Legal

Kim Kardashian just got some much-needed protection against a scary individual who not only showed up at her home multiple times ... but also claimed to be armed.

Kim's legal team was in court Monday when she was awarded a restraining order against Andre Persaud ... the ruling means Persaud is prohibited from contacting Kim and must stay at least 100 yards away from her. It'll last for the next 5 years.

According to legal docs -- obtained by TMZ -- Persaud showed up at her home at least 3 times back in August, she says she's never met the guy, and was worried he might escalate things to physical violence ... especially given the fact Persaud allegedly claimed to be armed.

If showing up at her home wasn't scary enough -- Persaud also allegedly posted about Kim on social media, and in one particular instance Kim says he, "claimed that I had been communicating with him telepathically."

The man charged for shooting Lady Gaga's dog walker last year just got a stiff punishment for the crime ... landing behind bars for decades.

James Howard Jackson was sentenced Monday to 21 years in prison in Los Angeles County -- this after accepting a plea deal from the District Attorney's Office. Jackson was one of five men hauled in by police and accused of carrying out the violent act in 2021.

A rep for the L.A. County D.A.'s office tells us Jackson pled no contest to a count of attempted murder and admitted the allegation of inflicting great bodily injury to a prior strike.

Prosecutors alleged Jackson was the one who actually fired the shot at Ryan Fischer that night in an attempt to steal Gaga's two French bulldogs.

Video obtained by TMZ showed the wild altercation -- the group literally rolled up and hopped out to attack Ryan, shooting him in the process.

Jackson was facing the most serious charges, attempted murder and 2 extra firearm counts, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and a felon carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle.

You'll recall ... he was actually temporarily released by mistake earlier this year after a clerical error by the Sheriff's Dept. Fischer told us at the time he was freaked out, and was calling on police to apprehend him swiftly.

In the end, they did ... and now, he's going away for a long time. It's unclear where things stand with the other four men connected to the case ... two others were also charged with attempted murder, while the final 2 were slapped with accessory charges, among others.

The mother of Todd and Julie Chrisley's granddaughter is vowing to get her daughter back ... and the path could be clear now that Todd and Julie are headed for prison.

Angela Johnson, the mother of 10-year-old Chloe, tells TMZ ... she's in the process of getting the gears turning to regain full custody of her daughter. Todd currently has full custody of Chloe.

She says she's been working with a legal team for years to get Chloe back, but concedes it's been super tough to gain traction. Chloe and the Chrisleys lived in Atlanta before the Chrisleys moved to Tennessee. Angela, who currently lives in South Carolina, tells us all the moves have created a jurisdictional nightmare in her custody battle.

Angela had Chloe with Kyle, Todd & Julie's son, back in 2012. Kyle lost custody in 2016 because of his drug addiction, leaving Angela to share custody with Todd.

Angela was arrested that same year for allegedly filing a false application for Medicaid assistance ... leaving Todd with sole custody.

Angela has copped a plea to put the case behind her ... and now she wants her daughter back. Something's gotta give, since Todd was just sentenced to 12 years in prison for bank fraud and tax evasion.

As we reported, Savannah Chrisley vowed last month she'd be getting custody of Chloe once her parents are locked up, but clearly Angela is not down with that.

Stay tuned ...

Kelly Clarkson says a strange person is showing up to her house, trespassing on her property and leaving her unwanted gifts ... so, now she's getting the police involved.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... for the past month, the same person's been popping up at Kelly's L.A. area home, going up to her porch and dropping things off for her.

We're told they're leaving behind cards, plants and other random items for Kelly ... even though she told cops she's never met them before, and doesn't know who the stranger is.

Our sources say Kelly has yet to come face-to-face with the intruder, but we're told her security was concerned enough to call LAPD to file a report ... and now LAPD Threat Management is investigating.

Cops see the person's alleged behavior as very troubling -- they don't know yet if it's a fan who means no harm, or a situation that could escalate into something far more sinister.

Our sources say Kelly's got surveillance footage of the person dropping stuff off on her porch ... and LAPD is trying to identify them for a background check, and to assess potential threats.

England soccer star Raheem Sterling has left the World Cup in Qatar ... after learning that intruders had broken into his family home back in the UK.

The burglary, according to Surrey Police, happened in Oxshott on Saturday night -- just hours before England was slated to play Senegal on Sunday in the round of 16 at the famed soccer tournament.

Sterling did not play in the contest, which England won, as he returned home to be with his family.

Cops said in a statement on Monday that occupants at the home had called police after noticing jewelry and watches had been taken from the residence.

"No threat of violence was involved," police said, "as the items were discovered stolen retrospectively. Enquiries into the circumstances are ongoing."

