Blac Chyna heads to court for trial against Kardashians

Kris Jenner falsely accused Blac Chyna of ‘beating the s*** out of Rob Kardashian’s face’ to have producers cancel the former couple’s hit E! TV show, Chyna’s attorney said during opening arguments in her $108million suit against the Kardashian clan.   

Chyna’s attorney, Lynne Ciani, told the Los Angeles Superior Court Tuesday that the Kardashian family matriarch told producers of Rob and Chyna that Chyna ‘had attempted to strangle Rob with a phone chord.’ 

‘But that was false,’ said Ciani. ‘Chyna did not beat the s*** out of his face.’

Ciani claimed that Kris Jenner threatened E! and its part company NBC Universal, that she ‘would pull Keeping Up with the Kardashians if they didn’t kill off Rob and Chyna.’  

Chyna’s attorney also said that on the night of the alleged attack, Rob and Chyna were still together and were actually celebrating the green lighting of their show for a second season. 

While Chyna did rip Rob’s shirt that night, it was a result of passion, not violence, as ‘she was happy and she thought he was hot,’ Ciani said. 

Ciani told the jury that after the alleged attack, Kris sent out texts accusing Chyna of being ‘drunk for three days’ and calling on Rob to ‘ditch the b****.’

The claim about the attack is the basis of the defamation part of Chyna’s $108million lawsuit against TV’s first family. The other part of her suit alleges that the Kardashians intentionally conspired to have Rob and Chyna’s second season, which Ciani said had already filmed for 70 hours and eight episodes, axed from E!

Chyna, whose real name is Angela White, was spotted leaving her house and heading to the courtroom on Tuesday.  She wore a black tuxedo dress and stepped out of a black SUV, as she headed to face off against Kim, Khloe, Kylie and Kris.   

Her mother, Tokyo Toni, was ordered to stay away from her daughter’s courtroom battle after making ‘veiled physical threats’ at the Kardashian family in an online attack yesterday. 

On Tuesday, Chyna’s lawyer recounted the TV star’s humble beginnings growing up poor and turning to stripping before she got her big break when Drake mentioned her in a song after he came into the club she was working at. 

‘[Kris Jenner] set out to have Season 2 of Rob and Chyna cancelled and she brought in her three daughters to help accomplish that,’ Ciani said. 

The four Kardashians had a family vote, said Ciani, to cancel season two of Rob and Chyna but nobody told Chyna, who thought her show was still very much alive.

Ciani went on to claim that Rob got wind of the family meeting and ‘essentially begged’ his mother and sisters to let season two go forward. 

‘But they did not hold up, they went full steam ahead to get it cancelled…and they succeeded.’

Ciani began her opening statement to the jury by agreeing with the Kardashian’s lawyer Michael Rhodes that both their clients come from the same world of reality TV. 

But outside of reality television, the worlds of Chyna and TV’s most famous family are ‘very different,’ she said.  

Growing up as Angela White, Chyna had a tough childhood, raised by a single mom in Washington D.C., Chyna’s attorney told the court. 

After high school she worked at McDonalds and Taco Bell and a pizza parlor she had to walk two miles to and from, hoping to raise the money to go to college to study fashion merchandising. 

She soon realized that her minimum wage job serving pizza would not be enough to pay for college so she started working as an exotic dancer, as her mother had done before her. 

That gave her big break in June 2010 when rapper Drake came into the club she was working at and later mentioned her adopted name – Blac Chyna – in a song he wrote. 

‘That led to a notoriety she had not had before,’ Ciani told the jury.

‘It was a big deal that opened doors of opportunity for her.’ 

Modeling jobs followed and magazine covers. In August 2011 she was named model of the year at the Urban Model Awards and she appeared as singing star Nicki Minaj’s stunt double in a video and as herself in a later Minaj video. 

In September 2011, she appeared in a video with Tyga – and subsequently fell in love with the rap star, having a baby boy, King Cairo, now aged nine.

Chyna’s mother Toni, whose real name is Shalana Hunter, made a slew of disparaging remarks about the Kardashian family on an Instagram Live that she posted Monday, after sitting just a few feet from the billionaire family in a Los Angeles courtroom, their attorney claimed in court today.

Michael Rhodes, who is representing the Kardashians at the trial brought about by Chyna’s $108 million lawsuit against them, called for her mother to be banned from the courtroom. 

Hunter was sitting directly behind Kim and Khloe Kardashian, their sister Kylie Jenner and their mother Kris Jenner yesterday Rhodes told the court, and later she posted a ‘rant’ online in which she made ‘veiled physical threats against my clients.

‘She cannot be in this courtroom if this is how she is going to conduct herself.

‘Miss Jenner was physically worried this morning about her safety.

‘A trial like this is hard – it’s a lot harder if I have to worry about my clients’ safety.’

In response, Chyna’s attorney, Lynne Ciani, told the court, ‘I have told my client that if she cannot control her mother if she says something inappropriate, she cannot come into the courtroom.’

Chyna’s mother did not show up at court on Tuesday.   

In the video, Toni appears to be rolling what looks like a joint as she said the family ‘looked dead’ and compared Kris Jenner to a character from the horror movie Saw.

‘Kris had on a f***ing crusty a** tan suit with one button,’ Toni said as she began tearing the family’s appearance apart, adding that she thought they looked ‘homeless.’ 

