CELEBRITY JUSTICE ™

Ben & Jerry's is yet again putting down the scooper and picking up a megaphone on 4/20 to tell people about the injustice people of color experience over weed arrests.

The famous ice cream company followed in their own footsteps on both Sunday and Monday, with two timely posts about the unofficial holiday ... pointing out that, yes, minorities -- specifically, black people -- are disproportionately punished over having herb.

B&J come with some stats ... pointing out African-Americans are 264% more likely than white people to be arrested for cannabis possession, even though they use at similar rates. They write, "Cannabis is legal in 33 states, but hundreds of thousands of people are still arrested for possession every year — a disproportionate number of them Black. This #420, get the facts then join us and @aclu_nationwide to take action to pass the MORE Act."

Just the day before, they put up another informational post, which noted that white folks are the ones who seem to be profiting the most on the legalization of weed ... something they say isn't right. Their messaging here is clear ... POC are getting left behind on this issue.

Of course, Ben & Jerry's conducted a very similar campaign last year, again pointing that despite weed being legal in 33 states now -- it's black people and other minorities that are constantly getting busted for it. A year later, they're hammering their point home twice as hard.

This time, they're also championing a piece of federal legislation they're hoping gets signed into law. It's called the MORE Act -- Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement -- and just as the name describes, it's aimed at getting weed drug offenders out of prison.

The families of four of the victims who perished in the helicopter crash that killed Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Gianna, have filed wrongful death lawsuits themselves -- this after Vanessa Bryant has already gone after the chopper company in court.

The surviving members of the Altobelli family and Mauser family -- the remaining two Altobelli children and Christina Mauser's husband, her son and 2 daughters, respectively -- claim the Island Express's negligence was reason for the death of their loved ones.

In both suits -- obtained by TMZ -- the surviving family members claim Island Express negligently and carelessly breached its duty to own, lease, manage, maintain, control, entrust, charter and operate the helicopter in question in a reasonable manner.

They claim as a direct result of this negligent behavior by the company, their loved ones died in the crash -- which has caused an insurmountable amount of anguish on every level -- physical, emotional, mental and otherwise ... for which the families want damages, both over their own turmoil, but also for what their loved ones could have earned themselves if they had survived the crash and continued to work.

As Vanessa Bryant's wrongful death lawsuit ... when we looked into it appeared Island Express might very well go bankrupt because her damages are so enormous. Their insurance policy will only cover so much.

Twitch and Amazon have just been accused of intentionally and maliciously screwing with Omnis and Teddy Riley.

Jeff Bezos' companies -- yes, Amazon owns Twitch too -- are accused of blatantly ripping off Teddy's streamed concert April 2 on the Omnis internet platform by taking the entire event and putting it on Twitch.

The folks at Omnis have fired off a cease-and-desist letter to the Twitch folks, demanding they put a quick stop to the whole stealing thing.

According to the letter, obtained by TMZ ... "We further understand that Twitch and its affiliated companies, including Amazon.com, Inc., were fully aware of [Omnis'] rights in the Program at the time it was streamed, and that its infringement ... may have been intentional and in malicious disregard of [Omnis'] streaming platform.

Lori Loughlin just got a signal from the judge in her college admissions criminal case -- that the judge is about to open a can of whup-ass on prosecutors for allegedly coaching a key figure in the case to lie.

The judge just ordered prosecutors to get real over something prosecutors allegedly hid for months, but finally surfaced. TMZ broke the story, Lori claimed in documents that FBI agents were browbeating scammer and ringleader Rick Singer to lie, and when he wouldn't they screamed at him. Singer had told agents the money Lori and others paid were donations, but he claimed that agents -- including one named Liz -- told him he should say the money these parents paid were bribes. When he resisted, he says the started screaming at him.

The judge called the allegations "serious and disturbing," adding, "While government agents are permitted to coach a cooperating witness during the course of an investigation, they are not permitted to suborn the commission of a crime." The crime to which the judge refers is clearly that if Singer swore that which was not true, it would amount to perjury.

The judge is asking for answers from prosecutors. As we reported, Lori says they acted so corruptly, she wants the judge to dismiss the case outright.

Joe Exotic is in a desperate situation ... he's isolated in the bowels of a federal prison, unable to fight the government in his $89 million wrongful imprisonment lawsuit, and he's begging the judge for access to a computer and the law library.

The "Tiger King" star just filed a handwritten legal doc, telling the judge he's running out of time to respond to the government's legal docs in the civil lawsuit. Joe says he can't respond without the proper tools, so he wants another 30 days.

Joe says he's been isolated at the Federal Medical Center ... he can't phone anyone, email them ... he has no access to the outside world.

This syncs up with our TMZ Investigation, which aired on Fox last Monday. We were told he was in isolation because inmates from the previous facility where Joe was housed tested positive for the virus. The prison disputes it, but for some reason, he's still in quarantine. His people say Joe is virus-free.

Joe is also appealing his conviction. He has some interesting arguments ... among them, "did the prosecutor throw in animal abuse charges in the murder-for-hire trial just to unfairly prejudice the jury so he'd get convicted?" And, if you saw the special, it's interesting that "hitman" and star prosecution witness Allen Glover revealed a bias by saying he delivered payback to Joe and wished he could have done more to hurt him.

Damon Dash's pockets could be a tad lighter soon ... 'cause he's been ordered to cough up a cool $300k in a lawsuit over a mafia movie.

The movie and music producer was just ordered to pay noted author Edwyna Brooks after he took an L in court. She sued him about a year ago claiming they struck a deal in 2015 for Damon to direct the mafia boss film, "Mafietta," based on her series of books.

But, according to docs, obtained by TMZ, Brooks claimed things quickly went south after he agreed to direct the film. She claimed Dash wasted production time and money on his side projects ... like filming a music video.

