Legal

Russell Westbrook just scored another W over an NBA heckler -- the $100 million lawsuit filed against the NBA superstar has been thrown out ... TMZ Sports has learned.

According to court docs, a judge ruled in favor of Westbrook on Thursday ... saying he didn't defame anyone by clapping back at a couple who harassed him during a 2019 game in Utah.

As we previously reported, Westbrook was sued by Shane Keisel -- a U.S. Army vet who got into it with the then-OKC Thunder player during a March 11, 2019 game against the Jazz.

In his suit, Keisel admitted he tried to heckle Westbrook by telling the NBA star “that he should just sit down and ice his knees.”

But, Keisel claimed Westbrook misheard him ... and interpreted his words not only as a homophobic insult, but also "racial."

Westbrook said he thought he heard, "get down on your knees like you used to.”

The point guard then went nuclear on Keisel and his girlfriend, Jennifer Huff -- and it was all caught on video.

"I’ll f*ck you up," Westbrook was heard saying. "You and your wife. I’ll f*ck you up."

Keisel said he was only not only banned from Utah Jazz games for life, but was fired from his job, kicked out of a pilot training program and received death threats.

Keisel and Huff sued Westbrook and the Jazz for $100 MILLION for defamation, among other things, claiming he was wrongly being painted as a racist homophobe.

But, in court docs obtained by TMZ Sports, the judge in the case rejected the arguments, explaining Westbrook's statements were just opinions, not defamation.

The judge explained, "whether a person is racist or whether a statement is racial is a matter of opinion which cannot be verified as true or false."

The judge added, "It is only in the free expression of these ideas that the nation can hope to heal the historic wounds of slavery and racial injustice that fester still today. That healing cannot occur if public dialogue about racism is silenced under threat of defamation liability."

The court also noted Westbrook’s in-game threats were "coarse and offense" ... but were not extreme and/or outrageous enough to recover damages.

The judge also said Keisel and Huff remained in the arena to watch the rest of the game and there was never any real risk that Westbrook would make good on his threats.

Bill Cosby struck out on his attempt to get released from prison ... the parole board denied his request.

Cosby was denied parole this month, with the Pennsylvania Parole Board saying a lot of factors went into its decision to rule against the comedian. For instance, they say he didn't participate in a treatment program for sex offenders and he failed to develop a parole release plan.

The Board says strike 3 against Cosby is the fact he got a negative recommendation from the Department of Corrections.

Cosby's rep, Andrew Wyatt, tells TMZ ... Bill isn't surprised by the denial because members of the parole board told him he would be denied if he didn't participate in the sex offender program.

He's not giving up hope in his quest for parole, though ... Wyatt tells us Cosby is hopeful the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court will vacate his conviction and potentially grant him a new trial.

Lisa Marie Presley's wish is about to be a judge's command -- she hopes, because it's the final hurdle to complete a critical step in her divorce.

According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, the court has granted Lisa's request to bifurcate her divorce -- which means she and Michael Lockwood can change their marital status to single now and deal with other issues, like divvying up assets, later.

So, once the judge signs off on the order, they'll both be officially single.

TMZ broke the story ... Lisa wanted the judge to speed along her divorce case claiming Michael's been dragging his feet since she filed for divorce nearly 5 years ago.

Lisa said she's ready to start a new chapter in her life, and her bifurcation request was one way to get things going.

Cardi B claims she had ZERO involvement in the NYC beatdown of an autograph seeker ... and that's why she wants the guy's lawsuit against her tossed out of court.

According to new docs, obtained by TMZ, Cardi says autograph seeker Giovanni Arnold instigated the alleged attack in May 2018 following a Met Gala after-party. She claims Arnold can be heard on video verbally attacking her and Offset after unsuccessfully and aggressively trying to get her autograph.

The most incriminating part of the video, according to Cardi, is when Arnold shouts, "Please beat me up. I'll take all of your money."

In his lawsuit, Arnold alleged Cardi's 3 security guards dished the can of whoop-ass, but the rapper's calling BS. In docs, Cardi claims the unknown assailants did not work for her, nor did she give them directions or instructions to beat up anyone.

As for Arnold's allegation, he feared Cardi was going to slap him -- well, she's kinda laughing that off, saying she was 7 months pregnant at the time ... so it's highly unlikely anyone would legitimately fear her carrying out a physical attack.

