Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald says Kesha’s former lawyer Mark Geragos should be sanctioned and found in contempt for allegedly lying under oath during a deposition, according to a Tuesday filing.
As a spinoff to the legal battle between Gottwald and Kesha, which began in 2014 while Geragos was representing the singer, the producer later that year sued Geragos for defamation. Gottwald claims the lawyer implied in a series of tweets that he sexually assaulted Lady Gaga. Now, in the legal battle with Kesha in which he says her PR and legal reps coordinated a smear campaign, he’s accusing Geragos of lying about emails being deleted.
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“Geragos falsely stated under oath at his Court-ordered deposition in this action that all but three documents which this Court had ordered the Geragos Parties to produce did not exist because they had been deleted,” writes attorney Christine Lepera in the motion. “Years after this deposition, the Geragos Parties have now produced dozens of these purportedly deleted and nonexistent documents to Plaintiffs in a separate litigation.”
A rep for Geragos’ firm says the motion is “incoherent” and “entirely without merit.” (Read the full statement below.)
Lepera argues Geragos committed perjury to conceal the documents during his April 25, 2017 deposition in the legal fight between Gottwald and Kesha, but in the defamation fight Geragos produced more than 50 documents that should have been turned over in the original litigation years ago.
“The Geragos Parties’ motivation for concealing these documents is obvious,” writes Lepera. “This is a defamation action, arising from the efforts of Defendant, Geragos, and Defendant’s other representatives to destroy Gottwald’s reputation and business through a coordinated media campaign. By concealing the documents which the Court ordered the Geragos Parties to produce, the Geragos Parties sought — and still seek — to hide the full scope of those efforts, and the Geragos Parties’ involvement with them.”
Gottwald is asking the court to hold Geragos and his firm in contempt, sanction them and refer them to the California bar for disciplinary proceedings. He’s also asking the court to order an independent forensic examination of the law firm’s electronically stored information. His lawyers previously asked for sanctions in 2017, alleging he was unprofessional and refused to answer questions, and the court declined but ordered Geragos to sit for another deposition and be more forthcoming with information.
A spokesperson for Geragos & Geragos on Wednesday sent The Hollywood Reporter a statement in response to the allegations: “The motion, which reads more like an incoherent and unintelligible sloppy rant, is entirely without merit. It appears that Luke is increasingly desperate after his last multimillion dollar litigation loss in the Katy Perry case. Frankly, he’s a sad and desperate man who needs a new hobby.”