It's unclear if Sterling will return to the World Cup at any point later this month. England is scheduled to play France on Saturday, with a spot in the tourney's Final Four on the line.

"Our thoughts are with him and his family," England captain Harry Kane said over the weekend. "It's a private matter but it's never easy to see one of your teammates and friends deal with something like that."

"We'll have to take it day by day. I'm sure Raheem will speak to the manager and take the best decision for him and his family. That's the most important thing. We send him our best wishes and hope to see him as soon as possible."

The only people more pissed than Taylor Swift at Ticketmaster are her fans -- a couple dozen of whom are now suing because they got shut out of the chaotic presale for her 'Eras' Tour.

The fans, who are from all over the country, want Ticketmaster to pay dearly for, in their estimation, allowing bots and scalpers to royally screw up the November 15 presale event. As we reported, millions of fans had to wait hours in a digital "lineup" in hopes of scoring seats -- but the vast majority of them never even got a sniff of a single ticket.

According to docs, obtained by TMZ, Ticketmaster was supposed to send "verified" Taylor Swift fans a code on Nov. 14, which would allow them access to the presale event -- but the angry fans say thousands of them either didn't get a code, or were sent malfunctioning codes.

In the suit, they accuse Ticketmaster of intentional deception, because the company controls the primary ticket sale market, as well as the secondary market -- aka scalpers. The fans allege Ticketmaster was "eager to allow" scalpers access to the presale ... Ticketmaster would collect additional fees every time a scalper resold a ticket.

Translation: Ticketmaster's double-dipping with scalpers, while Taylor's true fans get left nothing.

Even if you don't buy Ticketmaster intentionally cozied up to scalpers and bots -- the fans say, at the very least, the company was inept ... in that it was ill-prepared for the flood of Swifties who would try to get tickets to Taylor's first tour since the covid pandemic.

As we told you, Taylor herself called out Ticketmaster for this issue ... saying the company had reassured her and her team they could handle the volume of fans.

The fans are alleging fraud, price fixing and antitrust violations ... as they claim Ticketmaster is the only game in town when it comes to large concert venues that can accommodate artists as big as Taylor.

Houston PD says they've made an arrest in the shooting death of Takeoff.

The department's chief addressed the media Friday, announcing they arrested 33-year-old Patrick Xavier Clark and charged him with the murder of Takeoff.

As we reported, Takeoff was killed early morning November 1 after he and Quavo were partying at a local bowling alley. At some point, the celebration turned into an argument, which led to a physical altercation and a shooting.

Cops say Takeoff was not part of the argument and he was not armed, he was an innocent bystander who was hit by gunfire. What's more, investigators say nearly 30 people were at the scene when the shooting happened -- and almost everyone left without giving a statement to police. They still ask those who were in attendance come in and talk.

Takeoff was shot in the head and torso according to the coroner's report -- and was pronounced dead at the scene. Two others suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

TMZ obtained video of the incident from 2:30 AM -- you can see and hear Quavo arguing with someone, and Takeoff is a few feet behind him. There's some sort of a discussion about basketball before shots start to ring out.

Another angle -- also obtained by TMZ -- showed a man dressed in black with a handgun in his right pocket just seconds before the gunfire, showing multiple people were armed at the event.

San Francisco is heading down a dangerous, slippery slope with its proposal to deploy robots that can use lethal force ... that's according to the President of the city's board of supervisors.

Shamann Walton joined us Friday on "TMZ Live," and ran down a list of ways he feels the armed police robots could backfire, and he says hacking is a huge concern.

In case you missed it, San Fran's board of supervisors approved the robots in an 8-3 vote ... with Shamann being one of the few opposing. After the approval, he said voting against the policy didn't make him anti-cop, just pro-people of color.

Critics are concerned innocent POC could be disproportionately harmed when these robots are deployed at city crime scenes.

To be clear, San Fran's not talking about "Robocop"-like androids -- they're talking about remote-controlled machines, similar to ones already used by bomb squads. The difference is these would be armed with bullets and explosives.

Shamann says the department's reasons for using robots just don't track for him, and he gives several examples where they wouldn't be practical.

Proponents say the robots could be valuable in mass shooter situations -- like Uvalde, TX, for instance -- but Shamman says he, and many parents, wouldn't be comfortable sending in a robot when kids could be hurt or killed.

Jalen Kitna will not play at the Univ. of Florida again following his child porn arrest this week ... the school just dismissed the quarterback from the team.

The Gators made the decision on Friday morning -- two days after authorities said the 19-year-old sent child exploitation material over Discord, a popular social media messaging platform, in June.

