Legal

A$AP Rocky was arrested as he flew into LAX Wednesday morning ... TMZ has confirmed.

Eyewitnesses at the airport tell TMZ the rapper flew in to Los Angeles from Barbados on a private jet, where he was met by cops at the terminal and taken away in handcuffs. We're told he was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon with a gun.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ the arrest stems from a November 6, 2021 incident, where an alleged victim claimed Rocky shot at them 3 or 4 times -- grazing his left hand -- NBC News was first with the info.

Unclear exactly where the alleged shooting happened ... Rocky performed at Complex Con in Long Beach on November 7, Rihanna was in attendance.

As we told you, Rocky and a pregnant Rihanna have been living it up in her native country, jet skiing (while RiRi watched with binoculars) and hanging with friends and family.

TMZ broke the story ... a recent Twitter rumor that the two had split because he cheated was 100% not true -- and evidence that all is good between them was shown in the vacation pics where they're clearly having a great time.

It's unclear when Rihanna's expected to give birth, but has said she's in her third trimester. The couple announced the pregnancy back in January.

Johnny Depp made a shocking claim in court amid in his defamation case against Amber Heard -- alleging his ex would threaten to kill herself when he tried bailing from their fights.

The actor is in Day 2 of his testimony, and among the things he's getting into Wednesday is his and Amber's former dynamic when they were a couple and living together. One of the more surprising things he laid out was the notion that Amber was allegedly suicidal.

Check it out ... Johnny explains that when they would get into these nasty blowouts -- ones he insists she instigated and dragged out, not the other way around -- he would often decide to remove himself from the toxic situation ... and claims that would send Amber spiraling.

JD paints a picture of Amber desperately trying to stop him from leaving -- alleging she'd get security involved to halt him at the elevator, etc. He even testified that she'd be in hysterics, saying what he perceived as suicidal remarks ... like how she couldn't "live without him."

He also says she'd sometimes land on his front door step in the middle of the night -- this after he successfully exited the scene -- and be shouting out to him from outside.

On Monday, Johnny kicked off his testimony by saying he'd never laid a hand on Amber -- despite her claims -- and that he was there in court seeking the truth, no matter what.

Drake can rest a little easier for the next few years, now that a judge has granted his request to prevent an allegedly deranged fan from contacting him or his family.

According to new legal docs obtained by TMZ Hip Hop ... Drake's attorneys, Larry Stein and Ashley Yeargan, were in court for Tuesday's hearing, which ended with the judge approving a 3-year restraining order.

The alleged stalker was not in court, but will be served the order. As we reported, Drake's been dealing with this woman for a while now -- she was arrested for trespassing at his Hollywood Hills estate in 2017, and she even attempted to file a $4 billion defamation suit against him ... as if the Certified Lover Boy was the one harassing her.

The court determined the woman was "given timely and proper notice" to give her side of the story – for instance, explaining the email she allegedly sent Drake, saying "put a bullet through your head now bitch."

New Mexico's criminal authorities may not yet know who to blame for Halyna Hutchins' death -- but one state agency is laying down the hammer ... pointing to the production at large.

The Occupational Health and Safety Bureau -- which deals with this sort of thing throughout New Mexico -- issued a hefty fine of $139,793 this week after finding that Rust Movie Productions (the production company behind Alec Baldwin's flick) majorly screwed the pooch when it came to gun safety on set.

The government entity says RMP failed across the board on maintaining and enforcing industry standard protocols for gun usage in a film -- and as a result, someone died.

They point to two different misfires that had occurred during filming prior to the Hutchins incident, which the bureau says went largely unaddressed by the official safety point person among the crew ... in this case, they say that was assistant director Dave Halls.

The report notes that several crew members expressed concern after these misfires -- among other weapons-related concerns -- but it would appear no one really did anything to correct it or even address it ... via training or discipline, etc.

They also say that for the fatal shooting, Halls again broke protocol by handling the weapon and giving it to Baldwin ... without consulting a specialist during or after the gun was loaded. Speaking of that, they make a damning conclusion about live ammo -- suggesting the production heads had no system in place to make sure real bullets didn't make their way on set ... which they say is a clear violation of basic procedure for this sort of thing.

A Bureau rep says, "Management was provided with multiple opportunities to take corrective actions and chose not to do so. As a result of these failures, director Joel Souza and cinematographer Halyna Hutchins were severely injured. Halyna Hutchins succumbed to her injuries."

Again, OHSB is saying the production company as a whole seems to be responsible here -- but they go out of their way to name Halls in their remarks and findings. Their investigation was thorough ... with 1,500 staff hours dedicated to sorting through all this in the aftermath.

The criminal investigation is still underway, and of course ... lawsuits have been filed against Baldwin, the production company and others. Unclear how this report might affect things.

Here's Johnny Depp ripping a page from Michael Jackson's book ... cracking a window and waving to cameras and fans on his way into court.

