RAPPER YO GOTTI LOSES BID TO THROW OUT $6.6 MILLION VERDICT
Yo Gotti tried to argue that a deputy never served him, but the court disagreed.
Pictured right to left: Clarke Dummit, Michael Terry, Brett Moore, Abigail Seymour.
[Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Monday June 24, 2019] Rapper Yo Gotti, aka Mario Mims, appeared in Forsyth County Superior Court today in response to last month’s $6.6 million judgment on a breach of contract.
Yo Gotti and his attorneys were hoping to have the judgment set aside on the technical theory that the rapper had not been properly served with a summons last year at a concert in Winston-Salem. But, after Yo Gotti was eaten up on the stand, the judgment stands and Yo Gotti went back to Memphis empty-handed and owing a lot of money.
Superior Court Judge Todd Burke, who oversaw the original trial, heard testimony from Forsyth County Sheriff Sgt. Gilbertson, who remembered how it all went down backstage at the 102 JAMZ Car Show last year. He testified that he approached the rapper, told him he was being served when a bodyguard stepped forward and snatched the papers from his hand.
Yo Gotti himself took the stand a few minutes later and tried to claim that he had not been served. He claimed that lots of people approach him after a concert handing him things and that the deputy didn’t talk to him. But Clarke Dummit, attorney for plaintiff Michael Terry, was not having it.
On cross-examination of Yo Gotti, Mr. Dummit waved the rapper’s own affidavit about the incident. Mr. Dummit asked pointedly why Yo Gotti had focused on the narrow sliver of time backstage during which time the deputy had approached when he was claiming he did not remember the deputy. A back and forth ensued while Mr. Dummit needled Yo Gotti about the shortcoming in his testimony. Superior Court Judge Todd Burke ruled again for Terry and found that the rapper was legally served, and the $6.6 million judgment stands.
Yo Gotti and his attorneys plan to file an appeal with the N.C. Court of Appeals.
Michael Terry stated after the hearing: “Yo Gotti learned today that my lawyers don’t play, but we should’ve sat down and got this resolved as businessmen. I got great artists, and we could put something together where we all win. The opportunity still stands. I believe in win/win/win, but if he would rather keep losin’?”