Juror Admits Witnessing ‘Awkward Moments’ Between Blac Chyna’s Lawyer And Judge During Kardashian Trial
May 13 2022, Published 3:56 p.m. ET
The forearm of the jury who was appointed to handle Blac Chyna's trial against the Kardashian/Jenner family said the judge who presided over the case was “aggressive” towards Chyna’s attorney at times.
The bombshell revelation comes after Chyna accused the judge and his court clerk of acting "hostile" and being "biased" in favor of the reality stars.
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Chyna sued her ex-fiancé Rob's mom Kris and sisters Kim, Khloé & Kylie. She accused them of spreading false rumors that she abused the father of her daughter Dream during their relationship.
The Lashed business owner said the alleged lies were told to E! executives who turned around and canceled her show, Rob & Chyna.
The family denied the accusations in court. They said Rob told them Chyna did assault him during incidents in December 2016.
On the stand, the reclusive reality star told the jury his ex tried to strangle him with an iPhone cord and put a gun to his head.
The jury ended up siding with the Kardashian/Jenner family and decided not to award Chyna a dime. However, she believes the judge made several errors and announced plans to appeal the verdict.
Chyna also moved to disqualify the judge listing several reasons she believed he should step down from the case.
In her motion, Chyna's attorney Lynne Ciani pointed to one incident between the court clerk and the Kardashian/Jenner lawyer, Michael Rhodes. She said she noticed the clerk and Rhodes having a "chummy" conversation and approached them to see what they were discussing.
The clerk “unabashedly and even giddy informed me that she was asking [Rhodes] if her adult daughter could meet the defendants in a private meeting” because her daughter was a “huge fan of the Kardashians.”
Ciani said she was “stunned at the audacity of [the clerk] to act so openly biased in favor of the Kardashian/Jenner defendants in front of me.”
Chyna's lawyer said the clerk was removed from the case the next day. She then learned the clerk and her adult daughter had a private meeting with the Kardashian family.
Ciani said, "Upon information and belief, it was rumored that [the clerk] and her adult daughter secured autographs and/or photos with the defendants."
Rhodes didn't deny the meeting but said the clerk was removed from the case. He felt Ciani was grasping at straws with her argument.
The juror foreman Rajiv Ghosh spoke to Rolling Stone about the situation. Ghosh said he witnessed the judge being a tad "aggressive" with Ciani at times. However, he told the outlet he did feel "it was a fair trial."
He admitted seeing the clerk leave the court a few days into the trial but said the jury was unaware of what happened.
"I did not even know that Ms. Mason brought her daughter in. No one said anything to me during deliberations. I can safely say that it did not affect anything. We didn’t know. It wasn’t mentioned to anyone,” Ghosh told Rolling Stone.
He continued, "We had asked what happened to her and didn’t get a clear answer. The bailiff changed too… Many days later we heard it might have been health issues. The joke was that the real case was, ‘What happened to Ms. Mason?"
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Ghosh did acknowledge the judge "seemed tough" on Ciani during the trial. He said, "but it didn’t seem unwarranted because it did feel like she was a little unprepared some of the time. They kind of felt like teaching moments. Maybe the judge didn’t have to be so aggressive about it, but his motives were always to keep the case moving."
Despite it all, the foreman said none of it affected the jury's decision. "No one in the juror room mentioned it during the deliberations. And it did not affect my ability to see what was fair or not. There may have been some awkward moments, as if you’re having dinner with a couple who’s fighting in front of you, but, other than that, it did not affect the evidence that we heard or the testimony that we got,” he told Rolling Stone.
The judge shut down Chyna's motion for disqualification. Her lawyer has announced plans to head to the higher court to appeal the verdict.
