HOUSTON (AP) — Attorneys for rap star Travis Scott argued in court Monday that he should be dismissed from hundreds of lawsuits filed over the deadly 2021 Astroworld festival, saying he was not responsible for safety planning and watching for possible dangers at the Houston event.
But attorneys for relatives of one of the 10 people killed during a massive crowd surge at the festival said Scott ignored safety concerns and threatened to release online the personal information of anyone who would cancel the event over safety concerns.
Stephen Brody, an attorney for Scott, said the rap star remains “devastated” and “heartbroken” by the tragic events of Nov. 5, 2021, when authorities and festival organizers tried to shut down the show and stop the surge.
The families of the 10 people who died, as well as hundreds who were injured, sued Scott and Live Nation — the festival’s promoter — as well as dozens of other individuals and entities.
During a court hearing before state District Judge Kristen Hawkins, Brody argued that Scott and his touring and production company, XX Global, should be dismissed from the case. They said his duties and responsibilities related to the festival were outlined as performing, marketing, curating talent for the event, providing for his own personal security and approving all creative matters involving the festival.
“And that’s it,” Brody said.
During the concert, Scott, whose real name is Jacques Bermon Webster II, did stop his performance four times to check on issues he saw in the crowd, including some people who appeared to be in distress, according to Brody.
“Did he have show pause authority?” Hawkins asked Brody.
He could stop performing and wait to see if an issue of concern had been resolved, Brody said.
But Brody added the festival’s organizers as well as Houston police also had the ability to turn on the lights or cut off the sound if they thought something was wrong.
Noah Wexler, an attorney for the family of Madison Dubiski, 23, said Scott’s contract defined him as a co-promoter of the festival with Live Nation and as a promoter, he was responsible for the event’s safety under Texas rules.
Wexler alleged that Scott in a May 5, 2021, tweet that was sent after tickets for Astroworld had sold out instigated his fans to on the day of the show break into the festival grounds, writing, “we still sneaking the wild ones in.”
Wexler said this created dangerous conditions for a festival that was “massively oversold” and was part of a “conscious disregard for safety.”
Wexler alleged that Scott and his manager, David Stromberg, created dangerous safety conditions by insisting that Scott be the only musical act to use the main stage on the festival’s first day, a situation that could create crowd flow problems. Scott and Stromberg were also accused of threatening to dox any festival organizers who would cancel the show over safety concerns.
In a deposition, Stromberg said his doxxing comments were a joke made in “poor taste.”
Brody said safety concerns raised over Scott being the only person to use the main stage were fixed.
Wexler also accused Scott and his team backstage of ignoring orders from festival organizers to stop the concert at 10 p.m.
In a deposition, Scott said he was never told as he was onstage that there were people in the crowd who were dead and he needed to stop the show at 10 p.m.
Scott said he was told to end the show after hip-hop guest artist Drake performed. The concert didn’t end until 10:12 p.m.
“It’s one of the worst days for not just me but for a lot of people, families, the city. It was just -- it was just a bad day overall,” Scott said in a deposition in September.
Attorneys for other individuals and companies tied to the festival also asked Hawkins on Monday to be dismissed from the case. Hawkins was expected to issue a ruling on Scott's motion and the others at a later date.
Last week, Hawkins dismissed lawsuits against Drake and several other individuals and companies involved in the show.
After an investigation by Houston police, no charges were filed against Scott and a grand jury declined to indict him and five other people on any criminal counts related to the deadly concert.
Those killed, who ranged in age from 9 to 27, died from compression asphyxia, which an expert likened to being crushed by a car.
The lawsuit filed by Dubiski’s family is set to be the first one to go to trial on May 6.
Some of the lawsuits filed by the families of the dead and the hundreds who were injured have been settled, including those filed by the families of four of the dead.
Associated Press writer Ken Miller in Oklahoma City contributed to this report.
Follow Juan A. Lozano: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
FILE - The Astroworld main stage where Travis Scott was performing when a surging crowd killed several people, sits full of debris from the concert, in a parking lot at NRG Center on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021, in Houston. A judge in Texas is expected hear arguments Monday, April 15 2024, in Scott's request to be dismissed from a lawsuit over the deadly 2021 Astroworld festival. (Mark Mulligan/Houston Chronicle via AP, File)
FILE - Two people who knew an unidentified victim of a fatal incident at the Houston Astroworld concert embrace at a memorial on Nov. 7, 2021, in Houston. A judge in Texas is expected hear arguments Monday, April 15 2024, in rap star Travis Scott's request to be dismissed from a lawsuit over the deadly 2021 Astroworld festival. (AP Photo/Robert Bumsted, File)
FILE - Travis Scott performs at the Astroworld Music Festival in Houston, Nov. 5, 2021. A judge in Texas is expected hear arguments Monday, April 15 2024, in Scott's request to be dismissed from a lawsuit over the deadly 2021 Astroworld festival. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP, File)
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A surprise announcement that revealed Haiti’s new prime minister is threatening to fracture a recently installed transitional council tasked with choosing new leaders for the gang-riddled Caribbean country.
Four of seven council members with voting powers said Tuesday that they had chosen Fritz Bélizaire as prime minister, taking many Haitians aback with their declaration and unexpected political alliance.
