jul 9, 2018 - MEDIA COVERAGE
NOT IN EVIDENCE
9 - 11 JULY 2018
Johnny Depp
Hit With Assault Suit
By ‘City Of Lies’
Location Manager
Rocky Brooks
Description:
FROM DEADLINE:
Johnny Depp Hit With Costly Assault Suit By ‘City Of Lies’ Location Manager
By Dominic Patten
Facing legal action from ex-business managers ex-lawyers and ex-bodyguards plus foreclosure filings and what could be an embarrassing trial later this summer, Johnny Depp has now been hit with an assault and battery lawsuit from the location manager of the upcoming City of Lies.
The actor allegedly hit Gregg “Rocky” Brooks repeatedly on April 13, 2017 after being informed that DTLA filming on the Brad Furman helmed pic about the LAPD investigation into the 1997 murder of the Notorious B.I.G. was going to have to wrap up late that night. Hesitant to approach Depp after Furman told him to, the vet location manager went to speak instead to the on-set off duty LAPD officer about the matter. That conversation was seemingly cut short when the apparently booze on the breath Pirates of the Caribbean star supposedly start screaming obscenities at Brooks and proceeded to strike him “twice in the lower left side of his rib cage and causing pain.”
“Despite having just been punched in the side, PLAINTIFF maintained his composure,” says the 10-claim complaint filed in LA Superior Court on July 6 “When PLAINTIFF did not react to DEPP’s satisfaction after being punched, DEPP yelled “I WILL GIVE YOU ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS TO PUNCH ME IN THE FACE RIGHT NOW!” PLAINTIFF still did not react and DEPP continued to scream and berate him in front of a set full of people until DEPP’s own bodyguards physically removed DEPP from the scene.”
Brooks’ filing from Glendale attorney Arbella Azizian of Baker Olson, LeCroy & Danielian seeks wide ranging but unspecified damages from Depp, Furmqn, producer Miriam Segal and the production. And it’s not just for the alleged assault but wrongful termination and retailation as well.
“0n the Monday following the incident, April 16, 2017, PLAINTIFF returned to the production office to work on wrapping out the show,” the 14-page filing adds damningly.”Upon arrival, PLAINTIFF was informed that SEGAL wanted him to write and sign a declaration stating that he would not sue the PRODUCTION. When PLAINTIFF declined to write such a statement, his services were terminated immediately.”
“My client wants to make sure Mr. Depp is held accountable for his conduct on set so that, in the future, others will not be put in the same situation,” Azizian told Deadline today.
Co-starring Forest Whitaker, City of Lies is set to be released on September 7, which would have been the 46th birthday of B.I.G. AKA Christopher Wallace. That date is just over two weeks after the August 15 trial on Depp’s January 2017 filed $25 million fraud lawsuit against his former business managers The Management Group is scheduled to start. Having failed to pushed the matter back, which is unusual for a plaintiff, more stories of the actor’s excessive spending and empty accounts are expected to be on display.
With a countersuit from TMG also in play as well as a countersuit from the Hollywood Vampire bandmember’s former lawyer Jacob Bloom and his Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal LaViolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman LLP firm over Depp’s $30 million action against the attorneys, this latest action further portrays an individual sliding out of control. An impression certainly spotlighted by ex-bodyguards Eugene Arreola and Miguel Sanchez’s May filed multi-claim lawsuit over unpaid wages and working conditions – which claimed the use of “illegal substances” by Depp and “being forced to protect Defendant Depp from himself and his vices while in public.”
None of which can be pleasing to the now AT&T-owned Warner Bros, which has the Depp starring Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald coming out in November.
Reps for Johnny Depp did not respond to request for comment on the Brooks’ suit.