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Tyrese Gibson dropped his fight against Home Depot over an alleged racial profiling incident at a store in 2023, In Touch can exclusively report.
According to court documents obtained by In Touch, Tyrese, 46, informed the court on Monday, January 27, that he was dismissing with prejudice all claims against the home improvement store.
The move comes weeks after Tyrese parted ways with his legal team and was left to represent himself in the case.
Back in 2023, Tyrese, along with two men who regularly work with him on home projects, sued Home Depot, accusing store employees of subjecting them to racial profiling and discrimination.
Tyrese claimed he was in line with his two associates. He said he left the associates with his card because he started to get noticed by people inside the store. He claimed the cashier told him his associates could complete the sale with his card.
The actor said he went to his car to wait for his associates to finish the purchase.
However, Tyrese claimed the cashier then refused to allow his associates to buy the items without Tyrese’s identification card.
The three men demanded $1 million in damages over the incident that occurred on February 11, 2023, at a store in Los Angeles. Home Depot denied all allegations of wrongdoing.
A rep for Home Depot released a statement after the lawsuit was filed reading, “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.”
In court, Home Depot’s legal team argued that security footage never showed Tyrese speaking to the cashier he claimed told him he could leave.
Also, the company’s legal team noted Tyrese had not received any exam from a doctor despite claiming emotional distress and anxiety from the alleged discrimination at Home Depot. Tyrese and Home Depot have been going back and forth for over a year.
The case turned ugly when Home Depot accused Tyrese of not answering questions during a deposition.
A lawyer for Home Depot told the court that Tyrese, “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.”
In June 2024, Tyrese and his associates parted ways with their original legal team.
Tyrese then missed two hearings in the matter.
Before Tyrese dismissed his claims, a hearing had been set to determine sanctions against the actor for blowing off the case.
At a hearing on January 29, the court noted that Tyrese has been dismissed from the case, and he will no longer face any potential sanctions. One of Tyrese’s associates has been removed from the case but the other said he plans to hire a lawyer and take the case to trial.
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