Early Monday morning, movie and television mogul Tyler Perry filed for a protective order against an alleged stalker, who dropped through a ceiling at the Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta.
Employee Joshua Sole, 27, of Dunwoody, Ga. attempted to contact Perry on Thursday in hopes of securing a face-to-face talk with the film producer, but was unsuccessful, according to the lawsuit. Apparently, Sole decided to take matters into his own hands by disengaging the electricity and disabling the alarms and surveillance equipment at the studio. The former employee then successfully climbed through a suspended ceiling at the studio. Sole barricaded himself in a room where the administrative offices are located, according to the police incident report.
Local Atlanta police were notified about the intrusion around 6 p.m. Thursday. “Employee Joshua Sole has been acting weird,” the head of security told the officers upon their arrival. Sole was booked into county jail Friday for criminal trespass.
Perry says Sole is trying to intimidate him, in the lawsuit. He has requested that the court order Sole to keep a distance of at least 500 feet from him, and that the intruder undergo psychological evaluation and treatment, as well as pay Perry at least $100,000. The suit made no mention of whether Perry fired Sole or in what capacity he was employed at the studio.
Perry believes he is entitled to the money because of the “discomfort and annoyance caused by the diminished value of peaceful employment” he gets from the Tyler Perry Studios. However, he will let a jury decide whether he should receive any monetary compensation, the lawsuit said.
Since the incident, Sole has been unreachable and there has been no statement to specify what he needed to discuss with Perry.