A jury in Los Angeles found the rapper Soulja Boy liable for sexual battery and assault, ordering him to pay $4 million to a woman who said that he became violent toward her as their once-professional relationship turned romantic, the woman’s lawyer said.
The decision on Thursday, which was also reported by The Associated Press, came after a nearly monthlong trial, in which the woman said that she had started as the rapper’s assistant.
She accused him of physically and sexually assaulting her over two years. Soulja Boy — known for songs like “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” “Kiss Me Thru the Phone” and “Pretty Boy Swag” — denied the claims during the trial.
“Our client is pleased with and vindicated by the verdict,” Neama Rahmani, a lawyer for the woman, whose name was not revealed in the proceedings, said in a statement. “Yesterday’s verdict is just the beginning of justice for Soulja’s Boy’s victims and a reckoning for the entire music industry.”
Reading a statement on his phone, Soulja Boy, whose real name is DeAndre Cortez Way, criticized the verdict outside the Superior Court in Los Angeles County after the verdict.
“I believe this entire process has been tainted by a system that is not designed to protect the rights of the accused,” Mr. Way said. “I want to make it clear that I am innocent.”
The woman who brought the case said that she began working for Mr. Way in 2018 as his personal assistant, according to court documents.
He had agreed to pay her $500 a week to live with him, she said, and provide services that included cleaning, cooking, handling his travel itinerary and doing his hair — but she said she was never paid.
Shortly after she began working for Mr. Way, 34, she said she began a relationship with him that quickly became violent.
In court documents, she detailed multiple instances when she said he subjected her to sexual and physical violence. She accused him of raping her, sometimes multiple times a day, and attacking her so brutally that she lost consciousness.
She also said in court documents that he threatened to have her killed and that at times she was kept in a locked room, sometimes for days at a time.
During her trial testimony, she said that she was barely fed, and that she lost more than half her body weight, according to Courthouse News Service.
“I didn’t even feel human anymore,” she said. “I felt like an animal.”
At the trial, Mr. Way denied being violent with her, and said he never agreed to hire her as his assistant.
In his closing statement, Mr. Way’s lawyer, Rickey Ivie, said that the woman was offered to stay at Mr. Way’s house in exchange for rolling marijuana blunts, but that pay wasn’t discussed.
“She was rolling blunts,” Mr. Ivie said, according to Courthouse News Service. “She got room and board. That’s the industry standard.”
The jury found Mr. Way liable for assault, sexual battery, gender violence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and nonpayment of wages, in addition to other claims. It did not find him liable for false imprisonment. The jury also awarded the woman $250,000 in punitive damages.
In a statement on Friday, Mr. Ivie said that his client was preparing to challenge the verdict.
“We maintain that the evidence does not support the verdict,” Mr. Ivie said. “It is unfortunate that aspersions and misperceptions of a culture were allowed to influence the trial. Mr. Way fully intends to pursue his post-trial remedies and to fight for a just result in this case.”
The decision came five years after Mr. Way’s ex-girlfriend, Kayla Myers, accused him in a lawsuit of attacking her during a party at his home in Malibu, Calif., stomping on her stomach and hitting her in the head with a gun, according to court documents. In 2023, a jury found that he assaulted her, and ordered him to pay her $471,800.
Mr. Way is also being sued for physical and sexual assault by Nia Riley, an ex-girlfriend who had appeared with him on the reality show “Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood.”
In 2021, she told the comedian Tasha K that Mr. Way kicked her in the stomach when she was pregnant, and that she later had a miscarriage.
Alain Delaquérière contributed research.