She said she fired him from the project but claims that didn't stop Dash from claiming co-authorship over the movie and trying to sell it on iTunes and his Dame Dash Studios website .... all without Brooks' permission.

Brooks sued for damages ... and the judge agreed with her claims and awarded her $300k in damages plus interest. This, of course, will only add to Dash's legal woes.

Dame tells us, "The copyright claim was incorrectly decided in our opinion as you were the dominant author. In any event the damages awarded were based on pure speculation so both findings are being appealed."

Harvey Weinstein beat the coronavirus, but he's got more problems ahead in Los Angeles ... including a new sexual battery charge.

The L.A. County District's Office has hit Weinstein with a new count stemming from an incident that allegedly occurred at a Beverly Hills hotel back in May of 2010.

Law enforcement sources say the alleged victim was interviewed by detectives about the incident in October 2019, but provided detectives with information in March 2020 confirming the incident didn't fall outside the 10-year-statute of limitation.

Weinstein was charged back in January with one felony count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint. The new sexual assault charge will be added to those charges ... and Weinstein faces up to 29 years overall in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors have started the process of temporarily transferring Weinstein -- who is currently serving a 23-year sentence in New York -- to Los Angeles to answer to the charges.

Prosecutors in L.A. also announced today that two cases involving Weinstein were dropped because the victims did not want to testify against the defendant in this case.

Tekashi 6ix9ine must be a fan of comedy ... and Shaggy, because he's basically singing "It Wasn't Me" in response to everyone calling him a snitch. C'mon, man.

The rapper changed his IG profile pic to a claymation version of himself in an orange prison jumpsuit, lounging on a rat trap while devouring a piece of cheese ... interpret that as you may.

Seems like he's just leaning into it, right? But, 6ix9ine also changed his bio line to a question with an obvious answer. He asks, "Why everybody callin me a snitch? I'm missin something...?"

C'mon, man.

We broke the story ... a judge released Tekashi from prison early after he made a plea to get out to avoid contracting the coronavirus. 6ix9ine's now under supervised release in-home incarceration, but is able to return to social media without restrictions.

The rapper's vowed to avoid starting beefs or trolling people with his regained online access, and so far ... he only seems to be trolling himself.

Joking about snitching might not get the best reception, though ... remember, several of 69's former fellow gang members are locked up because he ratted them out.

Tekashi's on federally supervised probation for the next 5 years ... and he's already giving the feds something to talk about.

Ex-MLB star Josh Hamilton is now facing up to 10 YEARS behind bars ... this after the former MVP was formally indicted on a felony child abuse charge earlier this week.

Hamilton is accused of brutalizing his 14-year-old daughter back on Sept. 30 ... after he allegedly turned into a monster over a comment she made that ticked him off.

Court records, obtained by the Dallas Morning News, show a Tarrant County grand jury officially indicted the 38-year-old former Texas Rangers player on Monday.

Hamilton is now facing between 2 and 10 years in prison if he's convicted of the charge.

As we previously reported ... Hamilton turned himself in to authorities in October after his daughter told law enforcement he threw a full water bottle at her chest and later hit her during an argument at their home.

In the arrest warrant, obtained by TMZ Sports, the girl alleges Hamilton pushed her, hit her with an open hand and closed fist, left scratches on her and even tore her sweatshirt during the incident.

Hamilton's daughter also claims the ex-outfielder told her, "I hope you go in front of the f*cking judge and tell him what a terrible dad I am so I don't have to see you anymore and you don't ever have to come to my house again."

Hamilton has adamantly denied the allegations, with his attorneys telling the Dallas Morning News, "[He] is innocent of the charge against him and looks forward to clearing his name in court."

It's a Passover miracle for Julian Edelman -- the NFL superstar will NOT be prosecuted for drunkenly jumping on a car in Bev Hills back in January, TMZ Sports has learned.

Remember, the former Super Bowl MVP was arrested on January 11 after cops saw the Patriots WR jumping on the hood of a car (we're told a Mercedes) around 9 pm.

Cops say the car was leaving a parking lot -- and had stopped for pedestrian traffic -- when Edelman "slid across the hood" like he was Starsky and Hutch!

According to police, Edelman reeked of booze (duh) and he was busted for vandalism.

He was at dinner earlier in the evening in Bev Hills at Cantina FRIDA, along with Paul Pierce and Danny Amendola.

But that's all over now ... cops say the owner of the vehicle told prosecutors he does NOT want Edelman charged with a crime because "he has been fully compensated for the repair costs to the vehicle."

In other words, Edelman cut the dude a fat ass check and now it's all gooooooood!!!

Ronaldinho -- the soccer superstar accused of using a fake passport to enter Paraguay -- is finally out of jail ... but he ain't exactly home free.

The 40-year-old Brazilian was moved to house arrest Tuesday -- after spending the last month locked up in Paraguay for allegedly using a really bad fake passport.

As we previously reported, Dinho and his brother traveled to Paraguay back in March to promote a new book -- but officials say they entered the country illegally. Big problem.

And, why fake passports? The former FIFA World Cup All-Star reportedly had his Brazilian and Spanish passports confiscated in July 2019 over unpaid taxes.

Authorities raided the hotel where Ronaldinho and his bro were staying, seized the passports and threw 'em both in jail ... where they've been ever since, until Tuesday.

Bond was set at $1.6 MILLION ($800,000 each) -- which they can easily afford, considering the FORTUNES they made in contract and endorsement money over the years.

Don't feel too bad for Ronaldhino, he's been able to stay active in jail ... dominating in rec yard soccer games and reportedly winng a trophy pig for his performances!

Ronaldinho and his brother are expected to remain under the house arrest while an investigation into their alleged crimes carries on.