Tyrese’s battle against Home Depot is far from over.
We reported that the “Sweet Lady” singer filed a $1 million lawsuit against the home improvement store, citing racial profiling. The store, however, provided their own evidence on the events that took place on the day that Tyrese claims he was racially profiled.
Court documents say that Tyrese went to the cash register with several items to purchase before leaving the store for over 25 minutes. Due to the fact that he left, the cashier had to cancel his transaction.
Tyrese tells a different story. According to his claim, he said that he left the store because fans began to notice him. He decided to leave the store to sit in his car while his two associates completed the transaction with his card.
The suit also says that the cashier was aware of Tyrese’s plan. “Gibson asked the cashier if the cashier needed anything further from him to complete the transaction. The cashier said no, and that Gibson could leave.”
The cashier ultimately refused to continue with the transaction even with Tyrese on FaceTime with his associates. Tyrese and the associates claim that they experienced “outrageous discriminatory mistreatment and consumer racial profiling first-hand” by that Home Depot store.
The singer has recently filed a new motion in which he accused the store of failing to provide the requested documents and for not allowing their employee to be available during the depositions. The store responded and said they won’t comply until Tyrese agrees to a protective order, which he refuses to do.
“A celebrity with 19.5 million Instagram followers, has publicly posted information – such as the video recordings taken on the date of the incident, which were objected to by at least one employee,” said counsel for The Home Depot. “These postings were then shared and reposted, including by media outlets. A protective order will prevent public dissemination of private communications of non-parties that were never intended to be public.”
Although the store claims that the CCTV footage will not be made public because of the camera’s location and that it will reveal sensitive customer information, they will agree to release it once the protective order is signed.