Legal

Turns out, Jalen Carter's legal woes didn't impact his NFL draft status that much at all ... the former Univ. of Georgia star was just selected by the Eagles with the No. 9 overall pick.

Commissioner Roger Goodell announced Philadelphia's selection minutes ago in Kansas City ... sharing a big hug with the 22-year-old on stage -- a somewhat surprising scene, considering Carter's tumultuous March.

You'll recall, while the defensive lineman was in Indianapolis for the NFL's annual scouting combine back on March 1 ... authorities in Georgia issued a warrant for his arrest.

Officials alleged he had been racing a UGA football assistant moments before her fatal car crash in January ... and charged him with one count of misdemeanor reckless driving and one count of misdemeanor racing.

With the case still lingering over his head two weeks later, Carter showed up to UGA pro day on March 15 ... and struggled.

While the football player eventually reached a plea deal with prosecutors to close out his reckless driving case on March 16 ... many had expected it all to impact where the blue-chip prospect could fall during Thursday night's first round.

In fact, ex-NFL general manager Michael Lombardi told TMZ Sports he'd have "a lot of concern" picking the guy.

But, Carter ultimately went right around where he was expected to be picked before the charges were levied ... and he's now slated to sign a 4-year deal in Philly worth more than $23 million.

Jonathan Majors has just been ordered to keep away from the ex-girlfriend he allegedly assaulted, TMZ has learned ... but his team still denies he attacked her.

A rep for the Manhattan D.A.'s office tells TMZ ... a judge granted a full temporary order of protection Thursday for the alleged victim, at her request. We're told Majors didn't oppose the request, and the case is scheduled to return to court in a couple of weeks.

Majors' attorney, Priya Chaudhry, tells us, "We consented because Mr. Majors wants nothing to do with the woman who assaulted him" -- adding their team provided evidence from a doctor and trauma specialist, which they insist backs up his side of the story.

Chaudhry goes on to say, "It is disturbing that even when presented with this incontrovertible evidence, the District Attorney continues this false case."

TMZ broke the story ... Majors' legal team submitted security footage which they say shows his ex went to a nightclub after the alleged attack, and didn't seem to be injured at all. As you know, she alleges Majors broke her finger and left a laceration behind her ear.

We asked the D.A. for comment regarding the surveillance video, but they have yet to respond.

The D.A.'s reportedly been in contact with other alleged victims ... though, that's yet to be confirmed, and it's unclear if it would even be admissible IF Majors' case goes to trial.

Anthony Edwards' attorney is livid that prosecutors elected to hit the NBA superstar with assault charges this week ... saying the counts against his client are "baseless."

Harvey Steinberg, Edwards' rep, released a scathing statement on the matter on Thursday afternoon ... a day after the Timberwolves' guard was cited for tossing around a folding chair in the aftermath of Minnesota's loss to the Nuggets in Denver.

"With the game over," Steinberg said, "Anthony's exit from the court was partially obstructed by a chair, which he moved and set down three steps later."

"As video of the incident confirms, Anthony did not swing the chair at anyone and of course did not intend to hurt anyone."

The attorney added, "Anthony intends to vigorously defend against these baseless charges."

According to the Denver Police Dept., when Edwards picked up the chair and spun it in his arms, he struck two women with it. Cops say both suffered injuries.

Monica Aldama of "Cheer" fame and Navarro College where the series takes place, are being taken to court ... after one of their cheerleaders claims the program tried to sweep her sexual assault claims under the rug.

According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Navarro cheer squad member Madi Lane claims she was sexually assaulted during her first semester at the Texas college in 2021 in her own dorm room by team member Salvatore "Salvo" Amico.

Lane claims her roommate wanted to bring Amico back to their dorm room, and eventually went back to bed when her roommate, roommate's boyfriend, and Amico were all in the living room.

After some time, Lane claims her roommate and their boyfriend came into the bedroom, while Amico followed and got on Lane's bed and started taking off her clothes. She says she screamed at him to stop, but he kept going and inserted his fingers inside her.

Lane says she was eventually able to get him to stop, but when she brought it to her team's attention, she claims one of the "veteran" cheerleaders, Maddy Brum, told her, "You just need to drink it off and get your mind off it" and "We don't tell anyone. We just keep it to ourselves."

On top of that, Lane says she took her concerns to Coach Aldama, who allegedly told her, "Let's not make this a big deal. I want the best for you and I will help you cheer wherever you want." Lane claims, when she quit the team a few days later, Aldama told her, "If you keep quiet, I’ll make sure you can cheer anywhere you want."

Nate Diaz is now in custody in New Orleans ... jail records, obtained by TMZ Sports, show the ex-UFC star turned himself in early Thursday morning after an arrest warrant was issued for him earlier this week.

