Kardashians defeat Blac Chyna in defamation trial
The Kardashian family prevailed Monday in a civil trial over allegations made by model and former “Rob & Chyna” star Blac Chyna, who accused the reality TV family of interfering with her E! reality series and defaming her by seeking to have the 2016 show canceled.
After a 10-day trial in Los Angeles, jurors determined the celebrity family did not defame Chyna and the panel declined to award any damages to her, the Associated Press reported.
‘I smashed a gingerbread house’ is just a taste of the testimony during Blac Chyna’s defamation trial against the Kardashian-Jenner family.
Only nine of the 12 jurors needed to agree on whether Rob Kardashian’s mother, Kris Jenner, and his sisters Khloé Kardashian and Kylie Jenner either knowingly lied about Chyna abusing Rob Kardashian or spread the word about it with reckless disregard for the truth, the AP said. The same number had to decide whether each of the three women, as well as co-defendant and sister Kim Kardashian, illegally interfered with Chyna’s contract with E!.
The four Kardashian defendants attended nearly the entire trial, but when the verdict was read all were in New York at the Met Gala, according to the AP. Chyna was in court for the verdict and did not react when it was read.
An attorney for Chyna, whose real name is Angela White, could not immediately be reached for comment after the verdict.
“On behalf of Kris, Kim, Khloé, and Kylie, I want to express our appreciation to the jury,” said Michael Rhodes and Michelle Doolin, attorneys for the Kardashian family, in a statement to The Times. “We are also grateful for the steady hand of Judge [Gregory] Alarcon in making sure that this was a fair trial. The jury sent a clear message to Ms. White and her lawyer — I hope they are listening. Justice has prevailed.”
Attorneys for Rob Kardashian could not immediately be reached for comment.
On Friday, the judge threw out part of the case against Kim Kardashian while the jury deliberated on the elements that remained, the AP reported. Alarcon ruled that Chyna’s attorney, Lynne Ciani, did not provide any statement during the trial from Kim Kardashian that was defamatory toward Chyna.
Alarcon had the attorneys select 16 jurors, then hold a random drawing after closing arguments to determine which four were the alternates — an unusual method of jury selection.
In 2017, Chyna sued “momager” Kris Jenner and her daughters Kim Kardashian, Khloé Kardashian and Kylie Jenner for tortious interference and defamation, claiming that Kris Jenner was a “ringleader” who tried to get executives and producers at the E! network to cancel the docu-series “Rob & Chyna,” a spinoff of the popular “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” franchise.
But pivotal allegations that the former exotic dancer had been violent with Rob Kardashian, Jenner’s son with late O.J. Simpson defense attorney Robert Kardashian, in December 2016 were at the center of both their testimonies when they took the witness stand.
Chyna testified that after a night of celebrating their show’s second-season renewal, Rob Kardashian ignored her and she wrapped a phone cord around his neck to get his attention. She also said she held an unloaded gun to his head as a joke and confirmed that she smashed a gingerbread house and a TV in anger. She and her attorney insisted that the violence did not go beyond that but that the family schemed and spread false stories of abuse to ruin her TV career.
Blac Chyna filed a $100-million lawsuit against the Kardashians in 2017. Now the model and the reality TV stars are facing off in court.
Chyna’s attorney argued during closing arguments Thursday that the women had no reason to believe the attack had occurred because testimony, photos and video from the time didn’t show significant injuries to Rob Kardashian.
“He didn’t have a mark on him,” Ciani said, according to the AP. “There was no call to the police, no trip to the hospital, not even a Band-Aid.”
The aftermath, mainly what Rob Kardashian told his family and what they relayed to E! executives, was unpacked in his mother’s and siblings’ testimony, as well as that of Kris Jenner’s boyfriend, Corey Gamble, who was the only eyewitness to the alleged altercation. Rhodes, the Kardashians’ lawyer, argued that since the December 2016 fight ultimately led to the end of the couple’s relationship, E! couldn’t have a series about their relationship if they were no longer a couple.
The jury, in its first full day of deliberations, is deciding on defamation and contract-interference cases against Kris Jenner, Khloé Kardashian and Kylie Jenner.
“It wasn’t her show,” Rhodes said Thursday, via the AP. “It’s not the ‘Chyna and Rob’ show; it’s not the ‘Chyna’ show, it’s the ‘Rob Kardashian and Chyna’ show. It was a show about a relationship. That’s at the center of the whole case.”
Rob Kardashian, who shares a 5-year-old daughter with Chyna, was initially named in the lawsuit, but the allegations against him were severed for a separate trial that will begin after this one. Sisters Kendall Jenner and Kourtney Kardashian also were defendants in the original case but were later dropped.
The family, which has since moved its exploits to Hulu under “The Kardashians” banner, put up a mostly united front as the trial unfolded in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The legal proceedings will not be appearing in their new reality series.
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