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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Snoop Dogg is appealing a judge's mixed ruling in February on his motion to dismiss most claims in a woman's revived lawsuit accusing him of sexual assault in 2013 and defaming her on social media in 2022, and he also seeks nearly $110,000 in attorneys' fees for the part of the decision in his favor.
In her Los Angeles Superior Court suit, the woman alleges the 52-year- old, Long Beach-born performer, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, forced her into a sex act in a recording studio bathroom in 2013.
Last August, attorneys for the performer filed an anti-SLAPP motion seeking dismissal of several of plaintiff Jane Doe's causes of action, including defamation. The motion did not target her sexual assault and sexual battery claims.
The state's anti-SLAPP -- Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation -- law is intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights
According to the rapper's attorneys' court papers, the plaintiff "seeks to put Mr. Broadus on trial in violation of his free speech and petition rights, [for] an Instagram post hallmarked by loose interpretations of a judge and police emoji, an unnamed spokesperson's verbal statement to media denying the allegations of a now-dismissed federal action and an attorney correspondence ... occurring in the adversarial grounds of litigation."
On Feb. 22, Judge Thomas D. Long found that only the attorney correspondence was protected speech. For that partial win, the rapper, in court papers brought Friday, is seeking $109,360 in attorneys' fees in a hearing scheduled Dec. 21. The singer also is appealing the part of the anti-SLAPP ruling that was to Doe's advantage.
In her pleadings, Doe maintained she was "subjected to the most appalling sexual harassment and assault and that this was part of a common plan and practice to prey on and then intimidate and silence" women like herself who want a career in show business.
"True to form, Snoop Dogg and his minions then named and shamed plaintiff on social media and the press in a transparent attempt to intimidate her into submission with veiled threats of violence," Doe's court papers further stated.
The performer's attorneys acknowledge in their court papers that in February 2022 their client posted on Instagram, "Gold digger season is here be careful Nefews." They say the two communications found actionable by the judge "were made in a public forum and directly relate to the public interest and are unquestionably protected speech."
The rapper's attorneys state that Doe's current case, filed in June 2022, is the fifth version of her litigation after the most recent previous version was dismissed in federal court.