The council members who oppose Bélizaire, who served as Haiti’s sports minister during the second presidency of René Préval from 2006 to 2011, are now weighing options including fighting the decision or resigning from the council.
A person with direct knowledge of the situation who did not want to be identified because negotiations are ongoing said the council’s political accord had been violated by the unexpected move and that some council members are considering other choices as potential prime minister.
The council on Tuesday was scheduled to hold an election and choose its president. But two hours and a profuse apology later, one council member said that not only a council president had been chosen, but a prime minister as well. Murmurs rippled through the room.
The Montana Accord, a civil society group represented by a council member with voting powers, denounced in a statement late Tuesday what it called a “complot” hatched by four council members against the Haitian people “in the middle of the night.”
“The political and economic mafia forces have decided to take control of the presidential council and the government so that they can continue to control the state,” the Montana Accord said.
Haitian politics have long been characterized by secretive dealings, but many worry the country cannot afford further political instability as gangs lay siege to the capital of Port-au-Prince and beyond.
“People change parties (like) they’re changing their shirts,” said François Pierre-Louis, a professor of political science at Queens College in New York and former Haitian politician.
He spoke during an online webinar on Tuesday evening.
Like others, he said he believed that Jean-Charles Moïse, a powerful politician who was a former senator and presidential candidate, was behind Bélizaire’s nomination.
“Interestingly, Moïse, of all the politicians there, is the one calling the shots,” Pierre-Louis said.
Moïse, however, does not sit on the council. His party, Pitit Desalin, is represented by Emmanuel Vertilaire, who is among the four council members who support Bélizaire.
The others are Louis Gérald Gilles, Smith Augustin and Edgard Leblanc Fils, the council’s new president.
They could not be immediately reached for comment.
A document shared with The Associated Press and signed by the four council members who chose the new prime minister state they have agreed to make decisions by consensus. The document is titled, “Constitution of an Indissoluble Majority Bloc within the Presidential Council.”
The move prompted the Fanmi Lavalas party to issue a statement Wednesday calling it a “masquerade” and “conspiracy” to guarantee that PHTK “thugs and their allies retain power…and continue the tradition of corruption.”
“The Lavalas Family strongly rejects the betrayal scandal that occurred on April 30,” the party said.
Fils represents the January 30 political group, which is made up of parties including PHTK, whose members include former President Michel Martelly and slain President Jovenel Moïse. Meanwhile, Augustin represents the EDE/RED political party, founded by former Prime Minister Claude Joseph, and Gilles represents the Dec. 21 agreement, which is associated with f ormer Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who recently resigned.
Henry was on an official visit to Kenya to push for the U.N.-backed deployment of a police force from the East African country when gangs in Haiti launched coordinated attacks starting Feb. 29.
They have burned police stations, opened fire on the main international airport that remains closed since early March and stormed Haiti’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. The violence continues unabated in certain part of Port-au-Prince, including the area around the National Palace.
Haitians are demanding that security be a top priority for the council, which is tasked with selecting a new prime minister and Cabinet, as well as prepare for eventual general elections.
But some Haitians are wary of the council and the decisions it’s taking.
Jean Selcé, a 57-year-old electrician, noted that most of the council members are longtime politicians: “Their past is not really positive.”
“I hope their mentality can change, but I don’t believe it will,” he said. “They don’t really love the country. Who’s dying right now? It’s Haitians like me.”
Robert Fatton, a Haitian politics expert at the University of Virginia, noted that some of the parties represented on the council are responsible for the current chaos in Haiti.
“It’s a contradiction,” he said. “Every time we seem to be in a crisis, we reappoint the same people and hope that they change their ways, but they do not.”
Raising the same criticism is Michael Deibert, author of “Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti,” and “Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History.”
He noted in a recent essay that the council is “dominated by the same political currents who have spent the last 25 years driving Haiti over a cliff, taking advantage of impoverished young men in the slums to be used as political bludgeons before - bloated on the proceeds from kidnapping, extortion, drug trafficking and other criminal enterprises - these groups outgrew the necessity of their patrons.”
More than 2,500 people have been killed or injured across Haiti from January to March, according to the U.N.
In addition, more than 90,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince in just one month given the relentless gang violence.
Street vendors move their booth after gunshots broke out near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Police patrol near the National Palace amid the sound of gunshots in the distance in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
CORRECTS DAY - People run for cover as shots ring out near the National Palace in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
Edgard Leblanc Fils speaks after the transitional council named him president of the council in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
Transitional council member Frisnel Joseph speaks during a ceremony to name its president and a prime minister in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
IDENTIFIES TRANSITIONAL COUNCIL MEMBERS - Transitional Council members, from left to right; Fritz Alphonse Jean, Laurent Saint-Cyr, Frinel Joseph, Edgard Leblanc Fils, Regine Abraham, Emmanuel Vertilaire, Smith Augustin, Leslie Voltaire and Louis Gerald Gilles, pose for a group photo after a ceremony to name its president and a prime minister in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Fils was chosen as the president of the panel. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
Edgard Leblanc Fils, left, and Smith Augustin prepare to pose for a group photo with the transitional council after it named Fils as its president in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, April 30, 2024. The transitional council will act as the country’s presidency until it can arrange presidential elections sometime before it disbands, which must be by February 2026. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