‘They look scary in real life,’ she said in another part of the video, saying they had ‘dips’ in their faces.

She then mocked Khloe for nodding in court, saying to the camera: ‘Did you have some Xanax before you got there b****?’ 

Toni seemingly make threats in the video when discussing who is allowed to sit next to her in court, saying ‘stand the f*** up and back.’ 

On Monday, A potential juror in Chyna’s lawsuit against the Kardashians asked to be excused because he ‘can’t be neutral’ as he has watched Kim’s sex tape and ‘would be replaying it in his head’ during the proceedings. 

Judge Gregory W. Alarcon brought in prospective jurors during jury selection on Monday. 

During the afternoon session, Judge Alarcon empaneled jurors and asked their names, marital status, and occupation before attorneys for both sides grilled jurors on whether they felt they could render a fair and impartial decision in the case. 

‘I have never watched the Kardashian show but I have watched the Kardashian sex tape and I don’t think I could be neutral in this case,’ a middle-aged man said, causing laughter to break out in the courtroom.

After a break, the same prospective juror volunteered: ‘I’m going to be playing that sex tape in my head and possibly not listening too closely…’ 

‘I think we got the point,’ Judge Alarcon said, cutting off the juror’s detailed account. 

Judge Alarcon rounded up today’s court session by swearing in a third panel of 27 prospective jurors, bringing the pool of potential jurors to a total of 103. Twelve, plus some alternates, will be picked, most likely by the end of the day Tuesday. 

On Monday, Kris Jenner and Kylie, Khloe and Kim Kardashian sat in the front row as prospective jurors aired their feelings about the famous family.

Family matriarch Kris Jenner, with short black hair and dressed in a cream pant suit, led her famous daughters into the downtown Los Angeles courtroom like a mother duck leading her ducklings.

Behind her was younger daughter Kylie, in black jacket and pants, then came her sister Kim, in a baggy gray pantsuit, with blonde-haired Khloe, in a gray jacket and dark pants bringing up the rear. Kim and Kylie both had their naturally black hair long and not tied back. 

Chyna, whose real name is Angela White, is seeking $108 million in damages, according to court documents – $44 million for ‘past economic damage’ and $64 million for ‘future economic damage.’

Chyna’s attorney, Lynne M. Ciani, asked the second group of potential jurors, ‘It may come to light in evidence that Miss White was an exotic dancer or stripper in the past – is there anything about that that will prevent you from keeping an open mind?’

None of the jurors put up a hand.

Kris Jenner and Kiley, Kim and Klhoe Kardashian are named as defendants in the case, charged by Chyna – ex-fiancé of Kim’s brother Rob – with causing her and Rob’s hit show, Rob and Chyna, to be cancelled.

As jury selection began today, on the other side of the courtroom, about 20 feet from the Kardashians, sat Chyna, wearing a gray, herringbone pant suit, black blouse and silver spike heels 

Under questioning from Ciani, some jurors said they were followers of’ Keeping up with the Kardashians,’ while others said they were not fans of reality TV.

Ciani asked if potential jurors felt they could render a fair fair verdict in the case where Chyna is accusing the Kardashians of defamation and ‘interference with contract’ that led to Rob and Chyna being killed off.

‘I have a hard time caring at all about celebrity defamation,’ responded one of the panel.

‘This case could be decided by a judge – it’s a waste of time for a jury,’ said another.

When asked about awarding damages in the case, several potential jurors seemed skeptical about either side deserving to win.

‘I can tell you sincerely that I hope none of these people get any wealthier,’ one told the court.

Last week, the Kardashian’s attorney, Michael Rhodes, filed a huge list of exhibits – 42 pages long with more than 540 items – he intends to bring to court. 

The list includes dozens of aired and unaired video clips from Rob and Chyna, excerpts from Keeping Up with the Kardashians, texts and social media postings between various Kardashian family members and others involved in the case, Chyna’s pay stubs, photos of Chyna with Kim and other Kardashians, YouTube videos and news reports. 

Chyna claims the $44 million was the amount she could have earned from her TV show, club appearances and the internet over the past five years if Rob and Chyna had not been canceled in 2017.

And the $64 million is her estimate of what she could have earned in the future, said her attorney, Lynne Ciani, in court papers, had Chyna not been ‘essentially blackballed by Hollywood after they (the Kardashians) defamed her and got her No.1 hit show canceled.’

The Kardashians’ lawyer, Michael Rhodes, scoffed at Chyna’s $108 million damages estimate, calling it ‘speculation and guesswork,’ in court documents.

Rhodes has filed a motion calling for Chyna’s defense team to be banned from mentioning the wealth of the Kardashians during the trial, claiming it could influence the jury.

‘The sole purpose in referencing Defendants’ wealth and financial condition is to inflame and unduly prejudice the jury against defendants,’ he wrote in his motion.

But Chyna’s lawyer, Ciani, has filed an objection to that motion, saying, ‘Defendants routinely flaunt their wealth in their business dealings and on their reality TV show, Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

‘It simply will not be feasible to ‘caution’ witnesses not to refer to the Defendants’ wealth because their wealth permeates their entire essence.’

The Kardashians tried to settle out of court with Chyna last week to avoid going to trial, it was revealed at a pre-trial hearing last Friday. But she turned down their offer.

Source: Daily Mail