Johnny appeared to be in good spirits Wednesday morning as he pulled up to a courthouse in Fairfax, VA for his second day of testimony in his defamation case against Amber Heard ... rolling down his SUV window and flashing a thumb up from the back seat.

The hand gestures out the car window are very reminiscent of MJ ... remember, during Michael's criminal trial way back in 2009, he cracked his SUV window from the back seat and flashed a peace sign to a sea of paparazzi.

Johnny was also bumping reggae music as he hopped out of his ride in a suit and strode into the courthouse ... where his ensuing testimony included some shocking claims against Amber.

Blac Chyna's mom, Tokyo Toni, may have taken her displeasure with the judge too far ... because she allegedly threatened him in her daughter's trial against the Kardashians.

Tokyo went off on the judge while live streaming Tuesday on Instagram from just outside the courthouse where the civil case is underway. She says ... "I'm gonna get that judge." She's reacting to the judge booting her from the courtroom earlier in the day.

This could be extremely problematic for Tokyo, because even an oblique threat against a judge is taken seriously by law enforcement ... especially after attacks against judges and their families increased measurably over the last few years.

Tokyo's been active on Instagram this week, going on the social media platform Monday and ripping the Kardashians over their appearance on the first day of jury selection.

In Monday's rant, Tokyo calls out the entire Kardashian/Jenner clan ... hurling profanities, laughing hysterically, claiming the family "looked dead" and comparing Kris Jenner to the bad guy from the movie "Saw."

Tokyo's initial video was addressed in court Tuesday morning, with the judge telling her she's no longer allowed back inside the courtroom for the trial.

Josh Groban isn't ditching his mask in the air, despite the new rule allowing people to fly without covering their mouth and nose ... and he has reasons why.

We got Josh at LAX Tuesday, and he puts it plainly -- his voice is his livelihood, so extra protection is needed.

Josh acknowledges he may be in the minority -- people on his flight were cheering when the captain came on and said masks were no longer required. But, Josh has a different, personal point of view ... partly because of his parents. There's also the business of touring that makes going maskless problematic.

A federal judge ruled Monday the CDC's mandatory mask policy on planes was illegal. The Justice Dept. has said if the CDC wants to appeal they will oblige. For now ... no masks.

Opening statements for the Blac Chyna-Kardashian civil case have officially begun, and BC's lawyer laid out some shocking claims right out the gate ... including Kris Jenner once allegedly saying "Take her off the show."

Chyna's lead attorney, Lynne Cianni, told the jury Tuesday that they would be presented with evidence showing the Kardashian women -- Kris, Kim, Khloe and Kylie, specifically -- worked to tank her and Rob's reality show ... which she says will include text messages.

Cianni said one of those messages was sent from Kris to the showrunner for 'Rob & Chyna' ... which she claims read, "Take her off the show." BC's lawyer says the text came after Kris complained to the showrunner that Chyna had allegedly "beat the s*** out of Rob's face."

However, Cianni says they have video evidence to prove that Kris was making that up -- unaired footage from around the same time which she says will show Rob without a scratch on him. The attorney insists ... no attack happened.

Not just that, but Cianni also says they have evidence that'll prove Kim herself helped get their show canceled. The attorney says there was a "kill fee" of $100k ... but Chyna never accepted it, because she was already making around $90k an episode.

Cianni says there were other lies uttered about her client ... including the idea Chyna and Rob were not together during the filming of their show, the notion Rob and Chyna couldn't be in the same room together, the claim that Season 2 was never greenlit and that footage for Season 2 was never shot, and the contention there was no creative plan long-term.

As a result of this alleged coordinated campaign to sink their series, Cianni says Chyna lost out on other reality show appearances, club appearances and money for social media posts -- which hurt her financially and beyond.

DJ Envy has an admitted 50 Cent bias – but he's still calling cap on Benzino's plans to sue the "Power" series honcho for defamation.

We caught "The Breakfast Club" co-host with his wife Gia outside Fox News in NYC, and while he pledged his allegiance to 50 Cent (they came up through the same underground hip hop grind in Queens), he doesn't feel Benzino can truthfully present a winning case in court.

Envy acknowledged Young Buck and Benzino's beefs with 50 Cent ... after catching his social media wrath, but in his opinion, they're both out of legal luck.

Again, he's admittedly biased, but even Envy opted to deflect when we asked him about Fiddy's Easter Sunday shot at Jay-Z ... saying he looks like a "gay painter" and posting a side-by-side of Jigga and Basquiat.

Back to Benzino ... he was just on TMZ's "It's Tricky With Raquel Harper," calling for 50's head in court and comparing him to Tekashi 6ix9ine ... in terms of alleged snitching, at least.

