Nichol Lechmanik said Thursday at a press conference in Los Angeles with his lawyer Gloria Allred that the singer, who changed his name to Ye, caused him “great mental and emotional damage”.
The incident occurred in January 2023 when the paparazzi was outside a sports venue in Ventura County, near Los Angeles, where the daughter of Ye and Kim Kardashian was.
According to the lawsuit, the paparazzi had taken some images of Kardashian entering the complex when she saw Ye outside arguing with someone. Lechmanik began filming with his phone from his car to the rapper.
In a clip played during the press conference, Ye approaches the vehicle and confronts the paparazzi. “If I want to see my son in a game, you can’t come all over me like that. If I say stop (…) Stop with your cameras,” Ye says, visibly upset.
“I know, but Kanye, you’re a celebrity,” replies the photographer who continues filming, like a companion in the car. right away the musician grabs Lechmanik’s phone and throws it on the floorhe turns around and leaves.
“It caused me a lot of fear,” said the photographer on Thursday. “His actions of his have interfered with my work. (…) He does not have the right to attack me or cause me fear of practicing my profession.”
Asked by a journalist about the limits of celebrity privacy, Lechmanik said she had 10 years of experience and had never had a similar incident.
“I think people don’t understand the difficulties we photographers go through,” he added.
The lawsuit seeks “general, special and punitive damages”commented Gloria Allred.
With information from AFP