Damon Dash Wins Again: Monique Bunn’s Request For New Trial Over Photos Rejected
Damon Dash received some good news after a wild month on social media, which saw him in a “CEO War” with 50 Cent and being forced to explain how his “grills” popped out of his mouth during a live broadcast on Instagram.
The music mogul and co-founder of Roc-A-Fella Records secured another legal victory this week in court.
A federal judge denied a bid for a new trial brought by Monique Bunn, a photographer who accused Dash of sexual assault and later sued him over the alleged conversion of her property.
Bunn had sought a new trial after a jury ruled against her in her $51 million claim that Dash sexually assaulted her and retained over 100,000 photographs stored on CDs, computers, and hard drives.
Damon Dash testified during the trial that the CDs in question did not contain any of Bunn’s work.
Damon Dash was cleared of sexual assault charges in a federal court but was found liable for libel violations, resulting in a $30,000 award to Bunn for defamation.
Her lawyer, Christopher Brown, who has sued Damon Dash numerous times on behalf of other clients and even himself, tried to fight the ruling by claiming that the jury erred by failing to award damages for the conversion of her property.
Monique Bunn claimed that the photographs were worth millions, though the jury determined insufficient evidence to support her valuation of the CDs and other materials.
In her motion for a new trial, Bunn alleged that the jury’s verdict was contrary to the weight of the evidence, but U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee ruled that Bunn had failed to provide sufficient grounds to overturn the decision.
The court noted that Bunn’s legal team did not demonstrate that the trial was unfair or that the verdict resulted in a miscarriage of justice.
This ruling marks the latest legal win for Damon Dash, who has consistently denied the allegations made by Bunn.
Damon Dash is not out of the cross-hairs of Christopher Brown just yet.
Earlier this year, the mogul was ordered to sell his stake in Roc-A-Fella Records to satisfy an $800,000 copyright infringement and defamation judgment owed to filmmaker Josh Weber in a dispute over the movie “Dear Frank.”
Damon is seeking at least $10 million for his 33 percent stake in the storied label, which owns the rights to Jay-Z’s classic album Reasonable Doubt.
The proceeds from the sale will go towards the judgment, child support and an $8 million tax bill to the State of New York.