LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge on Friday dismissed part of the case against Kim Kardashian in former reality TV star Blac Chyna’s lawsuit while the jury deliberates on the remaining elements.
Judge Gregory Alarcon ruled that Chyna’s attorney, Lynne Ciani, did not make any testimony from Kardashian during the trial that was defamatory of Chyna.
The case against Kardashian for interfering with a contract remains pending. The jury will rule on this and both defamation and infringement suits against Kris Jenner, Khloé Kardashian and Kylie Jenner.
The jury went home Friday without returning a verdict after their first full day of deliberations. Her instructions had to be revised following Kim Kardashian’s decision, and attorneys and the judge provided answers to several questions they filed. They are scheduled to resume on Monday morning.
A judge on Friday dismissed part of the case against Kim Kardashian in former reality TV star Blac Chyna’s lawsuit.Chyna’s lawsuit alleges the women falsely told television producers and executives that Chyna violently assaulted then-fiancé Rob Kardashian in December 2016 in order to cancel her reality show Rob & Chyna.
Ciani argued during Thursday afternoon’s closing arguments that the women had no reason to believe the attack took place because testimony, photos and videos from the time showed no significant injuries to Rob Kardashian.
“He didn’t have a mark on him,” Ciani said. “There was no call to the police, no trip to the hospital, not even a band-aid.”
Kardashian’s attorney, Michael G. Rhodes, argued during his closure that the women had every reason to believe the reports of the assault from Rob Kardashian and Kris Jenner’s longtime friend Corey Gamble, who ended the dispute and was a key defense witness was.
“Remember how Rob looked at the booth yesterday? His pain was real,” Rhodes said. “It’s a real family. Yes, they’re famous, but they’re real people. He got hurt really badly here.”
Chyna’s lawsuit alleges the women falsely told television producers and executives that Chyna violently assaulted then-fiancé Rob Kardashian in December 2016 in order to cancel her reality show Rob & Chyna.Ciani provided clear examples of testimonies via text messages and emails from Kris Jenner, Khloé Kardashian and Kylie Jenner, and told the show’s producers and the E! network, on which the show appeared, about the abuse allegation.
But the case she brought against Kim Kardashian was more vague.
After Alarcon read her instructions to the jury Thursday, Rhodes cautioned that they did not contain any potentially defamatory statements by Kim Kardashian.
Ciani was upset by the claim, but the frustrated judge rebuked her, saying she agreed with the jury’s orders before the trial began.
A similar argument surfaced in court Friday about Alarcon’s unusual method of jury selection. Instead of selecting 12 jurors and four alternates, the judge had the attorneys select 16 jurors and then, after closing arguments, randomly selected which four were the alternates. The judge reminded Ciani again that she had consented to the pre-trial procedure.
The civil trial requires nine of the 12 jurors to determine whether three of the Kardashian defendants either knowingly lied about Chyna abusing Rob Kardashian or spread the news in reckless disregard of the truth. That same number must decide if each of the four is illegally in Chyna’s contract with the E! Network.