Dave Chappelle Shannon Finney/Getty Pictures
Dave Chappelle’s one-time attacker is now suing the Hollywood Bowl for permitting the comic’s crew to harm him.
Isaiah Lee, the person who tackled Chappelle on stage on the Hollywood Bowl in 2022, is suing the venue — and its safety crew — for letting the assault occur within the first place, in keeping with authorized paperwork obtained by Us Weekly, Chappelle isn’t named as a defendant within the civil go well with, which was filed on Friday, Might 3, one yr after the incident.
Lee, 25, tackled Chappelle to the bottom on the Hollywood Bowl in December 2022 in the course of the “Netflix Is a Joke” competition on Might 3, 2022, whereas Chappelle was introducing one other performer.
The lawsuit alleges that the safety crew employed for the venue, in addition to Chappelle’s entourage, beat and spat on Lee after the assault, and purposefully dislocated his shoulder. In keeping with the lawsuit, the Hollywood Bowl and its safety had a accountability to “train affordable care” when coping with a violent scenario. The quantity Lee is suing for can be decided at trial.
Standing behind him. After Dave Chappelle was attacked by an viewers member whereas acting on stage on the Hollywood Bowl, a lot of his fellow comedians have shared their ideas about what the incident means for performers transferring ahead. “Watching what occurred to Dave final night time confirmed my worry [of being assaulted],” Howie Mandel mentioned throughout […]
“Lee didn’t consent to being beat and/or spit on, and an affordable particular person in Plaintiff’s scenario would have been offended by being crushed and spit on,” the lawsuit said. The submitting additionally claimed that Lee, who identifies as bisexual, tackled Chappelle “in an act of protest” in opposition to offensive jokes the comic made all through the night time.
Isaiah Lee Physique Cams+ /TMX/Mega
On the time Lee was arrested, he had on his particular person a reproduction gun that would eject a knife blade. Within the court docket paperwork, he said that the knife fell out of his pocket in the course of the beating and he by no means deliberate to apply it to the comic.
“I determine as bisexual … and I wished him to know what he mentioned was triggering,” Lee advised The New York Submit following his arrest in Might 2022. “I wished him to know that subsequent time, he ought to contemplate first operating his materials by individuals it might have an effect on.”
Us confirmed on the time of the assault that Lee had been arrested by the LAPD and held on a $30,000 bail. NBC Los Angeles additionally reported that he was taken to a neighborhood hospital and handled for “superficial accidents.” In his New York Submit interview, Lee alleged safety personnel who detained him gave him two black eyes and broke his arm. “They spat on me and twisted me as if on goal,” he mentioned.
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One yr later, Lee now claims in his lawsuit that the venue knew Chappelle made offensive jokes and may’ve been ready for any incidents attributable to these jokes. As a substitute, the Hollywood Bowl “took no measures to forestall or mitigate the potential hurt attributable to such offensive materials.”
Court docket paperwork state that Lee suffered a “lack of mobility” and “life-altering” wounds following the incident, in addition to “anguish, fright, nervousness, anxiousness, grief, shock, humiliation, indignity” and “embarrassment.”