According to the records, Diaz was booked at 7:40 AM on a charge of second-degree battery.

No further details surrounding the turn-in were made immediately available.

As we reported, the New Orleans Police Dept. initially issued the arrest warrant for the 38-year-old fighter on Monday ... two days after he was seen on video choking out a man during a large altercation on Bourbon Street.

In the footage, you can see Diaz -- who was in Louisiana to watch the Misfits Boxing 6 event  -- got a guy in a headlock ... and choked him unconscious before he laid the dude down in the street. Cops said the man suffered a head wound in the altercation.

After the arrest warrant was issued, Diaz's rep, Zach Rosenfield, said Diaz was innocent ... and "acted entirely in self-defense."

Diaz is slated to fight Jake Paul in a boxing match later this summer. It's unclear if Wednesday's arrest will alter any plans for the much-anticipated fight.

Tyrese Gibson says he can pay the more than half a million bucks for child support and his ex-wife's lawyers -- but he still thinks the judge did him dirty, and that's why he's gonna keep fighting it in court.

Tyrese laid it all out Wednesday at LAX, one day after he was ordered to pay $636K -- with $237K going to his ex-wife Samantha Lee Gibson for back child support and $399K going to her attorneys.

He's got no doubts he can cover the steep fee, and confirms he'll always support his kids ... but insists he won't be takin' this ruling lying down, and instead plans to appeal it.

You gotta see him boldly declare his battle will be one for the ages ... one that actually changes laws for all child support cases in Georgia. He believes you'll be hearing Gibson v. Gibson cited in future court hearings once he gets what he sees as justice.

As we reported, Tyrese refused to pay the $10K/month the judge ordered last August ... which is why he was held in contempt Tuesday in court.

He even ripped Judge Farmer on social media ahead of the hearing ... and the judge certainly clapped back, at least financially, with his ruling.

Anthony Edwards has been cited for assault, TMZ Sports has confirmed ... after the NBA superstar swung a chair in frustration following the Timberwolves' loss on Tuesday night.

The incident happened just after Minnesota dropped its playoff series to the Nuggets in Denver ... when Edwards was running off the floor, ticked off over the 112-109 defeat that sent the Wolves into their offseason.

Video shows as the 21-year-old was on his way into the locker room, he grabbed a folding chair and swung it around. He ultimately dropped it ... before he continued on his way to Minnesota's dressing area.

But according to the Denver Police Department, two women who were working the game at Ball Arena claim they were struck by the chair as Edwards spun it in his arms. Cops say they suffered injuries during the incident.

According to police documents, Edwards was cited for misdemeanor third-degree assault -- knowingly or recklessly causing bodily injury.

If convicted, Edwards faces up to 18 months in jail and/or fines totaling $1,000.

He's due in court for a hearing on the matter in June.

The Wolves said in a statement Wednesday evening they were aware of the citation and "are in the process of gathering more information. We have no further comment at this moment."

Pras is guilty of committing fraud according to the jury in the federal trial where the Fugees rapper was accused of trading political influence in exchange for millions from Malaysian fugitive Jho Low.

During the trial Pras admitted accepting $20 million from Low for a photo-op with then-President Barack Obama as he ran for reelection -- and also helped set up a scheme to illegally funnel money to the Obama campaign through straw donors. Prosecutors were not going after the Obama campaign.

High-profile witnesses Leonardo DiCaprio and former Attorney General Jeff Sessions took the stand during the case.

Pras reportedly blamed his decision to participate in the schemes on the bad advice of an attorney, but that clearly didn't sway the jury as he's now looking at up to 20 years in prison.

We spoke to Pras outside court during the heat of the trial and he didn't have much to say. The jury clearly felt he said more than enough in court.

Bam Margera is on the run from the police with his girlfriend and her 8-year-old child, and to make matters worse, he's developed an addiction to meth ... at least according to his brother, Jess Margera.

The former "Jackass" star's sibling is making the alarming allegations on Twitter, claiming Bam is in a really bad place right now.

Jess says Bam is traveling by car with his girlfriend and her daughter, and he says he "can't even imagine the environment in that car night now," worrying about the kid's safety and adding ... "she doesn't deserve this unnecessary trauma."

Bam's brother claims he's picked up a meth habit recently and is now "unrecognizable." Jess says he doesn't know what Bam's capable of when he's using meth and says it's been "scary" and "heartbreaking" to see Bam "hallucinating."

TMZ broke the story ... Bam's got a warrant out for his arrest in Pennsylvania, where State Police say Bam got into an altercation with his family and then made a getaway into the woods.

