LOS ANGELES (AP) — A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.
In the suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Emilio Garcia said that after a night out in 2022 in Ibiza, Spain, he was in an SUV with the hip-hop star when she began having sex with another woman right next to him. He was unable to get out of the moving car, and would have been in the middle of nowhere in a foreign country even if he was able. Garcia was “embarrassed, mortified and offended throughout the whole ordeal,” according to the lawsuit.
Alex Spiro, Megan's lawyer, said she would fight the lawsuit in court.
“This is an employment claim for money — with no sexual harassment claim filed and with salacious accusations to attempt to embarrass her,” Spiro said.
The next day Megan told Garcia never to discuss what he saw and berated and fat-shamed him, the lawsuit said. The complaint also said Garcia, who had already considered quitting because he was overworked and underpaid in a hostile work environment aggravated by Megan's possessiveness and abusiveness, was misclassified as an independent contractor but treated as an exclusive employee.
Garcia raised those issues in the conversation with Megan, and was fired the following day after four years of working for her, the suit said. He has since filed a job discrimination complaint with the California Civil Rights Department.
The lawsuit, first reported by NBC News, names as defendants Megan, whose legal name is Megan Pete; her companies Megan Thee Stallion Entertainment and Hot Girl Touring; and her label, Roc Nation. A defense response has yet to be filed. There was no immediate response to an email seeking comment from a representative of Roc Nation.
Garcia is seeking financial damages to be determined at trial, alleging he has suffered severely both emotionally and physically because of his treatment on the job, the firing and having to witness the scene in the SUV.
Megan, 29, was previously involved in major legal drama — and underwent a torrent of online abuse — as the victim of a shooting by rapper Tory Lanez, who a jury found fired at her feet on a street in the Hollywood Hills in 2020. She testified at the trial where jurors convicted Lanez of three felonies and a judge sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
Already a major rising artist at the time of the shooting, Megan has since become one of hip-hop's biggest stars. She won a Grammy for best new artist in 2021, and she had No. 1 singles with “Savage,” featuring Beyoncé, and as a guest on Cardi B’s “WAP.”
FILE - Megan Thee Stallion arrives at the Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, May 15, 2022, in Las Vegas. A photographer who worked for the hip-hop star said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday, April 23, 2024, that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — There are no shortage of storylines for this Florida-Boston rematch.
There’s the Panthers, trying to move another step closer toward a return to the Stanley Cup Final. There’s the Bruins, looking to avenge a shocking upset in a Round 1 series last season. The rested Panthers having just gotten a few days off, the razor-sharp Bruins rolling in after a Game 7 overtime win over Toronto.
Florida coach Paul Maurice summed it all up succinctly.
“None of that matters when the puck drops," Maurice said.
He’s probably right. A second-round series between the Panthers and Bruins starts Monday night in South Florida, the two best teams in the Atlantic Division squaring off with a trip to the NHL’s final four on the line. Florida rallied from a 3-1 deficit to stun Boston in Round 1 a year ago, and the Bruins needed to exorcise those Game 7 overtime demons on Saturday night to beat Toronto and keep their season alive.
“We’re a better team for what we just went through,” Bruins coach Jim Montgomery said Saturday night after Boston’s 2-1 win over Toronto. “Now we know what it takes to push through.”
The Panthers have home-ice advantage because they won the Atlantic Division, even though Boston spent the overwhelming majority of the season in first place. Florida passed the Bruins on the final day of the regular season for both clubs.
But the way Boston sees it, surviving the Round 1 test against Toronto delivered a needed edge.
“It’s resilience. It’s mental toughness. It’s belief in one another,” Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy said. “When we needed it the most in the biggest game of the year, we got it. And I think our group can take a lot from that.”
Florida watched the Boston-Toronto series knowing either way, it’d be a rematch — the Panthers beat Boston in Round 1 and Toronto in Round 2 last year. Panthers forward Matthew Tkachuk said he expected to see Boston, and the Bruins proved him right.
Florida has been off for a week since ousting Tampa Bay in Round 1.
“I personally love it,” Tkachuk said. “It feels like we’re just about to start playoffs now. That break was really good for us.”
Florida is in the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs for the third consecutive year. The only other teams that can say that are Carolina and Edmonton.
Dallas beat Vegas on Sunday night to make Round 2 for the second straight year. None of the other four teams in the second round this season — Boston, the New York Rangers, Colorado and Vancouver — made Round 2 last season.
Boston went 4-0-0 vs. Florida this season, winning two of those games in overtime. The Bruins were one of four teams — and the only from the Eastern Conference — to beat the Panthers in every meeting this season, joining Vancouver, Minnesota and Winnipeg.
Bruins goalies Jeremy Swayman (3.00, .857 in one game) and Linus Ullmark (1.62, .947 in three games) combined to stop 108 of 116 Florida shots. Sergei Bobrovsky was in net for all four games for Florida, giving up 13 goals on 101 shots (3.24, .871).
Game 2 is in Sunrise on Wednesday and Game 3 is at Boston on Friday — which led to the switching of a Tim McGraw concert. He’ll now play at TD Garden on Wednesday.
A good sign for the Bruins: Teams that win a Game 7 in overtime have gone on to win their next series 16 out of 21 times since 2003.
The most recent team to use a Game 7 OT victory as a springboard to next-round success was Florida — which beat Boston in Game 7 of Round 1 last year and wound up going all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.
Boston had four previous Game 7 overtime wins before Saturday. The Bruins went on to win the next series three of those times (1939, 2011, 2013) and lost the next series once (1983).
Power plays weren’t exactly powerful in the Bruins-Panthers regular-season series. Boston went 2 for 13 with the man advantage and Florida went 0 for 11.
The Panthers were worse on the power play against only one opponent this season. They were 0 for 17 against Toronto, the team that Boston defeated to get into Round 2 against Florida.
Florida had the second-most shots on goal in the NHL this season. But the Bruins find a way better than anyone else to bottle up the Panthers.
Boston allowed Florida an average of 29 shots on goal per game. The only team in the NHL to allow Florida a lower average this season was Philadelphia, which held the Panthers to 22 shots per contest in their three matchups.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Boston Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery cheers after a goal by center Trent Frederic (11) during the first period of Game 5 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series agains the Toronto Maple Leafs, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Fans celebrate after the Boston Bruins defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime during Game 7 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series, Saturday, May 4, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov (16) and left wing Matthew Tkachuk, left, congratulate center Carter Verhaeghe (23) after Verhaeghe scored a goal during the third period of Game 5 of the first-round of an NHL Stanley Cup Playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, Monday, April 29, 2024, in Sunrise, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
