CELEBRITY JUSTICE ™

Mike Epps has some sage advice for Kevin Hart from a spiritual outlook, and also on a physical tip.

We got the comedian Wednesday at LAX, where he reflected on Kevin's sex tape extortion scandal ... saying he -- like other rich, famous men -- has to keep an eye out for vultures.

Then he dragged Jesus into it, and reassured Kevin it's okay to screw up every now and then. Mike's best advice though comes on the heels of his own divorce.

Pay attention Kev, here's the Epps' golden rule to dodging messy breakups.

Scoring backstage passes for Chance the Rapper was the worst VIP experience ever ... according to a fan who's suing for a header she took during the Chi-town concert.

The woman says she had a wristband for meet and greet access to Chance during his 2016 Magnificent Coloring Day Festival. Sweet score, right? Wrong ... according to the fan who says she was on her way backstage when she tripped over a chain that was left unsecured, and on the floor of a tunnel.

She says she was slammed to the ground and was injured, though she's not specific about her boo-boos.

In the suit, she says the concert promoter, AEG Live, had a duty to keep the grounds safe ... but failed miserably. She's suing the music giant for damages.

Chance is not a defendant in the case.

The wildly popular Instagram account F**kJerry pulled some shenanigans on a 16-year-old kid -- jacking his Instagram handle, and costing him tons of dough ... according to a lawsuit.

The kid's father, Tom Chau, filed the suit ... claiming the company F**kJerry and its CEO struck a deal to post promotional content on his son's account. The kid's no IG slouch himself -- his account @3.141592 (yeah, that's pi to you math nerds) has 2.6 million followers.

Mr. Chau says the problem is F**kJerry didn't get his approval to deal with his minor son, and as the deal stands ... it should have ended in May 2017. Instead, Chau says the F**kJerry people seized control of his kid's account -- memes and all -- and changed his password.

Cardi B's alleged choking incident with a NYC cop has all the earmarkings of the so-called hip-hop cops ... at least as far as her bf, Offset, is concerned.

The Migos rapper told us how he reacted when Cardi called him after the alleged incident. We broke the story ... Cardi says a NYC cop put her in a choke hold Tuesday night and pinned her against her Bentley SUV.

Neither Cardi nor NYPD have offered an explanation for why the cop would have done this ... IF he did. So, we raised the possibility it was the hip-hop cops -- the alleged secret unit of law enforcement tasked with pinning crimes on innocent hip-hop stars.

Offset believes it's a strong theory ... although he ain't gung-ho to talk about it in public.

"Ink Master" star Chris Blinston believes his daughter researched online how to make it look like she was strangled, right before accusing him of strangling her ... TMZ has learned.

Blinston's attorney tells us ... Chris obtained info that his 13-year-old daughter used her school computer to look up how to make bruises on one's neck prior to telling police he choked her twice so hard he squeezed off her airway.

A judge has now granted Blinston's motion to obtain school records of his daughter's computer activity from before his arrest to see if it's true.

We broke the story ... the "Ink Master" star was arrested on September 1 on charges of child abuse and felony domestic violence. He wholly denies the allegations and hopes this helps resolve the case quickly.

Attorney Lisa Bloom seems to say Kevin Hart contacted her client and accused her of being the extortionist behind the sex tape.

Lisa just spoke with Harvey Levin on "TMZ Live" and said she believes Kevin may have contacted her client once, but Montia Sabbag vigorously denied any allegation of being the extortionist.

Bloom also says the sex scene in the bedroom does indeed seem to be the liaison between Kevin and her client, which she said lasted a weekend.

She explains how her client met Kevin and also says Montia has a suspicion as to the identity of the extortionists. She will be sharing that with cops.

The woman suing Usher for $20 million for allegedly giving her genital herpes has now identified herself.

Laura Helm claims in new legal docs, she had 2 sexual encounters with the singer. She says he behaved very oddly. The docs are very descriptive, but she says she never saw him finish because she saw him run to the bathroom. She goes on ... on the second occasion he did not wear a condom and says a few days after that she noticed an unusual bump on the inside of her cheek. A few days after that she noticed a similar bump -- the size of a green pea -- on her vagina.

She says, during the second encounter Usher set the mood by putting on jazz music while performing oral sex on her.

She references reports that Usher paid $1.1 million to a previous sex partner but she offers no proof.

Helm says they were platonic friends and he wooed her by telling her about his humanitarian efforts in Africa.

Law enforcement officers have been busy writing multiple search warrants Tuesday as they hone in on the people they believe are the extortionists in the Kevin Hart sex tape investigation ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources say the declarations in support of the warrants will outline reasons they believe their targets may be the ones who contacted Kevin's people and made 8-figure demands in return for keeping the tape under wraps.

We're told the warrants, which still need to be signed by a judge, will ask permission to seize cell phones, computers and other electronic devices. As we reported, the extortion demands were sent by emails that were encrypted.

Authorities believe the sex video was shot on an iPhone, so authorities are particularly interested in that device.

Ryan Phillippe's ex-girlfriend tried just about everything to dodge questions about the explosive lawsuit she's filed, claiming he brutally attacked her.

Elsie Hewitt was tight-lipped after landing Wednesday in London, but after suing Ryan and filing for an emergency protective order ... photogs and reporters swarmed around her. Hewitt tried, unsuccessfully, to hide under a Kendrick Lamar hoodie.

The United States government wants Anthony Weiner locked up for up to 27 months for getting sexual with a minor.

Prosecutors just filed their sentencing proposal with the court ... this after Weiner copped a plea to transferring obscene material to a minor.

The government says, "This is not merely a sexting case ... With full knowledge that he was communicating with a real, 15-year-old girl, the defendant asked her to engage in sexually explicit conduct via Skype and Snapchat, where her body was on display, and where she was asked to sexually perform for him."