After initially suspending the signal-caller following his arrest, the school called the allegations against Kitna "extremely serious charges" and behavior that it has "zero tolerance for."

UF officials have yet to make a public comment on the dismissal.

Kitna was in custody for roughly 24 hours following his arrest on Wednesday afternoon, but was released from jail on $80,000 bond on Thursday evening.

His famous father, ex-NFL star Jon Kitna, promised during testimony at Jalen's court hearing Thursday morning that he would take his son back to live with him in Texas during the pre-trial process. Jalen must not use the Internet and must not have unsupervised contact with minors as part of the conditions of his release.

Survivors of the Ulvade school shooting claim the school district, law enforcement and first responders didn't act fast enough during the massacre, and now they're suing for $27 billion.

The class-action lawsuit was filed, Tuesday -- in federal court in Austin, TX -- by parents, teachers and students who say they were present the day of the shooting and are seeking damages for "the indelible and forever-lasting trauma" endured from the horrific shooting ... this according to multiple reports.

In the documents, the survivors say, "Law enforcement took seventy-seven minutes to accomplish what they were duty bound to expeditiously perform."

According to the lawsuit, the survivors claim that "[i]nstead of swiftly implementing an organized and concerted response to an active school shooter who had breached the otherwise 'secured' school buildings at Robb Elementary school, the conduct of the three hundred and seventy-six (376) law enforcement officials who were on hand for the exhaustively torturous seventy-seven minutes of law enforcement  indecision, dysfunction, and harm, fell exceedingly short of their duty bound standards."

As we've reported, 19 children and 2 teachers were gunned down on May 24 at Robb Elementary, in Uvalde, Texas.

You'll recall, video showing police retreat from the gunman sparked outrage from families and school staffed. One teacher, who lost 11 students, blames first responders for not acting fast enough.

Balenciaga is tossing out its massive suit against a marketing agency that it claimed was to blame for its recent controversial photoshoots ... and instead is doing a 180, focusing on organizations that benefit the protection of kids.

President and CEO Cedric Charbit released a statement Friday on social media ... saying "Balenciaga has decided not to pursue legal action" -- ditching the $25M lawsuit against North Six from earlier this week.

Balenciaga instead seems to be pivoting from attack mode ... saying the company's "current process for content validation has failed" and adding it's going to be starting up an image board -- tasked with evaluating all aspects of content going forward.

The company says it's also working with an agency to better assess its projects, amongst other company-wide changes.

He says the company's put aside a "significant fund" for grants to go to orgs that benefit the protection of children ... ending by apologizing for what went down and adding Balenciaga doesn't tolerate "any kind of violence and hatred message."

As we reported, Balenciaga came under fire for a series of shoots -- one where children held BDSM-themed bears, and another featuring what appeared to be legal docs related to a Supreme Court case dealing with child pornography.

Balenciaga came for North Six, a company that was involved with one of the photoshoots, with the big lawsuit ... but a source connected to the shoot told us North Six wielded no creative power in the project and claimed it wasn't ultimately responsible for any harm to Balenciaga's reputation from the controversy.

Cynthia Bailey and Mike Hill are signed, sealed and divorced -- less than 2 months after announcing their split, they've hammered out a settlement ... TMZ has learned.

"The Real Housewives of Atlanta" alum and the Fox Sports anchor wasted no time putting together the divorce agreement -- a Fulton County court judge signed off on it Thursday ... so they're both officially single.

The exes hit their 2nd anniversary back in October -- without celebration, we should say -- and then a few days later announced they were breaking up. In the divorce docs, obtained by TMZ, Cynthia says the marriage is irretrievably broken with no shot of reconciliation, and she accuses Mike of "inappropriate adulterous relations."

As for Mike's side -- he's choosing to remain silent, saying he will not file any response to the allegations. He actually signed the divorce agreement first, on October 20, and Cynthia signed on November 1.

The now-exes made it easy to go their own ways because they never intermingled their finances, taxes or property during their 2 years together.

They had 2 separate homes, which each will keep. They didn't have kids together, and they've agreed neither will pay spousal support. Mike didn't even retain a lawyer!

Cynthia and Mike threw a big lavish wedding, back in 2020, at Governors Towne Club in Georgia -- and the party was featured in season 13 of 'RHOA.'

Florida Gators quarterback Jalen Kitna shared an image on a popular social media messaging platform of an adult male having sex with a pre-pubescent female ... this according to cops.

The Gainesville Police Department spelled out the highly disturbing allegations in an arrest report, obtained by TMZ Sports, on Thursday.

In the docs, cops say they received a tip back on June 23, claiming that a Discord user with the account name "jjkit7#8147" had uploaded the image just two days prior, on June 21.

