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Home Depot has reportedly responded to Tyrese‘s $1 million racial discrimination lawsuit with their own filing. As The Shade Room reported, Tyrese filed the lawsuit in August 2023 for an incident that occurred earlier that year in February.
According to RadarOnline, Home Depot alleges that Tyrese never spoke with store employees before leaving the location and allowing his associates to use his credit card.
Additionally, the company alleges that security cameras did not capture this interaction.
The company is accusing Tyrese of sharing footage of the incident despite receiving a rejection from the employee involved. The outlet alleges that Tyrese’s recordings were then further disseminated by media outlets. Additionally, Home Depot is requesting that a protective order be put in place to prevent “public dissemination of private communications… that were never intended to be public.”
Attorneys for Home Depot have shared that the company will turn over CCTV footage once the protective order is granted.
Furthermore, Home Depot has accused Tyrese of having “exaggerated theatrics on the date of the incident.”
According to the outlet, Tyrese visited a Home Depot location with two associates on February 11, 2023. The singer alleged that amid the store run, fans noticed him, and the sighting became too overwhelming. He then gave his associates his credit card before leaving the store.
Tyrese alleged that a store employee refused to process the associates’ transactions without his photo ID. The following day, the singer took to Instagram to share footage of his subsequent conversation with the employee, which appeared to take place via FaceTime.
As previously reported by The Shade Room, Tyrese is reportedly seeking $1 million from the company. The singer is also reportedly requesting to receive damages, have his attorney’s fees covered, and a judgment proclaiming that Home Depot violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act.
According to the California Department of Rehabilitation, the act protects individuals from discrimination from all business establishments in California.
Since filing the initial lawsuit, Tyrese has reportedly accused the company of failing to submit the requested documents or its employees for witness depositions.
Attorneys for Home Depot have reportedly shared that they’re actively scheduling employee witness depositions. However, they will await a judge’s ruling on the protective order before providing Tyrese with the documents he’s requested.
RadarOnline reports that a judge has yet to rule on the matter.
