(CN) - A federal judge in Chicago refused Friday to grant rap artist The Game a new trial after he repeatedly failed to show up to face a female game show contestant’s sexual battery allegations.
The Game, whose real name is Jayceon Terrell Taylor, was the star of the VH1 television series She’s Got Game, a reality show created to help the platinum selling artist land a new girlfriend.
And he has a history of not showing up to court.
Priscilla Rainey was one of the contestants on the show in 2015 and claimed in court that Taylor sexually assaulted her in a sports bar in Markham, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago.
According to the lawsuit, “Taylor sexually battered Rainey that night, including by reaching his hand inside her dress to rub her bare vagina and buttocks in front of a crowded room of people.”
A jury ruled in Rainey’s favor and awarded her $7.1 million in punitive and compensatory damages.
Taylor demanded a new trial, claiming the award was “monstrously excessive.”
In a 36-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Gary Feinerman denied the rapper’s motion for a new trial and wrote: “The unauthorized touching of a woman’s vagina and other intimate areas is a reprehensible act, particularly in front of a crowd of onlookers.
“And although no further justification is necessary, the reprehensibility of Taylor’s conduct following the battery further justifies the punitive damages award.”
After the assault, Taylor told Rainey, who tried to confront him on his tour bus, to “Get the fuck off this bus before you get your ass strangled,” and “I’ll fucking choke your ass up.”
Taylor’s shenanigans began soon after Rainey filed suit against him.
Before the jury verdict, and during status hearings in October and November in 2015, Rainey’s lawyer reported that all his efforts to serve Taylor were unsuccessful. One of five process servers attempted to serve the rapper 41 times at his home with no luck.
The judge entered a default judgment and then vacated the decision. A new trial was scheduled for November 2016, which Taylor managed to reschedule out of concerns for his safety after 70 people were shot and killed in Chicago over Memorial Day weekend.
“Unless your client was going to be staying in North Lawndale or East Garfield Park or Englewood, I don’t think he was going to have any problem with violence in the Chicago area. Not many people are knocked off in a Town Car from O’Hare to the Four Seasons. So, you know, when I read that, it just struck me as a huge joke, and the only thing you accomplish by doing that is hurting your own credibility and your client’s credibility with the court. So, I’d encourage you to keep that stuff at a minimum, if not eliminate it entirely,” the judge stated in court.
Despite the judge’s warning, Taylor continued to delay the trial by requesting a transfer to other states and a continuance.
He decided not to show up to the November 14 trial because basketball star Derrick Rose did not appear on his first day of his trial to face sexual assault claims.