{"id":8292,"date":"2025-10-23T22:06:24","date_gmt":"2025-10-23T22:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/aap-rellis-civil-lawsuits-continue\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T22:06:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T22:06:24","slug":"aap-rellis-civil-lawsuits-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/aap-rellis-civil-lawsuits-continue\/","title":{"rendered":"A$AP Relli’s Civil Lawsuits Continue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tThe legal battle between A$AP Relli and A$AP Rocky is continuing on despite Rocky\u2019s acquittal on charges of shooting his former friend and associate this past February.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Thursday (Oct. 23), a judge in Los Angeles refused to throw out the civil defamation lawsuit brought by Relli (Terrell Ephron) stemming from the alleged altercation with Rocky (Rakim Mayers) near a Hollywood hotel in 2021.<\/p>\n

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\n\tRelli alleges that Rocky fired a handgun at him twice during their argument, while Rocky maintains that the \u201cweapon\u201d was a prop gun filled with blanks. Prosecutors charged Rocky with two felony assault counts in 2022, but he was acquitted of both criminal charges following a sensational trial this year.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, Relli is continuing to claim that Rocky shot him in a civil lawsuit that he brought around the same time as his former A$AP Mob collaborator\u2019s arrest. That case, in which Relli seeks financial damages from Rocky for assault, battery and emotional distress, is scheduled to go to trial in January.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelli separately brought a defamation lawsuit in 2023 against both Rocky and his criminal defense lawyer, Joe Tacopina<\/strong>. Relli says the duo smeared his name when Tacopina gave press interviews calling Relli\u2019s shooting claims \u201cextortion\u201d and a \u201cget-rich-quick-scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRocky and Tacopina sought to get the defamation suit thrown out under California\u2019s anti-SLAPP statute, which guards against frivolous litigation that threatens free speech. But Judge Randolph M. Hammock ruled Thursday that Relli\u2019s slander claims don\u2019t meet this standard for dismissal.<\/p>\n

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\n\tJudge Hammock said Rocky and Tacopina cannot rely on a principle known as the litigation privilege, which provides a complete free speech shield for statements made in court proceedings, because the lawyer\u2019s media interviews were given \u201cto shape the public opinion\u201d rather than advance any legal position. The judge also determined that Relli\u2019s defamation claim is not \u201cmeritless\u201d under the anti-SLAPP guardrails.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFor purposes of this motion, plaintiff has established all elements of his defamation claims,\u201d wrote the judge. \u201cPlaintiff submits evidence that Tacopina published statements to media outlets, in essence contending that plaintiff fabricated the incident with Mayers then filed the lawsuit to force a payout.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPlaintiff refutes this in his declaration, as he attests that Mayers fired a handgun and struck him in the hand,\u201d continues Judge Hammock\u2019s decision. \u201cHe establishes that Tacopina\u2019s statements were defamatory, as they labeled Ephron a liar and extortionist. Finally, Ephron established that these statements caused him damages. For purposes of this motion, plaintiff has met his burden.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelli has not actually won on any defamation claims yet, but the lawsuit moved past a major obstacle in Thursday\u2019s ruling. Now, the matter will continue forward through evidence discovery and toward a possible trial.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelli\u2019s lawyers declined to comment on Thursday. Reps for Rocky and Tacopina did not immediately return requests for comment.<\/p>\n

\"Billboard<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The legal battle between A$AP Relli and A$AP Rocky is continuing on despite Rocky\u2019s acquittal on charges of shooting his former friend and associate this past February. On […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3863,2137,636,317,6932],"class_list":["post-8292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-aap","tag-civil","tag-continue","tag-lawsuits","tag-rellis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8292","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=8292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}