Prosecutors say Weiner needs a stiff sentence because his prior conduct shows he's slow to learn what he's done is wrong.

And, prosecutors say, "With that depth of awareness ... [he has] a dangerous level of denial and lack of self-control."

The woman who ended up on the extortion sex video with Kevin Hart says she's a crime victim herself and she's going to cops.

Montia Sabbag joined her lawyer, Lisa Bloom, for a news conference just a few minutes ago and acknowledged she had "an intimate relationship" with Hart that apparently was partially captured on the video.

Sabbag said flatly, "I am not an extortionist. I had nothing to do with these recordings."

She says she has not been contacted by law enforcement yet, but Bloom said they are going to cops immediately.

Bloom said her client is not demanding money from Kevin, whom she says is also a victim. Our photog asked about our story ... that Sabbag's previous lawyer told Kevin's people she would take a lie detector test if they paid her $420,000. Bloom said "She is not demanding money." She did not address the issue of the prior demand with respect to the lie detector.

TMZ broke the story, the video was secretly shot the weekend of August 19 ... when Kevin and Sabbag got tight at Marquee nightclub in Vegas.

Sabbag did not say who she thinks made the recording, but Bloom made it clear it's a felony to secretly record private moments like this.

Cardi B says a New York City cop put her in a choke hold Tuesday evening and slammed her against her car.

Sources connected to the "Bodak Yellow" rapper say the incident went down around 6 PM near Columbus Circle -- Cardi was riding in her new Bentley SUV when another driver hit her.

We're told Cardi wasn't driving, but she and a cousin -- who was also in the Bentley -- got out and started arguing with the other driver, and that's when the NYPD officer got involved. We're told the officer, who Cardi says was white, grabbed her with his arms around her neck and pinned her against the Bentley.

Once everyone involved calmed down, we're told the cop let Cardi go ... and left the accident scene without taking a report or issuing any citations. Moments later she angrily tweeted about the incident and blasted cops for not knowing "how to do they job F**K."

Cardi deleted her tweet after a few minutes. Her sister also posted about it, and later deleted. Our sources say Cardi was not injured by the choke hold, and it doesn't seem, at this point, she's looking to take legal action.

A spokesman tells us NYPD has no records or information about Cardi's claim, and adds it's unclear if police will try to get a statement from her about the alleged incident.

As for the accident ... sounds like Cardi's Bentley didn't suffer too much damage.

Kevin Hart partied at a Vegas nightclub with the woman who ended up with him in that sexually provocative extortion tape.

These pics were shot at Marquee Nightclub at the Cosmopolitan hotel on August 19 ... that's the weekend where the photos and videos were shot that ended up on the 4 minute and 47 second tape.

You see Kevin almost between Montia Sabbag's legs in the club. In the pic below, she's talking in his ear.

We're told the extortion video was shot at various locations during that weekend. Kevin has spoken at length with law enforcement giving him names of people he remembers he interacted with who might have some involvement in the video, which was secretly recorded.

Sabbag's lawyer told Kevin's people that she had no idea a video was being shot in the bedroom scene, but the lawyer demanded $420k in return for her sitting for a polygraph test.

Ryan Phillippe's ex-girlfriend's accusations -- that he brutally attacked her and threw her down the stairs -- don't add up ... according to cops.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... investigators don't believe Elsie Hewitt's account of what went down between her and Phillippe on July 4 for a couple reasons. First -- they say Ryan was shocked when cops showed up at his place after Elsie filed a police report ... but was completely cooperative.

We're told he invited them in and answered all their questions without lawyering up -- like he had nothing to hide.

Next, there's Elsie's story about the stairs. Our sources tell us the stairs she accuses Ryan of throwing her down twice are sharp and wooden, and would have left her with much nastier injuries -- even broken bones -- than what she laid out in her suit.

As we reported ... the L.A. City Attorney refused to prosecute Phillippe after investigating, but Hewitt still sued him. Ryan, in response, has hired a lawyer and plans to go after Elsie for defamation.

Phillippe himself is making it clear he has nothing to hide, saying, "At the time these allegations were initially made, I fully cooperated with law enforcement and a thorough investigation was conducted."

He adds, "Domestic violence is a very real and tragic issue faced by many women the world over and should never be used to vengefully slander or as a ploy for monetary gain."

"Everyone of my accuser's allegations are false."

'Bachelor' Chris Soules has just asked the judge in his felony hit and run case to throw out all the charges, because the law is f****d up.

Chris' lawyer says in legal docs, he did everything he could possibly do the night he rear ended a tractor on an Iowa road, killing the driver. Chris left the scene, but not before calling 911 and identifying himself and trying to resuscitate the victim. He didn't leave the scene until the EMTs arrived but he booked it before cops got there.

Now here's the Catch-22. Chris' lawyer says under the law he's required to inform cops, or return to the accident scene, but if he did that it would almost be like a confession he hit and ran. Chris' lawyer says there's a constitutional right against self-incrimination, so he should be under no obligation to blow the whistle on himself.

The woman accusing NFL line judge Carl Johnson of domestic violence was a police officer in Louisiana for more than 5 years ... TMZ Sports has learned.

Here's what we know ... the 49-year-old female accuser was a detective for the Thibodaux Police Dept.

We spoke with the accuser who says she worked on a famous murder case back in the early 2000s.

The accuser resigned from the force in 2002 after filing a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Commission that she was sexually harassed by a superior officer.

We've called the TPD multiple times about the matter -- but have not received a call back.

We broke the story ... the woman has told police and other law enforcement officials Johnson physically attacked her multiple times in 2016 and 2017. Johnson adamantly denies the allegations.

The NFL says the league is investigating.