During his testimony, Saxon claimed that West had asked him to install a system that would allow “his urine and faeces [to] be treated into fresh water for drinking and bathing”.<\/p>\n
He testified that during another occasion, West allegedly noticed he “smelled really bad” because the property didn’t have a shower, and took him to the luxury Nobu Hotel in Malibu, where he drew Saxon a bath.<\/p>\n
“He handed me a towel and then says, ‘this is a moment you’ll never forget,'” Saxon told the court. <\/p>\n
Saxon also told the court that West wanted to “gut” the beach house, which was built and designed by Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect Tadao Ando, to make it off-grid. <\/p>\n
Saxon claimed those changes included removing electricity and plumbing from the home, as well as removing a staircase and replacing it with a slide.<\/p>\n
When West took the stand, he reportedly said he did not remember many of the interactions Saxon testified to, but he did acknowledge complaining about the handyman’s smell. <\/p>\n
West’s lawyer Andrew Cherkasky depicted Saxon as an unreliable witness, and said bank records showed Saxon was paid $240,000 during the six weeks he worked for the rapper. The rapper’s team also disputed Saxon’s reported injuries, sharing a video showing the handyman preforming with a band and rolling on the floor. <\/p>\n
“The lies are so deep and so wicked that not a thing can be believed that came out of his mouth,” Cherkasky said in his closing statements, calling Saxon “a professional victim”. <\/p>\n
West took the stand and was questioned about the case. While in court, he appeared to fall asleep at one point, media reports indicate. <\/p>\n
His lawyer, though, refuted that West fell asleep, telling the jury: “He wasn’t sleeping. He was bored. This is beneath him.”<\/p>\n
West bought the home for $57m in 2021, but after it was stripped out and abandoned, sold it for a loss in 2023.<\/p>\n
Saxon had sought $1.7m for lost wages and medical expenses incurred while working at the property, but following the 10-day trial, he was awarded $140,000 in damages.<\/p>\n
It is the first of more than a dozen lawsuits filed against West by former employees to go to trial.<\/p>\n
The rapper has gone through an epic downfall over the last few years over his racist and anti-Semitic tirades online, leaving many brands and companies cutting ties with him. He was blocked last year from entering Australia over his song that glorified Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During his testimony, Saxon claimed that West had asked him to install a system that would allow “his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-471019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}