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SANTA MONICA (CNS) - A judge has hinted he may nullify a jury's award of $235,900 in punitive damages to a woman who alleged Soulja Boy yelled profanities, kicked her, stomped on her stomach and bashed her head with a large gun during a party she attended at his Malibu home in 2019.
Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Mark H. Epstein said during a post- trial hearing in the case Thursday that there was no evidence presented to the panel during the April trial by plaintiff Kayla Christine Myers regarding the singer's income, savings, debt or expenses.
"The court is concerned that, absent at least some evidence on this point, the issue should never have gone to the jury," the judge's clerk wrote in a minute order. A hearing on the issue is scheduled July 21.
The same jury also ordered the singer to pay an identical amount of $235,900 in compensatory damages to Myers, all but $1,800 of which is to pay her for her pain and suffering. Because the panel found that the singer acted with malice, oppression or fraud, a second phase of trial was triggered to determine whether Myers should be awarded punitive damages.
Myers alleged Soulja Boy, whose real name is DeAndre Cortez Way, held the gun to her head and told her she was going to die the night of Feb. 1, 2019. Myers further maintained the rapper then instructed an assistant to take the plaintiff inside the garage and tie her up with duct tape, and that she was later dragged by her hair inside the house and forced to take two showers.
Myers was led to the home's garage and left there for four hours while the female assistant and another man watched over her, according to the suit brought in January 2020.
According to Myers, she was eventually allowed to leave and was hospitalized with three fractured ribs and a facial contusion. Soulja Boy denied assaulting Myers or any other wrongdoing and alleged she was the aggressor in the confrontation with the singer's assistant.