Bottom line ... Cardi claims Arnold is a professional autograph hound who triggered the beatdown in order to get money from celebs -- but since she wasn't involved in the attack, she shouldn't be sued.

Shia LaBeouf has an avenue to get the charges dropped in his battery and petty theft case ... as long as he keeps his nose clean for the next year.

The "Honey Boy" star appeared in court Thursday and was placed into a judicial diversion program, which lays out several conditions he must satisfy in order to get his misdemeanor charges dismissed.

Here's the boxes Shia's gotta check off over the next 12 months ... attend private therapy for anger management at least once a week, continue with his alcohol monitoring, no attempts to use or obtain a weapon and no attempts to use force or violence.

TMZ broke the story ... Shia and a man got into some kind of verbal spat before the altercation allegedly turned physical back in June. Our sources had said when the dust settled ... Shia took the man's hat and left the scene.

It was unclear what led to the verbal altercation, but the man filed a police report and cops ultimately determined Shia was the aggressor. The case was ultimately handled by the L.A. City Attorney, who charged the actor with misdemeanor battery and petty theft charges.

Shia's also been ordered to stay 100 yards away from the location of the alleged incident, and he's gotta stay 100 yards away from the alleged victim, who he cannot contact.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is playing favorites based on race ... so says a reporter in a new lawsuit claiming she denied his request for an interview simply because he's white.

Thomas Catenacci, a reporter with super conservative news outlet The Daily Caller, is suing the Mayor over her new interview policy ... she says she'll only grant one-on-one interviews from journalists of color.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Catenacci claims he submitted an interview request May 20, followed up by another the next day and a third email 3 days later ... but got radio silence from Lightfoot's office. He claims Lightfoot has granted at least 1 interview request from a self-identified Latino reporter ... but his requests went unanswered.

The Mayor said she's sick and tired of looking at local media in Chicago that is pretty lily-white, so she's taking matters into her own hands and only granting 1-on-1's with people of color.

It's NOT sitting well with Catenacci ... who claims Lightfoot's policy is blatantly discriminatory and a violation of his rights -- specifically, Equal Protection under the law. He also thinks it's a violation of the First Amendment, which guarantees freedom of the press.

Catenacci is asking a judge to order Lightfoot to 86 her new policy.

We've reached out to Lightfoot's office, so far no word back.

Kim Kardashian has been trying to become a lawyer now for more than a year, but she's no closer to getting her license to practice law ... because she missed a passing grade on the baby bar exam.

Kim made it official on a preview of "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," where she fessed up to flunking. TMZ heard she flunked the exam months ago, but our Kardashian sources would not confirm.

That said, she can always try again. It's unclear if she took the exam a second time, because many months have passed.

Kim said, "If you are doing law school the way I'm doing it, it is a 4-year program instead of your typical 3-year program, and after year 1, you have to take the baby bar. This was actually harder, I hear, than the official bar."

Kim scored 474 on the exam ... a passing grade is 560.

Kim's mentor in taking the exam, attorney Jessica Jackson, said, "That is extremely close on a test that most people are not taking in the middle of a pandemic." A source tells us Kim had to take the test at home, while balancing her kids and other factors ... making it more difficult than taking the test in a controlled environment.

Amy Cooper -- who was branded Central Park "Karen" after calling cops on a Black man -- is taking her former employer to court, saying they painted her with a broad, racist brush.

Cooper is suing investment firm Franklin Templeton, where she worked before this whole mess, alleging defamation, negligence, infliction of emotional distress and racial discrimination.

In the docs, obtained by TMZ, Cooper claims FT fired her prematurely and without having all the facts. She goes on to say the honchos jumped on the bandwagon that was spreading across the country ... to portray her as another "privileged white female 'Karen.'"

She says they painted her as a racist when they announced they were cutting her loose in the days that followed ... saying they did not "tolerate racism of any kind," which Cooper believes wrongly labeled her, and helped ruin her life and future prospects.

Not just that, but Cooper says Franklin Templeton's claim of doing a full investigation -- which only lasted a couple days or so before they canned her -- wasn't up to snuff, and she claims they failed to review the entirety of her 911 calls for context.

Adding insult to injury ... Cooper claims FT didn't bother pulling notes from the New York City Park Board Meetings -- which she claims would've shed light on unproven allegations Christian Cooper, the guy with whom she had beef, had been noted as a pest in the park.

