on his phone, then imitating the celebratory dance of Mario from the famous video game Super Mario Brothers, Kanye jumped up with punching one fist in the air while he said, I'm going to give you one more chance, another life, check your phone now. And Phillips actually embeds the picture of Super Mario in the complete. plaint, by the way. And from there, he talks about how West had wanted him to work on this farming project, but West allegedly texted him, you're fired, you're not on that level. So really a disturbing, disturbing account, a disturbing back and forth. I asked myself,

how do you even make this stuff up? You're going to have so many potential witnesses who will either corroborate what Philip said or not. And, of course, West would have a defense that, you know, he treated Phillips a certain way, maybe because of his work product, not because of his race. But, again, even if he didn't like what Phillips was doing, if he made these comments, he's in hot legal water. So Phillips is suing West, and he's looking for a court to impose an injunction to prevent West and the defendants from owning and operating any type of educational institution for minors under the age of 18 years old in the state. of California. He's also seeking economic damages for the harm that he suffered and will continue to suffer, including lost, past, and future income and employment benefits, damage to his career, loss of wages, overtime, unpaid expenses, penalties, interest, non-economic damages

for psychological and emotional distress, humiliation, mental and physical pain and anguish, which we know can add up in these kinds of lawsuits. And then talking about what could add up, punitive damages, these are damages meant to punish. really abhorrent behavior, and that's where there is malice or oppression or fraud under California law. And he is suing West and the co-defendants under various legal theories or claims or causes of action. The first is discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, medical condition,

and medical disability. It is based on a California statute. Phillips argues that these characteristics were substantial motivating reasons for Kanye West to fire him and treat him poorly. that it was willful, knowing, intentional discrimination. The second cause of action is hostile work environment, harassment on the basis of race, color, national origin, medical condition, medical disability, and sex. Very similar to the first, but the idea here is that he was subjected to harassment through a hostile work environment because of these protected characteristics. According to this California statute, even a single incident is all you need to prove this.

The third is a claim for retaliation, basically under California law. You can't be retaliated against if you're an employee, you're punished if you make a complaint or you oppose something like discrimination or harassment in the workplace. Fourth is a claim against the various entities and those other defendants, one through a hundred, who fail to take reasonable steps to prevent the discrimination, harassment, and retaliation by Kanye West that was alleged by Mr. Phillips. Claims 5 through 8 are all violations of the labor code, like protecting whistleblowers from retaliation. Here it was when Phillips raised concerns about West alleged illegal activity regarding the work permits.

There's also protecting employees from retaliation who speak up about working conditions. There is protection for employees from retaliation who speak up about wage complaints. The ninth cause of action is against the entities and the multiple defendants. For Phillips being wrongfully terminated in violations, of public policy that's underlined by state and federal laws. Essentially, it's the idea that he was fired because of his race and for making lawful complaints about what he was observing. The 10th cause of action is intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Here, Mr. Phillips says that the defendant's discrimination and wrongful termination were done with malice, fraud, and oppression with the intent of causing Phillips' emotional distress, that he suffered emotional, physical, and mental injuries, and that the conduct was the proximate cause of plaintiff's injuries, meaning, but for them acting this way, the injury wouldn't have happened, or the actions are closely related or connected to the injury, along with the fact that this conduct is extreme and outrageous. And then finally, the last cause of action is breach of express oral contract. The idea here is that Phillips was promised through an oral agreement by West to be paid a certain wage,

and he wasn't. now these are allegations west as i mentioned would legally have the right to respond i will say though if we take all of these allegations as true these are textbook examples of discrimination harassment and retaliation why do i say that because in my legal opinion they would not be subject to a motion to dismiss for failure to state a legal claim that's right at the beginning of a lawsuit. A defendant would say, even if you take everything is true, there's no relief here. This is not even a valid legal claim. I say you take it as true. This is textbook discrimination. So I think that this seems to be an issue of fact for a jury or a judge to decide a trial.

We will see where this goes. But my gosh, this is something. That's all we have for you here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you next time.