Disney is escalating its beef with Ron DeSantis ... it's now suing Florida's Governor for what Disney claims is a targeted campaign of retaliation, and one that's hurting the company's bottom line.

The Walt Disney Co. filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against DeSantis, ripping the Republican presidential hopeful as being "patently retaliatory, anti-business, and patently unconstitutional."

In the suit, Disney claims DeSantis is waging a "relentless campaign to weaponize government power" to punish Disney's political views ... with Disney saying the Governor's actions are now threatening its business, jeopardizing its economic future in Florida and violating its constitutional rights.

Disney says it regrets having to sue DeSantis, but the company says he gave them no choice ... pointing out DeSantis recently talked publicly about wanting to tax the hell out of Disney and build a state prison next to Walt Disney World.

In the suit, Disney says it's being "forced to defend itself against a State weaponizing its power to inflict political punishment" ... with Disney claiming DeSantis is orchestrating a retaliation campaign against the company simply because Disney "expressed an opinion with which the government disagreed."

Although the suit references the "government" in several places, Disney is not suing the state of Florida.

Remember ... the beef started when Disney came out in opposition to Florida's "Don't Say Gay" legislation, which DeSantis has championed. DeSantis then started targeting Disney's special tax district, which has essentially allowed Disney to self-govern in Florida since the 1960s.

Disney says the lawsuit is a response to DeSantis' hand-picked board of supervisors moving to undo a recent development deal Disney struck to strip the board's power over WDW.

Kim Kardashian says she'd be happy to give up reality TV to become a lawyer full time -- 'cause she sees it as just as fulfilling ... if not more so.

The beauty and fashion mogul was being interviewed at the TIME100 Summit Tuesday and talked about her criminal justice reform efforts ... getting into the nitty-gritty of her work to help secure the release of Alice Marie Johnson from prison.

As she was diving into this chapter of her life -- which she says has been eye-opening and life-changing on several fronts -- Kim was asked point blank ... could she ever see herself living a life not in front of the cameras? She answered quickly -- absolutely!

Kim goes on to say she and her extended family have come to cherish the private moments they share off-camera -- so a transition to post-reality TV wouldn't be that difficult.

Plus, it sounds like KK legitimately loves the art of law ... not to mention the idea of helping people in need. They discuss her progress in that regard -- Kim says she's taken and passed the baby bar exam.

Kim says she'll take the real bar exam in February ... so she could be a real-life attorney and actually pursue this new career that she's mulling over here in this chat -- IF she passes.

Kim's passion for law/justice has been well-documented over the past several years -- in addition to trips to D.C. for lobbying efforts, she's continued to speak out and highlight cases where she feels certain people have been wrongly imprisoned, including death row inmates.

It's interesting to hear her say she'd leave TV (and presumably the spotlight that comes with it) behind ... frankly, she's been an entertainment staple for about two decades now.

It'd certainly be the end of an era ... and we might be coming up on it sooner than later.

We covered it all in the latest episode of The TMZ Podcast, available on all podcast platforms!

Larry Bakman -- an ex-TV judge on the reality show "Hot Bench" -- might end up having to answer to one himself because an attorney claims he got violent ... and has the whole thing captured on audio.

Fari B. Nejadpour -- who's been repping a woman in a DV case here in L.A. -- tells TMZ ... Bakman is representing the woman's husband. Nejadpour says the case started last fall but things took a nasty turn this week.

According to Nejadpour ... Bakman had filed a motion asking that Nejadpour be disqualified as the wife's attorney due to an alleged conflict -- namely, he'd repped the aunt of a client of Bakman's about a year ago ... something Nejadpour says is completely irrelevant.

He filed an opposition to Larry's motion, which was going to be heard Monday in an L.A. courtroom -- Nejadpour tells us that's when he ran into Bakman in a courthouse hallway.

Nejadpour says he confronted Bakman about his filing, and claims Bakman responded with hostility ... allegedly replying, "F*** you, ass****."

Nejadpour tells us he was shocked and told Bakman he was going to record him to show the judge how he was behaving. He says he turned on the recorder and started following Bakman, who he says was walking away to enter the courtroom.

At this point -- which we're told is when the audio starts to pick up -- Nejadpour claims Bakman quickly turned around and punched him in the chest with both hands ... which Nejadpour says sent him crumbling to his feet and writhing in pain.

He tells us he checked into a hospital that day, where he currently remains. Nejadpour claims to have suffered a laceration to the right side of his chest and an injury to his knee ... he also says he wants Bakman prosecuted.

LAPD tells us a battery report was filed, and they're investigating. We're told Bakman hasn't been arrested.

We also reached out to Bakman, who declined to comment.