AC claims what was really going on that day is that Christian targeted her in a supposed ongoing feud between himself -- an avid bird watcher -- and dog owners in Central Park. She says she didn't call 911 out of racism, but out of genuine fear.

Brad Pitt just won a huge victory in his child custody war with Angelina Jolie, and she lost in a very big way ... TMZ has confirmed.

A judge just made a tentative ruling in the case, awarding Brad and Angelina 50/50 joint legal and physical custody of their 5 minor children. Maddox is 19 and not subject to the ruling.

Angelina had been gunning for sole custody and at the time only wanted Brad to have supervised visitation, but the judge felt her arguments that Brad was not a suitable parent lacked credibility ... this after numerous witnesses -- including shrinks -- testified in the trial.

A source connected to Brad tells TMZ, "he's over the moon."

The ruling is "tentative," but typically tentative rulings are just a formality before they become final. The NY Post first reported the ruling.

Something smells funky ... at least to the company behind those Little Tree car air fresheners, which is suing popular pet food company Chewy for allegedly ripping off its famous product.

Car Freshener Corporation claims Chewy is pimping a dog toy it describes as a “Frisco Retro Tree Freshener Plush Squeaky Dog Toy."

According to docs, obtained by TMZ, the Little Tree company says the dog toy is suspiciously similar in shape, color and overall appearance to its distinctively abstract Tree design.

In the suit, Car Freshener says for over 60 years it has built up its Little Tree air freshener brand ... slapping the tree on t-shirts, hats, socks, stickers and luggage tags, among other products.

What's more, Car Freshener says it's sold third parties like Buffalo Wild Wings, Purina PetCare, Kia and Capital One licenses to use the trees ... but NOT Chewy.

Car Freshener claims Chewy's dog toy copies the shape and basic dimensions of its Little Trees air freshener, while also featuring the white diagonal and horizontal banners emblazoned across the middle and bottom of the Little Trees air fresheners.

Car Freshener's pissed consumers will think it's in bed with Chewy ... although, it's unclear why that would be a bad thing.

Akon deserves an award for Most Respectful Citizen Calling the Cops, because he seriously kept his cool with a 911 operator ... who gave him a hard time while he tried to report his stolen ride.

TMZ has obtained the audio of Akon's call to Atlanta PD late Monday night -- where he says his Range Rover got jacked from him at a gas station ... while he was pumping.

It sounds like Akon had called 911 at least a couple times by the time he spoke with this operator, based on the convo he has with this woman, who honestly ... kinda breaks his balls a bit in the chat, and hilariously so.

Take a listen for yourself -- Akon starts by telling her he'd been carjacked at a gas station, and when she asks for the address, he gives her one ... but she quickly shoots that down as NOT being an Atlanta-area address, and asks him again.

Comes off as kinda rude, but Akon's still cool. He apologizes -- scrambling to get her the info she needs -- and eventually tells her he's actually got a tracker on the Rover, and he's providing the address where the vehicle is ... and that this is him calling 911 again to get the cops to respond faster.

The operator seems to take her sweet time processing the info, and then goes back to where this all happened in the first place. She asks if he was carjacked at gunpoint, and when he says no ... she sharply responds, "That ain't a carjacking," and says his car was simply stolen.

Akon agrees with her, and drops "yes, ma'am" throughout the call ... until finally, he tells her a squad car has arrived and they hang up.

Marilyn Manson's dodging authorities in New Hampshire ... at least according to cops who have a warrant to arrest him for an alleged assault, which we've learned went down at a concert, and appears to be a case of stray spit.

According to Gilford PD in NH... Manson is facing 2 counts of misdemeanor simple assault for the alleged run-in with a videographer. TMZ's obtained video that shows Manson sticking his face right in the camera lens, and unloading a huge wad of spit.

It's pretty graphic, as loogies go, but they don't call him a shock rocker for nothing. The videographer's camera was feeding the big screens during the show at the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion.

Police confirm the alleged assault took place during that August 2019 concert, and say the videographer, who was in the pit area at the time, was hired by the venue.

According to sources familiar with the case, the videographer is alleging some of Manson's saliva got on them, and that's why they went to cops. Gilford PD tells TMZ the alleged victim suffered "no injuries," but Manson was charged because the spitting constitutes "unprivileged physical contact."

