West Point Cadet Sues

**Xiphos** · 06-03-11, 05:46 PM

After watching the video it looks to me like there's an assault case on the body guards and certainly a good civil suit. I hope the video helps his issues at school. He's obviously on a phone and not harassing anyone or acting like a drunk fool. The physical contact with the driver looks like a surprised reaction when he's shoved to create distance.

The lawsuit says King was waiting for his dad and brother to pick him up in a passenger pickup area when LaBelle, who arrived on a flight around the same time as King and was scheduled to play a concert at the L’Auberge du Lac Casino Resort on March 12, passed by and got into a waiting stretch limo.

LaBelle was followed by two large carts of luggage. According to the lawsuit, King was standing near the luggage, with his back to LaBelle’s limo, talking on the phone, when the singer apparently decided he was too close to the bags, rolled down her window and gave a command to her bodyguards.

"He didn’t know who Patti LaBelle was," said King’s attorney John Raley. "He didn’t know he was standing anywhere near somebody famous ."

The lawsuit said two of the guards immediately "pounced" on King, knocking him back and punching him in the face.

After the initial attack, the lawsuit alleges the two guards came back, accompanied by a third guard, and punched and shoved him until he fell and hit the back of his head on a concrete pillar.

"His blood spattered on the concrete and his clothes, then pooled beneath him as he lay helpless on his back with a severe concussion," the lawsuit read.

Read the whole story: West Point cadet sues Patti LaBelle, bodyguards over alleged assault at Bush IAH | khou.com Houston

**MacLean** · 06-03-11, 06:46 PM

No criminal complaint?

**Odd** · 06-07-11, 05:09 AM

Bit of update :

West Point cadet's attorney wants criminal charges against Patti LaBelle's bodyguards

HOUSTON—There are new developments in the case of a West Point cadet who is suing R&B singer Patti LaBelle in connection with an alleged beating at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Houston native Richard King claims he was waiting for his family to pick him up outside Terminal C in March when three of LaBelle’s bodyguards attacked him.

The bodyguards told officers with the Houston Police Department that King attacked them. They said King tried to get into their limo and threw the first punch.

The limo driver, Zuri Edwards, told police he did not want to file charges against King.

According to the police report, King is named as the suspect, but officers are taking a second look at the case after King’s attorney released surveillance video of the alleged beating.

Rest at link. Video if anyone hasn't seen it yet. King is wearing the yellow shirt and has a backpack on, first seen walking from the back of the parked bus.

**SnteevveetnS** · 06-08-11, 12:30 AM

Originally Posted by MacLean

No criminal complaint?

...Well, a civil complaint means $$ directly into his pocket...

**dot4x4** · 06-08-11, 07:56 AM

They are gonna pay big on this one. For those that want to watch the video the kid that gets battered is wearing a yellow long sleeve shirt. Skip ahead to 1:33 in the video for when the attack occured. Kid was no where around the limo and never tried to get in.

Kids knocked for a major loop and can't stand up and is too dizy to even fall in a straight line.

**Five-0** · 06-08-11, 08:40 AM

On another note, if you want to look like a real dumbass come trial time. Get yourself caught on video getting your picture taken with someone involved in a felony assault while in uniform.

**Cidp24** · 06-08-11, 09:40 AM

Originally Posted by Five-0

On another note, if you want to look like a real dumbass come trial time. Get yourself caught on video getting your picture taken with someone involved in a felony assault while in uniform.

+1 There goes all of that officer's credibility, particularly where being impartial is concerned. He will be stinging when he walks off the stand if the kid's attorney is worth anything.

**Motorwaycop** · 06-08-11, 05:06 PM

Not that it matters, but for the "kid" to deny he was intoxicated is clearly not the whole truth either. walk the line he cannot as he walks away from the bus.
Still clearly a completely over the top reaction from the so called bodyguards.

**Xiphos** · 06-28-11, 05:14 PM

Bitch.

Soul diva Patti LaBelle has delivered a legal counter-punch against a former West Point cadet who claimed her bodyguards beat him, saying the man sparked the altercation by addressing the singer in a racially and sexually offensive way.

LaBelle's lawsuit, filed in federal district court in Houston, contends Richard King started the fight that sent him to the hospital with a concussion by punching Zuri Edwards, LaBelle's son and limousine driver, in the face.

Read more: Soul diva Patti LaBelle countersues over airport altercation | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

**Five-0** · 06-28-11, 05:27 PM

Yeah, I didn't see that in the video.

**Morris** · 06-28-11, 06:27 PM

She will lose on both accounts.

Remind me the next time I want to bomb an airport, I'll just drive up in a limo and park.

**Ducky** · 06-28-11, 07:53 PM

If mouthing off is grounds for beating the shit out of someone, I'm going to have FUN next time I go to the... well, anywhere.

**Odd** · 06-28-11, 08:40 PM

Originally Posted by Five-0

Yeah, I didn't see that in the video.

Me either.

**Odd** · 07-08-11, 11:57 PM

Update :

Two charged in assault case involving Patti LaBelle and former West Point cadet at Bush Intercontinental Airport | abc13.com

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- It all began with a video showing a scuffle between Patti LaBelle's entourage and a West Point cadet. At first, it was a case of he said, she said. Now two people have been charged with a crime.

We were the first ones with these charging documents on Friday afternoon. We can tell you LaBelle's hairdresser and bodyguard have warrants out for their arrest; both are charged with assault even though the original story to police painted a much different picture.

There was no audio of the March 11 incident at Bush Intercontinental Airport, but according to court documents, the video speaks for itself. Patti LaBelle's bodyguard, Efrem Holmes, originally told Houston police he was just defending LaBelle's son. After watching the video, three months later, an officer reached a different conclusion.

(rest at link)

**Xiphos** · 07-09-11, 01:07 AM

Good! That video is pretty clear.

**Xiphos** · 08-18-11, 01:37 PM

News from The Associated Press

WEST POINT, N.Y. (AP) -- The U.S. Military Academy at West Point says it has reinstated a cadet involved in an airport scuffle with bodyguards for R&B diva Patti LaBelle.