Kanye West is being sued by the man he allegedly punched in January 2022, for assault and battery that left the man disfigured.
As per court documents obtained by TMZ on Wednesday, a man named, Justin Poplawski claimed that West punched him repeatedly after he asked him for an autograph. Justin claimed that on January 13 he was waiting outside the Soho house to get Kanye’s autograph, when he got into a confrontation with the rapper, outside the hotel, the rapper told him to “Go the f—k (out of) here before I beat you the f—k up.”
According to him, West shouted saying, “I’m going to make a f—ing example of you.” Justin alleged that the rapper then struck him, asking, “So do you want to get attacked for real?” Poplawski claims that he requested West for an apology for hurting him, to which the fashion designer replied, “Apology for what?” The artist then reportedly hit the fan several more times, ‘severely injuring him.”
The rapper’s associates were urging him to stop but he didn’t, instead, he told one of them to “go to the f—ing house and get my f—ing kids.”
Poplawski is now seeking damages, to cover medical bills due to his alleged disfigurement, claiming that he is a victim of assault and battery and has endured mental distress because of the rapper.
West was investigated for this incident previously as well but ultimately no charges were filed. Later in an interview with Hollywood Unlocked’s Jason Lee, West admitted that he did punch the autograph seeker as he was outside the Soho House at 3 a.m. and was provoked by this man who had been following him for the past few days for autograph.
West said, “I’m saying, “You don’t know what I’m dealing with right now,” referring to the footage of him hitting the autograph seeker. The rapper further said “I just finished these two songs, I came from the studio, and this dude, he just had this real attitude, like, ‘What you gonna do? And see that?’ Imma just tell you, that blue COVID mask ain’t stop that knockout, you know what I’m saying?”
As per the reports obtained by Page Six, Michael Goldstein, who was West’s Attorney at the time said that the conclusion proved that his client “did nothing wrong.” West’s lawyer claimed that “video and photographs provided to the City Attorney’s office confirmed that this particular individual followed my client to three different locations over a short period of time and ultimately waited for him at his hotel where he approached my client at 3 a.m.” the lawyer added, “He once again entered my client’s personal space, which was unacceptable.”