Cops claim Manson, his agent and his legal team have known about the warrant for some time and despite that ... "no effort has been made by him to return to New Hampshire to answer the pending charges."

Our sources in Manson's camp deny that, and say they've been in contact with police ever since the warrant was issued back in October 2019.

Former President Donald Trump could soon be criminal defendant Trump ... prosecutors in New York have convened a grand jury that could indict him on criminal tax evasion and other charges related to the Trump org's business affairs.

The Manhattan district attorney recently convened the grand jury to hear evidence and weigh potential criminal charges against the former president ... according to the Washington Post. The grand jury will reportedly sit for 3 days a week over the next 6 months.

Prosecutors are said to be looking into Trump's business dealings before his 2016 election, including whether the Trump Organization manipulated the value of real estate properties to defraud insurance companies and banks.

The investigation was triggered by Michael Cohen's testimony before Congress about hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels. Cohen has supplied prosecutors with a boatload of documents.

Trump, meanwhile, has been keeping busy at his golf properties. The former Prez hit the links at his New Jersey course over the weekend, losing at least one ball into a manmade lake.

One year after George Floyd's murder sparked nationwide protests against police brutality, his family's meeting with President Biden as Congress struggles to pass the police reform bill bearing George's name.

The Prez hosted Floyd's family at the White House Tuesday, and George's nephew, Brandon Williams, says Biden seemed sincere in wanting to know how the family's doing and how he can help.

George's brother, Philonise Floyd, put pressure on lawmakers to pass police reform, saying if there are federal laws on the books to protect bald eagles, there should be laws to protect minorities.

We got more of Floyd's family on Capitol Hill, where they were accompanied by Lil Baby, and they told our photog it's the closest they've ever felt to meaningful change as they wait for reforms to pass.

George's daughter, Gianna, also showed us the coin she got from Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- her open invitation to return to the Capitol whenever she pleases.

As you know ... Floyd was killed on May 25, 2020 when Minneapolis PD officers were arresting him. Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on George's neck for more than 9 minutes ... was convicted of Floyd's murder last month.

Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris reacted to the guilty verdict by saying it would spark change in the country, and could help end systemic racism and make America a place where law enforcement treats everyone equally.

They also hoped it would lead to serious policing reform, with Biden pushing Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act -- which would create national policing standards, ban chokeholds and end legal protections for law enforcement against civil lawsuits -- by the 1-year anniversary of his death.

Bam Margera could be taking the "Jackass" drama a little too personally -- because the franchise's director just filed for a restraining order against him.

Jeff Tremaine -- who's shepherded the "Jackass" movies for years now -- just filed for a temporary restraining order against his onetime pal and star, Bam ... this following a messy few months of dirty laundry being aired, and conflicting accounts about production of the 4th film in the franchise.

It’s unclear at this point what exactly he claims might've happened now to warrant a judge's intervention, but we know this ... it comes on the heels of Bam going on a fuming rant against Tremaine and Johnny Knoxville.

He claims they strung him along to be part of "Jackass 4," only to cut him loose in the end over what Bam calls unreasonable demands.

Bam posted his latest claims from Florida, where he says he's on his own and seeking the help he needs. The guy's been in and out of rehab lately and his former costars -- including Steve-O -- say they’ve desperately been trying to get through to him.

Bam's gone back and forth for months with his former pals. You might recall, the dude was literally calling on fans to boycott the newest "Jackass" movie when it came out ... only to turn around a day or so later with an about-face.

The woman who jumped into a spider monkey enclosure at the El Paso Zoo might wanna see if the zoo's hiring -- because she's been fired from her job as a litigation assistant.

The Lovett Law Firm in El Paso told KVIA they recognized the woman, Lucy Rae, as one of their employees at the firm's personal injury division and fired her on Monday after identifying her as the trespasser.

A spokesperson reportedly said it does not condone her actions nor had any advanced knowledge of her intentions. Translation: She embarrassed the firm, so she's gotta go.

Rae's actions were described as "stupid and lucky" by the zoo's director because the monkeys could have done substantial damage. Rae jumped into the monkey pen over the weekend and fed Hot Cheetos to 2 monkeys, Libby and Sunday.

The zookeeper said Rae didn't just put herself in danger, but she also put the monkeys in danger because they're on a specialized diet, and the Hot Cheetos could cause stomach problems and bowel disruptions -- and who's gonna clean that up??!!