Hip-hop impresario Irv Gotti, the former Def Jam executive who first signed DMX and later fostered the careers of Ja Rule and Ashanti at his Murder Inc. Records label, is the subject of a new sexual assault lawsuit filed in Miami.
Gotti, whose legal name is Irving Domingo Lorenzo, was sued by the Jane Doe accuser on July 11. According to the lawsuit obtained by Rolling Stone, the woman alleges Gotti sexually abused her on multiple occasions starting in 2020 after they met through a mutual friend at a poker tournament, and she agreed to join him on a vacation in Saint Martin.
“After flying her to Saint Martin, Gotti coerced plaintiff into having sex with him. Gotti specifically threatened plaintiff that he would send her home if she did not comply with his demands. Accordingly, and due to his power and influence in the music world, she complied,” the lawsuit, first reported by the Miami New Times, states. The woman says she entered into an “abusive” two-year relationship with the producer.
“During this abusive relationship, Gotti demanded that plaintiff perform unwanted sexual acts and often berated and scolded her,” the complaint alleges. The Jane Doe claims Gotti forced her to perform oral sex in an elevator of a Four Seasons hotel in Miami in January 2022 and in an Uber during a subsequent trip to Atlanta that same year.
“As a result of this sexually abusive relationship, plaintiff has suffered severe emotional and psychological harm for which she had to be committed to a psychiatric ward,” the lawsuit states. The woman further alleges Gotti has been “slandering her to his vast social network in and around Los Angeles.”
Attempts to reach Gotti were not immediately successful on Tuesday. The woman is seeking compensatory damages to be determined at trial.
“She’s suffered a lot. She really has,” Jane Doe’s lawyer Adriana Alcalde, a former prosecutor in the Special Victims Unit of the Broward County State Attorney’s Office, tells Rolling Stone. “With the #MeToo movement, women feel a little bit more empowered to speak up and tell their truth.”
Gotti, 54, has worked with many of the biggest names in rap, including Jay-Z, Kanye West, and Fat Joe. He and his brother were acquitted in a high-profile money laundering case in 2005. Gotti had been charged with using his Murder Inc. record label to launder $1 million in drug proceeds for convicted gang leader Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff. Gotti, who had been facing up to 20 years in prison if convicted, said he was unfairly targeted due to his friendship with McGriff.
From Rolling Stone US
