A judge has refused to toss the lawsuit brought against rapper Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson by a Florida woman over a sex video that was posted online. In the video, 50 Cent has been edited into the footage as the narrator, "Pimpin Curly," 50 Cent's Jheri-curl-wig-wearing alter ego, the New York Post reports.
Judge Paul Wooten said that there was evidence to continue the case.
The Florida woman’s diary "reveals that Lastonia Leviston entertained suicidal ideation as a result of the release of the video tape, and that she was unable to function normally in her daily life," Wooten wrote in his decision released Thursday, the New York Post reports.
The tape was released in 2009, at the height of the rapper's feud with MMG heavyweight rapper Rick Ross. The released footage shows Leviston, who has a child with Ross, and a former boyfriend, Maurice Murray. Although Murray's face is blurred out, Leviston can be seen clearly. Leviston claims that she believed that the tape was destroyed shortly after it was made. She claims that the released footage caused her anxiety and depression that almost led her to suicide.
50 Cent alleges that he was not responsible for the tape making its way onto the Internet and that Leviston is bluffing about the severity of her mental health, since after the tape's release she was able to obtain a GED and maintain two jobs, the New York Post reports.
In the video, Leviston is dubbed a "call girl" named Brooke. Leviston says in her 2010 suit that she was never a hooker.
According to court documents read by the Post, the platinum performer said his "sole motive [for releasing the video] was to respond to Ross’s ‘disrespecting’ him."
But Judge Wooten found that the video “generated interest” in 50 Cent and attracted traffic to his website.
A jury will decide whether Leviston's mental suffering was "genuine and extreme."
Leviston is seeking unspecified damages.
Read more at New York Post.