DJ Envy and Gia are currently promoting their book, the ridiculously long-titled "Real Life, Real Love: Life Lessons on Joy, Pain & the Magic That Holds Us Together" -- but what could feel longer than being married for 10 years without an orgasm?

The couple recently stepped into The Shade Room to reveal they not only endured a cheating scandal, but 10 years of Gia faking the big O to satisfy Envy's ego. That admission stirred up a spicy convo on the latest episode of TMZ Hip Hop.

Johnny Depp will take the stand Tuesday in his super bitter defamation lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard, and he's expected to talk about an incident he says ended the marriage ... when he says she or a friend defecated on his side of the bed.

Johnny is suing Amber for $50 million ... claiming she lied when she accused him of physically abusing her. She's countersuing him for $100 mil for defamation, claiming he coordinated a smear campaign against her.

A key date in the trial is April 22, 2016. Amber was having a birthday party for herself at their downtown L.A. penthouse. Depp showed up late and decided he would bail, which he says enraged Heard. Amber has said Johnny threw a magnum wine bottle at her before leaving.

We're told the housekeeper called Depp the next morning and told him someone had crapped on his side of the bed and then put the covers over it ... he thinks Amber wanted him to unsuspectingly hop in bed and hit the poop.

Depp believes either Amber or one of her friends is the culprit. Amber has said one of their Yorkshire terriers was the pooper, but Depp has scoffed at that, saying the poop was too large for a 3 to 4 pound dog to excrete.

Johnny has said the pooping incident was the final straw in their marriage.

As you know ... Johnny sued a British publication for defamation in England and lost the case ... they called him a wife beater and the judge concluded the allegation was "substantially true." The current trial is in Virginia, so it remains to be seen if he has better luck getting a second bite of the apple.

Blac Chyna's mom, Tokyo Toni, is not a fan of the Kardashian family and she wants everyone to know it ... unloading on the entire family in a rant, following their appearance in court.

Tokyo fired shots at the Kardashian/Jenner clan Monday night on Instagram live ... just hours after they all stood together in the same courtroom.

Ya gotta see the video ... Tokyo calls out the entire family, throwing out profanities at times and laughing hysterically at other moments.

At one point, she says the family 'looked dead' and compared Kris Jenner to a character from the movie 'Saw' ... another time she raps about the family and says, "They got no fatty. They need a daddy."

This live video came after Blac Chyna and her mom appeared in court for the first day of jury selection, for the $300 million fight with the Kardashians/Jenners ... it seems that Tokyo was getting a full kick out of it, as she was rolling a J and talking for minutes in a full-blown rant.

During the court appearance, lots of members of the Kardashian clan showed up ... including Kris, Kim, Khloe and Kylie.

As we've told you, Blac Chyna sued her ex, Rob Kardashian and the entire fam back in 2017 ... accusing them of getting her and Rob's series, "Rob & Chyna," canceled for what she claims was a personal vendetta against and now its finally getting a day in court.

So, it's obvious Tokyo's beef comes on her daughter's behalf ... and she surely didn't hold back how she felt.

So far, there has been no response from anyone in the Kardashian/Jenner family ... we'll see how everything plays out in court.

Jacqueline Avant's murderer has just learned his fate after pleading guilty to the crime -- and he'll be doing some hard time for a good long while.

Aariel Maynor -- who was arrested and subsequently convicted of murdering Mrs. Avant after entering his plea in March -- was sentenced Tuesday in L.A. County ... and the judge threw the book at him, sending him to prison for the rest of his life.

As we reported ... Maynor copped to breaking into Jacqueline and her husband Clarence's Beverly Hills home in December -- and then opened fire with an "assault long barrel pistol" when he came upon Jacqueline, who wasn't with Clarence at the time. Maynor then fled the scene.

Jacqueline was taken to a hospital, but succumbed to her injuries and died.

Photos of the crime surfaced shortly thereafter, and it looks like Maynor broke through a sliding glass door on a side of the property ... leaving behind a ton of shattered glass.

Prosecutors pushed for a lengthy sentence, telling the judge Maynor bragged and joked with his friends about the situation from a jail phone. According to court docs, he also said he expected to serve a max of 25 years because the prosecutors did not file a so-called "special circumstances" murder charge.

Jacqueline was deeply involved in her community, serving as the President of the Neighborhood of Watts, as well as serving on the Board of Directors of UCLA's International Student Center. She was 81.

Clarence, of course, is known as the Godfather of Black music -- having had a hand in a number of classic records and albums throughout the years ... with the likes of Jay-Z, Diddy, L.A. Reid and others singing his praises for his influence in the culture.

Angelina Jolie may be trying to sue the FBI over the Brad Pitt plane incident involving their son -- but if it is her, she's proceeding anonymously ... having just gotten the green light to do it.

