Kevin Hart Get Blended Outcomes In Defamation Case In opposition to Tasha Okay

A California decide partially denied Tasha Okay’s movement to dismiss Kevin Hart’s lawsuit in opposition to her on Wednesday (April 24). Decide Holly Fujie allowed Hart to proceed with claims of defamation, invasion of privateness and intentional interference with contractual relations. The decide dismissed Hart’s extortion declare.

Hart sued the controversial vlogger, whose actual identify is Latasha Kebe, and his former assistant Miesha Shakes in December 2023. Shakes claimed Hart paid a person $4 million to take DUI prices for him and confronted “prices” for a 2017 intercourse tape scandal — together with many extra unflattering allegations — in an interview with Tasha Okay.

In keeping with Hart, Shakes violated her non-disclosure settlement. Hart accused Tasha Okay and Shakes of defamation and extortion following the interview’s launch.

Tasha Okay tried to get Hart’s claims dismissed primarily based on California’s anti-SLAPP regulation, which is designed to guard free speech. The regulation goals to assist defendants dismiss meritless lawsuits. However Decide Fujie dominated a few of Hart’s claims had benefit. The decide cited Shakes and Tasha’s feedback concerning Hart’s intercourse tape as one potential instance of defamation.

“Shakes and Kebe’s use of the phrase ‘prices,’ in context and primarily based on the widespread utilization of the phrase, may lead an affordable observer to conclude that Hart confronted legal prosecution,” Fujie mentioned, per Courthouse Information Service. “Defendants don’t dispute that Hart by no means confronted legal prices in reference to the Las Vegas incident.”

Hart’s ex-assistant didn’t take part in Tasha Okay’s anti-SLAPP movement. Tasha Okay’s efforts did assist Shakes, who not confronted extortion claims as a result of decide’s ruling.

Earlier this 12 months, a decide denied Hart’s request for a brief restraining order within the defamation case. Hart needed Shakes’ tell-all interview with Tasha Okay to be faraway from the vlogger’s web site. Decide Mitchell Beckloff mentioned the request went “overboard.”