With a legal technicality, Georgia-based comedian Katt Williams has dodged a lawsuit filed by four women who claim he violently assaulted them outside an Atlanta club.
The case was thrown out Friday by a federal judge in Atlanta who said the women missed their deadline to serve Williams with their complaint, despite receiving authority to use the U.S. Marshals Service.
“All of Plaintiffs’ claims in this case are time-barred,” U.S. District Judge William Ray wrote in his order dismissing the suit.
Atlanta attorney Gabe Banks, who represents Williams in the case, said the comedian has maintained his innocence from the beginning and can now focus on his craft.
“This has been a long journey for Katt, and he should be commended for his patience and resilience throughout the entire process,” Banks told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Williams can recover his defense costs in the case, Ray decided.
Loletha Hale, a Jonesboro-based lawyer representing the four women who sued Williams, did not immediately respond to questions about the ruling.
Ray’s decision to end the case comes 10 days after he sanctioned Hale for filing fake legal arguments generated by artificial intelligence.
Hale told the judge she’d asked her daughter, who is not a lawyer or paralegal, to create a response to Williams’ request for the case to be thrown out. Hale said she was preoccupied with a personal matter and accidentally filed her daughter’s draft, created with AI, instead of a corrected version.
There have been problems with the case, seeking at least $20 million from Williams, since it was initially filed in January 2022.
The plaintiffs — North Carolina residents Selena Boston, Jalisa Rhodes, Lutisha Martinez and Lanette Washington — were unable to timely serve Williams with the complaint and it was dismissed in November 2022.
They were allowed to refile their suit in February 2023 but failed that month to serve Williams at a show in South Carolina, court records show.
Ray said the plaintiffs made no further attempts to officially notify Williams of their case until December 2023, though they had been granted permission to use the U.S. Marshals Service. By the time Williams was served at a show in California on Dec. 29, 2023, the relevant statute of limitation had expired.
The judge said the womens’ attempts to justify the delay, including that Williams was shielded by his celebrity status and private security, were meritless.
Boston, Rhodes, Martinez and Washington claimed they encountered Williams and his entourage outside a lounge on West Peachtree Street in Atlanta around 2 a.m. on Feb. 28, 2016. They said a fight started after Williams agreed to take photos with them.
Williams was accused of punching and kicking the women, throwing their shoes and cellphones across the street and pointing a gun at them while making gang signs. They claimed he also spat on their vehicle as they tried to get away.
The plaintiffs waited years to sue Williams while he faced associated battery and theft charges that were ultimately dismissed by the Fulton County District Attorney’s office in December 2021, court records show.
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