Jolie has been speculated as the person behind a recent Jane Doe lawsuit filed against the federal agency over a FOIA request -- one the feds have apparently denied this woman as it pertains to an investigation they undertook a few years back involving alleged abuse on a private jet ... this according to a new report from Politico.

This woman has apparently been asking the FBI to hand over documents from their investigation, but claims she's been getting the cold shoulder ... so, she's suing them over it -- but before she dives in on this case, she wanted her identity to remain under wraps.

A judge just signed off on that request this week ... so she'll move forward here as Jane Doe. The reason she says she wants to stay hidden -- the "impact on the privacy of her client's minor children," so says this woman's attorney ... big shot Amanda Kramer.

That seems to be another tell in some folks' eyes that Angie may be the mystery woman trying to dig up these docs. Based on all the info she's cited in docs thus far, obtained by TMZ, it would appear her description of the incident tracks with what happened in 2016.

You'll recall ... the family was flying from France to the U.S., when Angelina claims an argument broke out between Brad and their oldest boy, Maddox, which she alleges escalated into some sort of physical confrontation and resulted in Brad making contact with the kid.

Brad denied her characterization, saying the contact was inadvertent -- but the case was still investigated by Child Services and the authorities when they landed ... which eventually got kicked over to the FBI over jurisdiction. Since it happened in the air, it was their game.

In the end, the FBI closed the case and declined to file any charges ... as they felt there simply wasn't enough there to move forward. And yet, all these years later ... here's a Jane Doe wanting to get to the bottom of how exactly they reached a similar conclusion in what may be the same matter.

As for what this woman apparently wants with these records ... to "better understand the FBI's investigation and obtain information necessary for her children to receive medical care and trauma counseling." Her attorney also makes it sound like she wants to use these records in other DV advocacy work she might be involved in, politically or otherwise.

Michelle Obama's brother has major beef with a private school in Wisconsin that he claims booted his two sons after complaints of racial bias in their curriculum.

According to reports, Craig Robinson and his wife, Kelly, are suing the University School of Milwaukee -- a private pre-K-through-12 institution -- saying the honchos excused their boys last year without merit ... and in complete retaliation for something their parents brought to their attention.

The Robinsons allege that in 2021, while their kids were doing virtual learning, they filed two reports to school administrators detailing what they felt were examples of racist stereotypes and bias embedded into their lessons and homework assignments.

It's not entirely clear what exactly they felt was problematic -- beyond use of the word "plantation" and an apparent insensitivity to socio-economic status, as Craig explained on 'GMA' -- but in any case, the Robinsons felt strongly enough to flag it to USM.

Shortly thereafter, the Robinsons claim the school sent a letter notifying them that their sons -- who were 11 and 9 -- were being dismissed ... because of what the school felt was a hostile attitude and "complete breakdown in your family's trust of and respect for USM," per the suit.

The Robinsons say they're shocked, as they felt their kids were "model students" and that they'd taken the proper steps to address what they genuinely believed was a problem.

Now, they're pissed and want some justice -- suing for breach of contract and racial discrimination. BTW, looks like this school ain't cheap by any means ... tuition for each kid ran the parents more than $20k each. So, you can understand why they're fuming.

Aariel Maynor, the man that shot and killed Jacqueline Avant, bragged to his friends over the phone from jail after murdering the 81-year-old philanthropist ... this according to the prosecutor seeking to lock him up for the rest of his life.

According to court documents, obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Maynor laughed about all the publicity he's been getting to a friend during a jail call ... she didn't think it was funny, telling him he shouldn't be joking about someone's life. He told her it was all over the news, wondering "You think my mama's seen that, though?"

He told her he expected to get $50K from the Avant's house before the robbery went south.

He reportedly called another friend from jail and told them he expected to only serve a max of 25 years because the prosecutors did not file a so-called "special circumstances" murder charge -- which could've resulted in life without parole, or even the death penalty.

As we reported, Maynor broke into the Avants' Beverly Hills home in December, opening fire on Jacqueline with his assault long barrel pistol. She was taken to a hospital but died of her injuries.

Police caught Maynor an hour later ... after he was found attempting to burglarize another home in the Hollywood Hills but accidentally shot himself in the foot.

Bam Margera is working out again as part of his latest rehab program ... and one of his oldest friends says it's the best Bam has been in ages.

Bam's "Jackass" and "Viva La Bam" costar, Brandon Novak, tells TMZ ... it's the closest Bam has been to the person he was when they were growing up together on the skateboard scene.

Bam's working out at Recovery Through Repetition, a fitness gym for folks who are in recovery, and Brandon says they took Bam to his first class Friday night and the plan is to get Bam exercising on a consistent basis.

TMZ broke the story ... Bam said one of his earlier rehab stints made him feel like he was going to die from an overdose or suicide, and he claimed he was seeking help in Florida.

Bam got booted from the latest 'Jackass' movie because he failed a drug test ... but he sued and last week a settlement was reached.