Drake has won a court ruling ending a bizarre defamation lawsuit filed by a woman who was allegedly arrested in 2017 for breaking into the super star’s home.
The case was filed this summer by Mesha Collins – the same woman who Drake’s attorneys say was charged with trespassing for breaking into his Los Angeles home in April 2017. Her lawsuit claimed Drake later defamed her and invaded her privacy by divulging private information on Instagram.
In a response last month, the singer’s attorneys flatly denied the accusations and called the lawsuit – filed without attorneys and seeking an implausible $4 billion – a “frivolous case” based on “delusional figments of her imagination.” They said Collins was merely trying again to make contact Drake.
On Friday, a Los Angeles Superior Court agreed with those arguments, dismissing the case permanently on the grounds that nothing Drake had posted could be remotely linked to Collins.
“Plaintiff Collins has not demonstrated any of defendant Graham’s statements were about plaintiff Collins or that he used her identity, name, or likeness in his Instagram posts or endorsements,” Judge Virginia Keeny wrote, referring to Drake by his full name Aubrey Drake Graham. “Even if plaintiff Collins could establish the statements were about her, she has failed to establish that such statements were of a private fact that is offensive and objectionable to the reasonable person.”
The order was granted under California’s so-called anti-SLAPP law, a special state statute that allows judges to quickly dismiss questionable lawsuits that could chill free speech. Judge Keeny said Drake had met the requirements to invoke the law, since the case sought to sue him over his online speech.
The ruling came less than a month after Drake’s attorney – Stanton “Larry” Stein of the law firm Russ August & Kabat – filed scathing motion to dismiss a case that he called “egregiously baseless” and an effort to once again harass his superstar client.
“After trespassing at his home and being arrested in 2017, plaintiff Mesha Collins now attempts to make contact with musician Aubrey Drake Graham by suing him,” Stein wrote in a Nov. 18 filing. “This is pure fiction. Until he was served with this lawsuit, Graham had no idea who Collins was.”
The order was issued following a live hearing on Friday. Collins did not attend the proceedings, according to court records. Stein did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. Collins could not immediately be located for comment on Monday.