{"id":7276,"date":"2025-08-07T16:05:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T16:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/ex-staffer-sues-for-assault-star-denies-claims\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T16:05:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T16:05:13","slug":"ex-staffer-sues-for-assault-star-denies-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/ex-staffer-sues-for-assault-star-denies-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Staffer Sues for Assault, Star Denies Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tBusta Rhymes<\/a>\u2018 former assistant is suing over allegations that the rapper assaulted him and then blacklisted him in the music industry \u2013 a lawsuit that quickly prompted the star to \u201ccategorically\u201d deny any wrongdoing and threaten a countersuit.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a case filed Tuesday in Brooklyn federal court, Dashiel Gables claims Busta (born Trevor Smith Jr.) repeatedly punched him in the face in January for using his phone on the job. After Gables filed a police report, he says the star retaliated by ensuring that nobody else will hire him.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cThis industry-wide retaliation has devastated plaintiff\u2019s career prospects and ability to earn a living in the only industry in which he has worked,\u201d attorneys for Gables write in the filing obtained by Billboard<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in a response statement Thursday, Rhymes said he \u201ccompletely and categorically\u201d denies the allegations from Gables, who the star described as an ex-staffer who only worked for him for \u201ca very brief period.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cApparently, Dashiel has decided to respond to being let go by manufacturing claims against me in an attempt to attack and damage my reputation,\u201d Rhymes wrote in a statement shared with Billboard<\/em>.\u00a0\u201cI look forward to proving these allegations false, and am preparing a countersuit, which I am confident will expose this for what it is \u2014 an attempted shakedown by a disgruntled former assistant.\u00a0Ultimately, I am certain the truth will prevail.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRhymes was arrested in January<\/a> over the alleged Jan. 10 attack in the lobby of the star\u2019s luxury Brooklyn high-rise, in which police said the rapper punched the 50-year-old staffer in the face multiple times, sending him to the hospital. Court records do not indicate that prosecutors ended up pursuing charges over the incident.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn his lawsuit, Gables offered more alleged details on the incident, which he says was sparked by a phone call from his daughter while he was unloading the star\u2019s luggage. Though Gables said he ignored the call, he claims he responded via text message, sending Rhymes \u201cinto a rage\u201d in which the star allegedly screamed, \u201cStay the f\u2013k off your phone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen plaintiff explained it was his daughter, Busta Rhymes responded, \u2018Don\u2019t tell me about your f\u2013king kid, what the f\u2013k that gotta do with me?\u201d Gables\u2019 lawyers wrote. \u201cWhen plaintiff responded that it could have been an emergency, Busta Rhymes asked \u2018are you talking while I\u2019m talking?\u2019 and then, with a closed fist, punched plaintiff in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAfter Rhymes allegedly punched him again, Gables said he himself walked away from the scene, causing the rapper to \u201cto become even more enraged\u201d and scream more.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhile plaintiff tolerated a great deal of abuse while working for Busta Rhymes, he could not tolerate the repeated physical assault and was unable to return to work,\u201d his lawyers said, confirming that he filed a report with the police.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe incident has allegedly left Gables \u201cfrozen out of the hip-hop music industry\u201d after decades of work in that space: \u201cWord of the assault and plaintiff\u2019s complaint against Busta Rhymes has spread throughout the tight-knit hip-hop community, resulting in plaintiff being effectively blacklisted from employment opportunities in his chosen field.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn technical terms, the lawsuit accuses Rhymes of a variety of federal and state employment law violations, as well as civil assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Busta Rhymes\u2018 former assistant is suing over allegations that the rapper assaulted him and then blacklisted him in the music industry \u2013 a lawsuit that quickly prompted the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[302,300,1242,6601,839,479],"class_list":["post-7276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-assault","tag-claims","tag-denies","tag-exstaffer","tag-star","tag-sues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}