The man suing Kanye West over injuries he allegedly suffered during the demolition of a famous Malibu mansion testified in court on Wednesday, February 25: The rapper, now known as Ye, ordered him to living at the coastal construction site 24/7 – and waking him up twice in the middle of the night without warning.
Tony Saxon said he woke up once and saw Ye standing over his small makeshift bed. Jurors saw a photo of Saxon’s narrow mattress lying on a bare concrete floor, next to a case of water and some Ensure protein drinks.
“He stood over me and asked, ‘Why aren’t you working?'” Saxon recalled after being sworn in as the first witness in the civil trial in downtown Los Angeles. “It was around three or four in the morning. I said, ‘I need to sleep sometime.'”
Friendship with dark sides
Saxon, 35, said he was unsure how seriously to take the question but remembered Ye “laughing” at his answer. He testified that the two developed a friendly relationship and that he continued to work for the Grammy winner – who was still married to Kim Kardashian at the time – for six weeks starting in September 2021. The two frequently exchanged messages, addressed each other as “bro” and responded with heart emojis, text messages displayed on courtroom screens Wednesday showed. But Saxon said Ye constantly put him on alert: demanding photo updates of construction progress, reprimanding him for wearing blue instead of Ye’s preferred black work uniform, and suddenly adding 24/7 security to his duties.
During a full day on the witness stand, Saxon walked jurors through pages of text messages full of photos, updates and even a budget that Saxon wrote himself at one point. He said Ye hired him as project manager to lead the aggressive dismantling of the contemporary concrete building – designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Tadao Ando, which Ye had previously purchased that same year for $57.3 million.
“He wanted to transform the house into an open, off-grid bunker concept, with its own WiFi and renewable energy,” Saxon told the seven women and five men on the jury. “He didn’t want to be connected to the city’s electricity or water grid.”
Demolition at the behest of Ye
Saxon said Ye ordered all plumbing and pipes removed, as well as a Jacuzzi, a fireplace, two fireplaces and a “gorgeous” black marble bathroom with white veins. An “experimental element,” he said, included removing all glass and windows. “The whole house was supposed to be open, very bare, minimalist,” he testified.
Saxon said he returned to the house one evening to find that the night watchman he had come to know and respect had been fired. “Since you’re here so much anyway and taking shifts, you should do security,” Ye allegedly told him. “Stay here now. You can’t leave,” Ye allegedly demanded, according to Saxon’s statement.
During opening arguments on Tuesday, February 24, Ye’s attorney told jurors that the evidence would show that Saxon was an unlicensed contractor who arbitrarily “destroyed” the “architectural jewel” while working as an independent contractor rather than an employee. Attorney Andrew Cherkasky argued it was Saxon himself who wanted to keep the project “under the radar” for fear inspectors would find he didn’t have a license.
No permits, no radar
For his part, Saxon testified Wednesday that Ye insisted the work remain unnoticed because permits had not been obtained. “He said, ‘None [Genehmigungen]’, and that it’s extremely important to keep everything under the radar and low-key so we don’t get stopped,” Saxon claimed.
In a text message shown to jurors, Saxon wrote to Ye: “We should probably take a break from the big noise outside until Monday so as not to attract attention.” Saxon said he sent the message after Ye expressed concerns.
When Saxon later sent a photo of generators purchased to replace the removed power systems, Ye replied: “Thank God. How loud are they?”
Secret garbage disposal, bathroom in Nobu
In another exchange, Saxon wrote: “Just got a huge load of trash out of here discreetly.” Ye responded with a heart emoji and wrote, “Great, keep sending updates.”
Describing his sleep-deprived work on the construction site, Saxon said Ye could also be unexpectedly friendly. After Ye noticed that Saxon hadn’t showered in days, he drove him to the Nobu Hotel in Kardashian’s Lamborghini, he testified.
“I stink,” Saxon said. “He ran the bath for me, put out the towel and said, ‘You’ll never forget this.’ And I said, ‘Damn right I won’t.’ And we laughed about it.”
Injury while dismantling a chimney
Saxon told jurors he later suffered a serious back injury while dismantling two chimney caps using a chain pulley system. “The full force of the falling spire took my body with it and caused whiplash,” he testified, asking the judge several times to be allowed to stand and stretch during the testimony.
Cherkasky told jurors Tuesday that there was “not a single medical record document” showing that Saxon was injured at the construction site. Saxon’s attorney, Ron Zambrano, told the jury pool Monday that it was true that his client did not immediately seek treatment. “He’s not someone who acts like most people with health insurance who don’t get fired by celebrities,” Zambrano said.
Saxon is expected to return to the witness stand on Thursday. The trial is expected to take another two weeks. Ye and his wife Bianca Censori are also expected to testify.
Censori and the household appliances
According to Saxon, Censori initially contacted him for craft work when she was an architectural consultant on the project. He testified that it was briefly “taken out of circulation” before being brought back after Ye expressed dissatisfaction with a computer-generated rendering of a slide that he wanted to run from the third floor to a pool below. At one point, Saxon said, Ye imagined the pool could generate electricity. Jurors also saw 3-D renderings of rooms equipped with egg-shaped devices powered by standalone systems that Ye Saxon sent.
Saxon, originally from New Jersey, first filed the labor lawsuit in 2023, alleging labor law violations and retaliation. Zambrano told jurors Saxon was fired after he raised concerns that three large generators installed after the home’s electrical system was removed posed a fatal carbon monoxide poisoning risk.
“He says, ‘If you don’t do what I tell you, you’re a Clinton. You’re a Kardashian. You’re an enemy… You’re only going to see me on TV,'” Saxon previously told Rolling Stone. “I said, ‘I don’t watch TV,’ and he said, ‘Go away.’ And that was it.”
Milo Yiannopoulos, a spokesman for Ye, was at the defense table again on Wednesday after attending jury selection. The twelve-member jury can only reach a verdict if at least nine jurors agree.
The case is the first to go to trial in a wave of civil lawsuits from former employees in recent years. Ye faced more than a dozen lawsuits following anti-Semitic comments in 2022 and made multiple public apologies. Last month, he apologized in a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, attributing his behavior to bipolar disorder and previous head injuries.
