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Tyrese Gibson was accused of blowing two court hearings in his court battle with Home Depot, months after he parted ways with his legal team and decided to represent himself, In Touch can exclusively report.
According to court documents obtained by In Touch, on Wednesday, December 18, a hearing was held in Tyrese’s case against the home improvement store.
In 2023, Tyrese, 45, along with two men who he regularly hires to work on his home, sued Home Depot claiming store employees subjected them to racial profiling and discrimination.
The lawsuit demanded $1 million in damages over the incident that took place at a Los Angeles store on February 11, 2023. Home Depot denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
The lawsuit was filed by two attorneys who work with powerhouse lawyer Marty Singer.
In June, Tyrese and his associates informed the court they would be splitting from their legal team and would be representing themselves in court.
In October, a hearing was held on the matter, but Tyrese and his associates failed to appear. The judge ordered Tyrese to pay sanctions in the amount of $250.
Due to Tyrese missing the hearing this week, the judge set another hearing for next month to determine if the sanctions should be increased to $1,000 for Tyrese.
Lawyers for Home Depot told the court at the hearing that they were working on a settlement with one of Tyrese’s associates.
As In Touch previously reported, Tyrese claimed the Home Depot cashier was the reason for his lawsuit. He said that he was in line to make a purchase with his associates but left because he started to get noticed by other customers.
Tyrese claimed the cashier initially told him the associates could complete the sale with the actor’s credit card. The actor said he went to the car to wait for his associates.
Tyrese said the cashier then refused to complete the sale without Tyrese’s ID. The actor said he went inside the store and had a back and forth with the cashier.
A rep for Home Depot released a statement after the lawsuit was filed. It read, “Diversity and respect for all people are core to who we are, and we do not tolerate discrimination in any form. We value Mr. Gibson as a customer, and in the months since this happened, we’ve reached out to him and his attorneys several times to try to resolve his concerns. We will continue to do so.”
Home Depot denied all allegations of wrongdoing in an official response to the lawsuit.
Lawyers for the company claimed security footage never showed Tyrese speaking to the cashier before leaving the store. The company called out Tyrese’s claim he suffered “emotional distress” and “anxiety” from the alleged ordeal. The lawyer said Tyrese has “not received any consultation or examination from a health care provider for any injury he attributes to the incident.”
As In Touch first reported, Lawyers for Home Depot accused Tyrese of refusing to answer certain questions during his deposition. A lawyer for Home Depot claimed the actor “engaged in behavior of responding to questions with questions, making statements such as ‘That is none of your business’, engaged in long nonresponsive statements on the record, repeatedly threatened to leave, refused to answer questions despite his understanding thereof and was generally uncooperative.”
The case is ongoing.
English (US) ·