Cops say after launching a thorough investigation, they found out the account belonged to Kitna -- and claim he had also shared another image on June 21 of a pubescent juvenile female exposing herself as well.

According to the docs, Kitna shared the photos during a chat with two separate Discord users.

During one of the alleged conversations, after sharing the image, the person on the receiving end wrote to Kitna, "Wait what. Dude. Are they under 18. Bruh. Nooo."

The docs do not say whether or not Kitna replied.

Police say they eventually executed a search warrant over it all at Kitna's Florida residence on Wednesday ... and seized his phone. According to the documents, an ensuing search of the device revealed he was in possession of three more child sexual abuse images, depicting two nude pubescent juveniles in different poses.

As we reported, Kitna was arrested and booked on five separate child pornography charges. He was granted bail on Thursday at a hearing, after his famous father -- former NFL quarterback Jon Kitna -- testified in court.

The Univ. of Florida, meanwhile, has suspended the 19-year-old from the football team in wake of the arrest, calling the allegations "extremely serious" and ones that the school has "zero tolerance" for.

Actor Frank Vallelonga Jr., famous for his work in the Oscar-winning "Green Book," has died ... TMZ has confirmed.

The NYPD tells TMZ ... police responded Monday morning to a 911 call about an unconscious man in the Bronx, and when they got there they found a dead body in the street, which was later identified as Frank.

Cops say the Medical Examiner will determine an official cause of death. Meanwhile, police tell us a suspect has been criminally charged with dumping Frank's corpse. Cops also say the suspect told police Frank overdosed.

Frank's late father is "Sopranos" star Tony Lip, who played New York mob boss Carmine Lupertazzi in the HBO series ... and his brother, Nick Vallelonga, is the co-writer and producer for "Green Book," which won two Academy Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture.

In fact, "Green Book" is about Frank's father ... Tony worked as a bouncer and was hired to drive and protect pianist Don Shirley during an early 1960s tour through the Jim Crow South. In the movie, Viggo Mortensen portrays Tony and Frank plays his other brother, Rudy Vallelonga.

Cops say the suspect dumped Frank's body from a car owned by Nick -- but Nick told police the suspect did not have permission or authority to drive the car.

Frank was 60.

Idaho authorities seem to be back to square one ... they just reversed a key finding in their investigation into the slaughter of four college students.

The Moscow Police Department released a "clarification" on Facebook Wednesday night, saying they are now UNSURE if the victims or the murder house were targeted by the killer or killers.

The statement read ... "We have spoken with the Latah County Prosecutor’s Office and identified this was a miscommunication. Detectives do not currently know if the residence or any occupants were specifically targeted but continue to investigate."

Latah County prosecutor Bill Thompson sparked confusion during a recent interview with NewsNation, stating the assailant/assailants were "specifically looking at this particular residence." He added the use of the term "targeted" was likely a mistake because it implied one or more of the victims were in the killer/killers' crosshairs.

Thompson's words muddled the message from Moscow Police Chief James Fry, who has been adamant since the beginning of the probe that it was a "targeted attack," but he never explained why. Police have not identified the suspect/suspects or released a motive. Few details about the crimes are publicly known.

Four University of Idaho students were discovered fatally stabbed inside an off-campus home on November 13. Investigators believe the murder weapon was a combat knife similar to the one used by the Rambo character in the '80s film, 'First Blood.' But, the weapon has not been found.

With the killer/killers at large and little if no answers from police ... many university students -- out of fear -- have opted to attend classes remotely.

Jon Kitna was in a Florida court room on Thursday morning ... guaranteeing a judge that if his son was granted bail in his child pornography case, the former NFL star would make sure the 19-year-old returned for every required hearing going forward.

Jon wore a tie and a checkered suit for the proceedings -- which went down less than 24 hours after Jalen Kitna was arrested in Gainesville for possession of child porn -- and he ensured over and over again that he and his wife would follow every rule and regulation imposed on their son if he was released from custody Thursday.

Jon, along with his wife, emphatically told the judge that Jalen would live with them in Texas ... as long as the Florida Gators quarterback was out on pre-trial release.

The former Dallas Cowboys signal-caller's testimony apparently helped his son ... as the judge ultimately set the younger Kitna's bond at $80,000. In making the ruling, the judge ordered that Jalen must not use the Internet and must not have unsupervised contact with minors.

Jalen appeared very somber during the hearing ... at times burying his head in his hands. He said little, except for when acknowledging questions from the judge.

Court records show the teenager has been formally hit with five felony charges in the case.

As we reported, Jalen has been suspended from the Florida football team following his arrest ... with the school saying in a statement, "These are extremely serious charges and the University of Florida and the UAA have zero tolerance for such behavior."