Nearly four years after musician FKA Twigs sued actor Shia LaBeouf for sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress, the high-profile case is heating up, with a flurry of legal activity over the weekend involving accusations of missing electronic devices, busy schedules and both parties dodging depositions.
On Oct. 18, FKA Twigs, whose birth name is Tahliah Debrett Barnett, filed a withering statement with the court over LaBeouf’s failure to meet basic discovery obligations, noting that he became “suddenly unavailable” for his long-in-the-making deposition on Oct. 11.
“LaBeouf’s responses to written discovery in this case has been egregiously evasive and nonresponsive, which has ultimately resulted in a document production consisting of only nine pages,” the filing says. “It appears that LaBeouf has something to hide, as LaBeouf has suspiciously claimed he no longer has any other responsive documents in his possession or control, as he lost or misplaced his electronic devices, or destroyed relevant information prior to the initiation of this action.” By contrast, the singer-actress “has produced voluminous responsive documents and substantive written responses.”
Her statement also accused the “Transformers” actor of bailing on an agreed-upon deposition.
“Now, at the eleventh hour, LaBeouf inexplicably refuses to be deposed first, despite entering into multiple agreements between counsel that both parties would be deposed within the same week, and that LaBeouf’s deposition would take place first,” the filing adds. “LaBeouf has reneged on his longstanding agreement, and thus, the parties are forced to seek relief from this Court.”
Hours later, attorneys for LaBeouf fired off their own salvo, claiming that FKA Twigs “is working so much that she has been too busy over the past two years to even appear for her deposition.”
LaBeouf’s legal team is led by Shawn Holley, who is currently knee deep in the sprawling Sean “Diddy” Combs case, which is playing out on multiple fronts in both criminal and civil courts. Bryan Freedman is representing FKA Twigs.
Back in December 2020, the musician filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming that her former boyfriend choked her, while whispering, “If you don’t stop you are going to lose me.” During that same incident in 2019, he allegedly threatened to crash the car he was driving with her in the passenger seat and then physically attacked her when they stopped at a gas station. (The pair dated for about a year beginning in 2018 after meeting on the set of the acclaimed film “Honey Boy.”) The complaint also states that the actor went so method for the role of a psychotic gangster in David Ayer’s “The Tax Collector” that he would drive around Los Angeles shooting stray dogs to death and even pulled a gun on set during production. He also knowingly gave her a sexually transmitted disease, according to her complaint.
At the time the suit was filed, LaBeouf said many of the claims were not true but told the New York Times, “I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalizations. I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years. I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I’m ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt.” (In subsequent legal filings, the actor said he “denies all allegations.”)
The FKA Twigs filing offers a window into why the case pitting one celebrity against another has dragged on for so long. The statement says the two parties had agreed to be deposed in the same week in person, with LaBeouf going first. Every time a date was set, FKA Twigs complied and would rearrange her schedule in order to fly from her home in London to Los Angeles. LaBeouf’s last-minute changes posed a repeated burden, she says, and has dragged out the litigation, which is heading to trial.
“If no such agreement existed, then LaBeouf would have been deposed years prior as he is a Los Angeles resident. It is the height of gamesmanship to refuse to honor this agreement, which has thrown a wrench in the works and prevented depositions from proceeding as planned,” the statement adds.
But LaBeouf’s attorneys pushed back in their own filing that said that no such agreement ever existed and accused the musician’s attorneys of their own brand of “gamesmanship.”
“Plaintiff’s desire to take Shia’s deposition first in a largely ‘he said, she said’ case is not ‘good cause’ for a protective order in her favor,” says LaBeouf’s filing. “He should not be prejudiced by Plaintiff’s maneuvers in defending against her $10 million claim.”
The filings come days ahead of a key hearing in the case on Friday, at which time a trial date will be set.
From Variety US