Ex-Fugees rapper Pras made a play at the New York Post’s wallet for $30 million after he accused them of defamation of character. Unfortunately for him, a judge didn’t see it that way and ruled in favor of the satirical newspaper.
Via The Jasmine Brand:
Pras filed the federal lawsuit explaining the article was false and he had nothing to do with the charity nor was he ever set to perform at the benefit. He claimed the story caused him to seek therapy due to numerous people reaching out to him asking how he could do such a thing for a 9/11 benefit. He demanded 30 million in damages from the Post.
Then on November 26th, the NY Post fired back at Pras, saying that everything they printed was true — including him bailing on the event, the charity being one he was involved with and even information about him failing to register the charity with NY officials as required by law.
The Post says that Pras was indeed a board member of Hope For Them, that was until they ran their article and the president of the foundation downgraded him to “good friend” of the organization. The newspaper claims they only did this after their reporter started digging into the charity. The newspaper blasted the artist for filing suit and claimed the lawsuit is nothing more than a celebrity attempting to silence the media criticism. They demanded his 30 mill lawsuit be dismissed and he be awarded NOTHING.
Then on March 4th, the federal court judge came back with his decision and threw out Pras’ entire lawsuit and awarded him nothing.
The judge explains that the NY Post is known for being less than serious in it’s reporting and that the tone of the article does not qualify for something that is defamatory.
Further, the order says that the facts in the article are partly from an anonymous source which means that the writers of the piece thought the information provided was somewhat accurate — but really leaving the reader to decided if the information was true in the story. The order says that since Pras did not meet the legal standard for defamation he cannot sue for emotional distress — so all the claims are thrown out and the case is dismissed with the singer being awarded nothing out of his 30 million lawsuit.
Pras had told Hip-Hop Wired that he felt Page Six had a vendetta against him. It will be interesting to see how future reports on his child support situation play out from this point on.
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Photo: WENN
