SANTA MONICA, Calif. — A jury on Thursday found that rapper Soulja Boy was liable for sexually assaulting and physically and emotionally abusing a former assistant, awarding the woman more than $4 million in damages.

The decision from the Los Angeles County jurors came after a three-week trial in Santa Monica, California.

The 34-year-old Soulja Boy, whose legal name is DeAndre Cortez Way, was found liable for assault, sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Jurors did not find him liable for false imprisonment and other allegations. They found the woman should get about $4 million in compensatory damages and another $250,000 in punitive damages.

“Today’s verdict is just the beginning of justice for Soulja Boy’s victims, and other victims in the music industry,” plaintiff's attorney Neama Rahmani said in a statement.

Lead defense attorney Rickey Ivie said in his own statement: “We maintain that the evidence does not support the verdict. It is unfortunate that aspersions and misperceptions of a culture were allowed to influence the trial. Mr. Way fully intends to pursue his post-trial remedies and to fight for a just result in this case.”

The woman was not identified by name in the lawsuit she filed in 2021, and The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused.

She said she began working for Soulja Boy in 2018, and he agreed to pay her $500 a week for cleaning his house, cooking for him and doing other personal tasks. But she says she was never paid.

The two began a romantic relationship, and soon after he began abusing her, raping her, kicking her, punching her and threatening her with violence and death, her lawsuit alleges.

She believed she was in love with him, and he manipulated her into staying until 2020 despite repeated acts of violence, the lawsuit says.

She was beaten and raped again when she returned to retrieve her things months after leaving him, the lawsuit says.

The Chicago hip-hop artist is best known for his 2007 single “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” which went to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and brought him a Grammy nomination for best rap song.

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Lawyers for Sean 'Diddy' Combs want jurors at trial questioned about sex, drugs and violence

NEW YORK — Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs are urging a judge to let prospective jurors at the hip-hop mogul's upcoming sex trafficking trial be questioned about their views regarding sex, drugs and violence.

The lawyers raised the subject as they submitted a proposed questionnaire to be filled out by individuals summoned for his May 5 trial in Manhattan federal court.

In a letter to a judge late Friday, the lawyers said they want to know the willingness of would-be jurors to watch videos that are sexually explicit or show physical assault. They also say they want to know their views toward people with multiple sexual partners.

Prosecutors in a letter of their own criticized the defense's proposed questionnaire as too long and touching on subjects that would be better asked in person by the judge, if at all.

They said some of the defense's proposed 72 questions, some containing subparts, were “utterly irrelevant to the ability to serve on a jury.”

Prosecutors also cited the sex trafficking trial of Ghislaine Maxwell as an example of how a lengthy questionnaire can be damaging.

After Maxwell was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021, a juror admitted that he had failed to disclose that he was a sex abuse victim, blaming his oversight in part on being “distracted as he filled out the questionnaire" and having “skimmed way too fast,” causing him to misunderstand questions.

Judge Arun Subramanian has told lawyers that questionnaires will be distributed to hundreds of prospective jurors at the end of April so that questioning of prospective jurors can begin on May 5, with opening statements likely on May 12.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to allegations that he subjected individuals to sexual abuse over a two-decade period. The Bad Boy Records founder has remained incarcerated without bail since his September arrest.

An indictment accuses Combs of using the “power and prestige” he wielded as a music mogul to intimidate, threaten and lure women into his orbit, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship.

The indictment said he then used force, threats and coercion to cause victims, including three women specified in the court papers, to engage in commercial sex acts.

It said he subjected his victims to violence, threats of violence, threats of financial and reputational harm and verbal abuse.

Prosecutors have said that a key piece of the evidence at trial will be a video showing Combs punching his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, and throwing her on the floor in a hotel hallway.

Defense lawyers have argued that prosecutors built their case on charges that try to demonize sex acts between consenting adults.

They told the judge they were unable to reach a consensus with prosecutors for what prospective jurors should be asked on questionnaires.

“The defense believes it is important that we allow potential jurors to write candidly about the unprecedented and negative media attention that they may have been exposed to, related to Mr. Combs,” the lawyers wrote.

Defense lawyers also asked that jurors be asked to tell if they've watched shows on television titled: “The Fall of Diddy,” “Diddy Do It?” “The Downfall of Diddy” and “Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy.”

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Toni Braxton secretly married Birdman, filed for divorce 2 weeks later

Singer Toni Braxton secretly married Birdman last summer and just as quietly filed for divorce, only to call off the split earlier this year.

Braxton reportedly said “I do” to the rapper on Aug. 8, but filed divorce documents just two weeks later, citing their date of separation as Aug. 10, according to TMZ.

At the time of the filing, the 57-year-old singer dubbed the marriage “irretrievably broken,” though she ultimately dismissed her divorce petition in January.

It’s unclear where the musicians currently stand, though this isn’t the first time they’ve hit turbulent waters.

Birdman first popped the question in 2018 after two years of dating, but the couple called off the engagement the following year. They reportedly continued dating on and off for years before officially confirming that they’d reconciled in November 2023.

As of Thursday, neither Braxton nor Birdman had publicly remarked on the current status of their relationship.

The “Un-Break My Heart” singer was previously married to Mint Condition’s Keri Lewis from 2001 until 2013. The former couple share sons, Denim, 23, and Diezel, 22.

From combined wire services