Called to testify as hostile witness, Soulja Boy denies assault claims

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Rapper Soulja Boy testified as a hostile witness Thursday in the case of a plaintiff accusing him of hiring her as his assistant and then subjecting her to nearly two years of physical, emotional and sexual assault.

The 34-year-old rapper, best known for his 2007 viral hit single “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” and whose real name is DeAndre Way, denied being physical violent with the woman suing him, who has asked to remain anonymous through the trial. And he adamantly denied formally hiring the woman as his assistant, contrary to her claim. But under combative questioning by the plaintiff’s attorney, the rapper did admit to publicly calling her assistant at least once, at a Louis Vuitton store.

Screenshots of text messages, shown in court, have added weight to the argument that she was his assistant. One showed the woman sending Way his boarding pass for a flight he was taking.

“You would tell her to go get you food,” said the plaintiff’s attorney Dean Aynechi, a partner at West Coast Trial Lawyers.

“I would tell her to go get us food,” he corrected.

“You would tell her to buy you clothes?” Aynechi asked.

“If she was already out, I would tell her to buy some clothes,” Way said.

“She would hold your bags for you, correct?” the lawyer asked.

“Nah,” Way replied. “She was too little for the bags I had. I would have the security hold the bags.”

Way’s accuser had testified for the better part of three days, and had given the jury a harrowing account of the two years she lived in Way’s house. She said that she was kept as a veritable prisoner inside Way’s remote Malibu compound, that she was at times locked in her room for as long as two days at a time. She said he routinely raped her, beat her, kicked her, cruelly insulted her in front of his friends. She also said that their relationship went through a number of ups and downs, and that for a time they became romantically involved, even going so far as to professing their love for one another.

A long text message chain, shown to the jury, buttressed her story. The texts were, at times, affectionate, even sappy. Other texts were vicious. “Fuk U bitch,” Way texted her at one point. “I hope you die slow.”

“Those are your words?” Aynechi asked Way.

“These are my words,” Way said flatly.

“Is it OK to talk to women like this?” Aynechi asked.

“No,” Way said, his voice clipped. He spent most of his testimony leaning back in his chair, a slight air of confidence about him. After being asked a question he would lean forward, speaking directly into the microphone, his body position askew to half-face the jury.

If he was flustered, he did well to hide it, though he did earn one rebuke from the judge. When Aynechi asked Way to read from an interrogatory — written answers to a question he provided during discovery — Way replied, annoyed, “Ya’ll don’t know how to read?”

“Mr. Way, that is not helpful or appropriate,” said Superior Court Judge Mark Epstein.

Way appeared contrite. “I didn’t know that,” he said. “If he asks me to read something, I gotta read?”

Notably, Way was never asked about the claim that he raped the plaintiff, only about whether he beat her.

“Are you telling this jury you never laid hands on her, sir?” Aynechi asked.

“Never,” Way said.

Way remained on the stand for about two hours. His lawyer declined to question him, reserving that right for when he presents his case next week. At the end of the day, the plaintiff rested her case.

The civil jury trial is expected to end sometime next week.

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