Frank Ocean has won a $14.5 million defamation lawsuit brought against him by his own father. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson agreed with Ocean that there was not sufficient evidence to prove defamation.
Calvin Cooksey filed the lawsuit over a Tumblr post Frank wrote in 2016 in the wake of the Orlando massacre.
In the post, Frank accused his dad of using a homophobic slur years and years ago … when Ocean was a kid.
Frank recalled, “I was 6 years old when I heard my dad call our transgender waitress a f****t as he dragged me out of a neighborhood diner saying we wouldn’t be served because she was dirty.”
Cooksey called the story BS and said it’s damaged his financial opportunities in film and music.
Cooksey filed his suit in February 2017, claiming that he tried to get Ocean to remove the post without any success. The former also argued in his complaint that the Tumblr post put him “in the middle of a terrorist attack on the gay community,” as well as “ruined [Cooksey’s] future financial opportunities in the film and music industries.”
According to a trial brief, Ocean argued not only that his post is substantially true, but also that Cooksey’s suit does not sufficiently provide a category of libel under which the post allegedly falls, nor does it show how Cooksey has been professionally injured.
Ocean swiftly left the courtroom after the verdict was read, and his attorney, Keith Bremer of Bremer Whyte Brown & O’Meara LLP, told Law360 that the conclusion of the case was a welcome relief. “I’m happy he can put it behind him,” said Bremer.
