Grammy winner sued by New York couple
R&B legend Patti LaBelle is being sued by a New York City couple for alleged abuse of the mother and her 18-month-old daughter.
Kevin and Roseanna Monk filed a lawsuit Monday, claiming that LaBelle screamed at Roseanna Monk while her daughter walked around the lobby of the Donald-Trump-owned apartment building in which they all lived in November 2010. According to ABC News, the Monks lived there for more than two years. LaBelle resided in the building last year while performing in the Broadway musical, “Fela!”
The Monks’ lawyer, Samuel L. Davis, told ABCNews.com that LaBelle approached his client, who was pulling together the family’s luggage for a trip and said, “’Do you know what your daughter is doing?’ kind of implying that she was a bad mother.”
Davis said his client responded as most would and told LaBelle to mind her own business.
According to Davis, the singer “started cursing and screaming” and flung water from a bottle she was holding at Monk and her child. Davis said the mother and daughter had to change their shirts from the water. He said the baby “started crying violently. She started throwing up.”
Unfortunately the incident did not end there.
“My client went outside, and on the way to her car, she said, ‘Look what you did to my daughter. Look what you did,’” Davis said. “That’s when Patti lost it and she lunged at her, tried to punch her and had to be restrained by her entourage. The bodyguard had to get out and drag Patti into her car.”
Monk called the police, but no arrests were made. This isn’t the Grammy-winner’s first experience with violence. In June, a U.S. Military Academy cadet sued LaBelle over a dispute with her bodyguards in the Houston airport, claiming the bodyguards attacked him unprovoked. LaBelle counter-sued, claiming the cadet tried to get her into a limousine and was drunk and using racial and sexual slurs. The case is under investigation.
Davis said his clients want to prove a point. He said, “Just because you have an entourage and bodyguards doesn’t mean you can scream and throw water in people’s faces.”
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