A California court has thrown out the case of a woman who sued Roc-A-Fella co-founder Damon Dash for inappropriately touching her while she was sleeping at his house back in 2019.
Monique Bunn, a photographer, filed the lawsuit after the 51-year-old mogul allegedly sexually assaulted her while she was working on a video shoot at his home. She also sued for defamation of character, after the Harlem businessman posted a video on social media accusing her of racking up thousands of dollars on his credit card without his approval.
According to Bunn, she said she was sleeping in Dash’s daughter’s room and woke up to feel “something on the left side of my like lower back onto my butt, down my thigh.”
Dash refuted the allegations, calling them “ridiculous,” and accused Bunn of being a “con artist” who was making false accusations against him to damage his reputation.
After a four-day trial, members of the jury found that Dash was innocent, although they did believe he defamed her name. A judge ordered that he pay Bunn $30,000 in damages.
The verdict was first reported by Law360.
Bunn was seeking millions of dollars from the suit, according to court records. In the documents, she said the father of four denied her access to a collection of unreturned photos she shot, but the jury did not award her money for the property.
“[He] had destroyed [my] career. I lost everything, I have nothing,” she said during the four-year-long litigation.
Following the verdict, Bunn said she was “thankful to the jury for the result on my defamation claim” and was “pleased I can move forward,” according to a statement.
“Either side can appeal the outcome — first by asking the judge to overturn the verdict against them, then by taking the case to a federal appeals court,” according to a Billboard report.
