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Kanye West is accused in a new lawsuit of punching a man in the back of the face at a Los Angeles bar two years ago and then continuing to beat him. while he was lying unconscious on the concrete floor.
The plaintiff, who is suing under the pseudonym John Doe out of “credible safety concerns” and to avoid “further reputational damage,” says he was sitting with his brother in the outdoor area of the private bar when West, now known as Ye, suddenly knocked him down around 11 p.m. on April 16, 2024.
“Without warning, defendant struck plaintiff in the face. The blow knocked plaintiff to the ground, where he hit his head and lost consciousness,” says the lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles and obtained by ROLLING STONE. “The defendant then repeatedly struck the plaintiff while he lay unconscious on the ground with the intent to cause physical harm.”
Attack and escape
The lawsuit calls the “cowardly attack” “shocking, physically harmful and offensive.” The man accuses Ye of acting with intent – he hit him while he was still unconscious and then “flee under the protection of his security team, leaving the plaintiff injured and unconscious on the concrete floor.” He then needed medical treatment.
The lawsuit suggests a previous interaction with a woman from Yes Entourage, but does not provide details. She expressly emphasizes that neither the plaintiff nor his brother did anything that could have triggered the alleged violence.
“The plaintiff gave no reason whatsoever to do so,” the lawsuit states. “Plaintiff’s brother did not engage in any lewd or inappropriate behavior toward any woman in the defendant’s company that evening or at any other time. This is not a case of mistaken identity in which the defendant assaulted the wrong brother. Neither brother committed any wrongdoing at any time.”
Lies spread on the podcast
In the days following the incident, according to the lawsuit, Ye “falsely” accused the plaintiff of inappropriate behavior toward the woman and then “repeated and embellished those lies in a widely circulated podcast,” sparking “public contempt, distrust and malice.”
The lawsuit states that evidence – “including video footage from the crime scene” – shows that the plaintiff “did not engage in any inappropriate or offensive behavior toward any woman in the defendant’s company or toward anyone else.” The dissemination of the “falsehoods, done with reckless disregard for the devastating consequences to the plaintiff’s personal, professional and emotional well-being,” constituted “extreme and egregious behavior that exceeds all limits of decency tolerated in a civilized society.”
Lawyers for John Doe and Yes spokesman Milo Yiannopoulos did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Ye: Concerts and controversies
Earlier this month, Ye, 48, held two comeback concerts at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California – his first arena shows in the US in five years. In January, he took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal apologizing for anti-Semitic comments. Last month, a Los Angeles jury awarded a man $140,000 in damages for injuries he sustained while gutting Ye’s $57 million Malibu beach house, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Tadao Ando. After the home was stripped of its plumbing, toilets, fixtures, cabinets, electrical wiring, a concrete fireplace and two custom chimneys, Ye sold the property in September 2024 for $21 million – a bitter loss.
