Terry Crews has another legal battle on his hands—but this time, he’s the defendant.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Crews was recently hit with a seven-figure lawsuit filed by his former friend and social media manager Darwin Hall. The plaintiff claims he is owed more than $1 million in wages and reimbursements for his services on terrycrews.com. The lawsuit also accuses the 50-year-old actor of encouraging his fanbase to harass Hall with threats of violence after Crews blasted his ex-employee on social media.
The suit reads:
In response to Defendant Crews’ false and defamatory posts, Plaintiff Hall was located, and then contacted by numerous followers of Defendant Crews, who threatened Plaintiff’s life, property, and business and promised to hunt him down for 'hurting' Defendant Crews, even publicly asking Defendant Crews if Defendant Crews would pay a ‘bounty’ for Plaintiff Hall. Plaintiff Hall was terrified and feared for his safety as well as that of his family.
Hall claims he began working for Crews in 1999 at the beginning of his acting career. Hall, who was working under Symbolic Web Media, says the firm was paid $28,479 for services; however, that amount only covered 296 hours of work out of the 6,000 hours he actually put in. Hall claims Crews agreed to pay him $55 an hour.
Their business relationship allegedly went south in 2013, when the online marketeer began working for a LGBT client with a dating app. Hall claims Crews became outraged once he learned about the undertaking, and demanded he no longer work for the client
“The client identifies as LGBT, although the app did not involve the LGBT community,” the lawsuit states. “Crews found out that Plaintiffs were working on the app and flew into a rage. Defendant Crews told Plaintiffs that in no uncertain terms could Defendants continue to work with Plaintiffs if Plaintiffs worked with anyone that was LGBT on an app for the LGBT community. Plaintiffs told Defendants that the app did not involve the LGBT community, and that because the client had already paid for Plaintiffs to build the app, Plaintiffs were contractually obligated to perform the work.”
Hall claims he eventually cut ties with the client only because Crews promised to remiburse him for lost income; however, Crews allegedly failed to honor the agreement.
As the parties were in the midst of reimbursement negotiations, Crews allegedly began tweeting about Hall in late 2017. Though he didn’t include Hall’s name, he did refer to a “former friend” who was trying to shake him down. Crews’ tweets made no mention of the aforementioned dating app, but it did refer to an alleged porn website. Crews’ series of tweets also included allegations of drug dealing and attempted murder.
Hall is seeking damages for breach of contract, defamation, cyberstalking, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Crews has yet to respond to the allegations.
