Frank Ocean and his attorney may need to come up with a stronger defense in the defamation case brought by his father.
Earlier this year (Jan. 2017), the singer’s father, Calvin Cooksey, sued him, claiming Ocean defamed him in a June 2016 essay alleging his father had verbally abused a transgender waitress.
Ocean, who is openly gay, stood by the words in his essay and outlined 17 “affirmative defenses” explaining why he believed Judge Stephen V. Wilson should dismiss his father’s case.
According to legal documents obtained by Pitchfork, the judge upheld 16 of Ocean’s lines of defense, but warned the singer, citing his “affirmative defenses seem to have been put forward without any factual basis.”
The judge also suggested that there may be sanctions “if it becomes clear the Defendant (Ocean) is persisting with arguments with no factual support in order to confuse the Plaintiff (Cooksey) or hide the truth of the matter.”
Calling the case a “fairly straightforward” one, the judge also urged both parties against pursuing “intensive litigation tactics.”
In his original essay, published on the Tumblr website, Ocean wrote, “I was six years old when I heard my dad call our transgender waitress a f**got as he dragged me out a neighborhood diner saying we wouldn’t be served because she was dirty.”
Cooksey denies his son’s allegation and claims his son made false accusations to promote his album ‘Blonde.’ He also claims his son’s essay damaged his chances of finding work in the entertainment industry.
Ocean’s father previously sued rap mogul and entrepreneur Russell Simmons in 2014 for claiming he was a deadbeat dad.
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