R&B diva Patti LaBelle was accused of ordering her entourage to assault an ex-West Point cadet outside Bush Intercontinental Airport in March 2011. The incident was presented in court on Tuesday, September 16, and both parties had a different recollection of the events.
The former cadet, Richard King, made claims that as he waited for family to pick him up outside of the airport terminal, LaBelle’s bodyguard, Efrem Holmes; son and manager, Zuri Edwards; and hairdresser, Norma Harris attacked him and caused him to hit his head on a concrete pillar. King faults LaBelle’s ambush for a severe brain injury, which lead him to withdraw from West Point.
Patti LaBelle’s lawyer, Geoffrey Bracken, had a very different take on the story. Bracken told jurors that King shouted racial slurs at the singer and even tried to open her vehicle door. When LaBelle’s crew demanded several times for King to stop, he attacked her son. Bracken brought a large bottle of Jack Daniels to show jurors how much King had been drinking at the time of the assault. The lawyer also informed jurors that King’s discontinuation at West Point was not due to a head injury, but because of his history of poor academic performance.
The case came to a close yesterday and the jury awarded no damages to the plaintiff. King’s lawyer says he was left confused by the jury’s decision, while Patti and her bodyguard were already in flight to LA before the verdict was announced.
The Patti we know and love may be a diva, but she’s not a violent one.