Jen Shah's husband will NOT be making any appearances in the upcoming season of "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" -- while she's doing time -- even though producers tried to get him on camera.

Multiple sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... producers approached Jen's husband, Sharrieff Shah, last month in hopes of getting him to appear in the new season, but after talking to his wife -- who's in federal prison -- he ultimately declined the offer.

We're told the Bravo show production team wanted to have Sharrieff meet up with the other husbands of "RHOSLC" to talk about Jen's prison bid and how he's dealing with it.

Our sources say one of the reasons Sharrieff and Jen ultimately decided to pass on him making cameos is because they're not happy with how the network treated her after she was sentenced to 6.5 years in prison.

In case you didn't know ... Jen blasted Bravo in January -- after the sentencing in her wire fraud case -- refusing a one-on-one with Andy Cohen and Bravo because "of their unwillingness to remove contractual provisions that allow the network to legally make misrepresentations of me and my story."

Despite the astronomical numbers that came out of today's hearing, Tyrese's attorney Tanya Mitchell Graham isn't too down about it. She tells TMZ ... they will file an appeal as soon as the judge's order is entered. She's also filed a motion for a new trial which will be heard next month.

As for the money -- Tyrese doesn't have to pay it all at once. The judge set May 15 as the due date for about $258K of it, but Tanya says that could be pushed back once their appeal is filed.

Also, the judge made a point of saying Tyrese has been paying child support all along, just not the $10K/month the court ordered -- instead, he's been paying $2,236/month. The $237K represents the monthly difference he owes, plus interest.

The judge Tyrese publicly called out before his child custody hearing is ordering him to fork over nearly $250K to his ex-wife, and almost $400K to her attorney!

The actor/singer was in Fulton County court Tuesday to deal with his ongoing child support battle with Samantha Lee Gibson -- the main issue being Tyrese refusing to pay the $10,000/month he was ordered to pay last August, because he felt the judge was "racist" and biased against him.

Also, as he stated on the stand today, Tyrese feels the $10K is excessive -- he claims Samantha doesn't need that much, because she makes good money on her own.

Leading up to today's hearing, Tyrese ripped Judge Kevin Farmer in a video calling on people like civil rights attorney Ben Crump and Martin Luther King III to show up in court to support him in his fight against the judge. They weren't there.

Inside court, the judge fired back at Tyrese for his failure to cough up the money he'd been ordered to pay, and held him in contempt of court. He could have been arrested, but the judge cut him a break ... well, aside from the staggering amounts of money he's gotta pay now.

Tyrese was ordered to pay a total of $237,944 in back child support for their daughter Soraya and $399K for Samantha's attorney fees. He also has to foot a $17K bill for the special master ... a referee, of sorts, appointed by the judge to handle minor disputes during the case.

You'll recall, Tyrese incurred Judge Farmer's wrath during last summer's hearing and was nearly held in contempt back then -- so, maybe it's not all that shocking today's proceedings were so testy.

Flo Rida failed to physically appear in NYC Family Court Tuesday, instead opting to attend virtually ... and that move did not go over well with the judge.

The "Good Feeling" rapper was previously ordered to pay 100% of the medical bills, education, and child support for Zohar, his 6-year-old son with his ex, Alexis Adams.

Flo recently won a huge $82.5 million award in an energy drink lawsuit ... and Alexis requested the judge order him to set aside $400k in a bank account to pay various expenses for their special-needs son.

Zohar is autistic and suffers from a rare disorder known as hydrocephalus. He also recently suffered a near-death experience when he accidentally fell 5 stories from his mother's New Jersey apartment on March 4.

While Alexis was able to make her case to the judge, Flo Rida didn't get that chance. We're told the judge wouldn't allow him to testify over Zoom.

Alexis claims Flo stopped paying the insurance at this crucial time, forcing her to file for Medicaid and Department of Education funding to cover Zohar's bills.

Alexis's attorney Dror Bikel tells TMZ... “He just got an $80 million judgment and his child is on Medicaid, it’s outrageous.”

She claims Flo has never even met Zohar, and all his social media postings such as Zohar "getting the best medical care" are all for show.

Halsey and her boyfriend Alev Aydin are calling it quits, and she wants to make sure their son is, primarily, with her when the dust settles.

According to docs obtained by TMZ ... the "You Should Be Sad" singer is seeking primary physical custody of their 1-year-old son, Ender. In the filing, Halsey notes she wants to share legal custody with Alev ... and she's fine with him getting visitation with Ender.

It's unclear what might have caused the breakup, but there are reports it's amicable.

Halsey and the writer/producer have been together for more than 3 years. You'll recall, she announced they were expecting a new baby together in January of 2021.