Once again, the late Bobbi Kristina Brown’s ex Nick Gordon has landed himself in some serious hot water. Early on Saturday, Nick was arrested and charged with two very serious crimes – one being domestic violence battery and the other being for kidnapping/false imprisonment of an adult. This is less than a year after he was found legally responsible for the 2015 death of Whitney Houston’s daughter Bobbi Kristina Brown.
According to reports, Nick was taken into custody and booked in by law enforcement in Sanford, Florida early on Saturday. Media outlet TMZ reports that Nick’s victim was actually his girlfriend, who he allegedly beat up late on Friday night. His girlfriend wound up checking into a nearby hospital and later filed a police report, claiming that Nick had both battered her and imprisoned her within the residence in which they were both staying at the time.
Cops collared Gordon, 28, after his girlfriend of two months, 26-year-old Laura Leal, accused him of punching and hitting her and refusing to let her leave his home in Sanford, Florida, the Daily Mail reports.
The pair started fighting Friday night after watching the NBA finals at a nearby bar, where Gordon thought Leal was trying to “hook up” with one of his pals, according to the police report.
She insisted there was nothing going on, but he didn’t believe her, and kept saying he just wanted her to tell the truth, and “would not get mad” if she confessed, the report states.
Gordon eventually gave her the option of leaving, but when she tried to walk out, he allegedly flew into a rage, punching her and refusing to let her go.
Leal claims Gordon had already smashed her cell phone a few weeks ago, so she tried to contact her sister for help via Facebook — and Gordon allegedly took her laptop away and hid his own phone, the report says.
He allegedly continued to beat her through the night, and then just after dawn, she finally woke up Gordon’s mom, who saw the injuries and drove Leal to her sister’s house, where she called the cops, the Mail reports.
But when the officers saw her wounds, they sent her to the emergency room.
Bobbi Kristina, the daughter of singer Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, died two years ago. She was found face-down and unresponsive in a bathtub in January 2015, then lay in a coma until her death in July 2015 at age 22.
While Nick faces some serious punishment for these most recent charges, he is still supposed to be paying his dues related to his previous legal case. Back in late 2016, a judge ruled that Gordon had to pay over $36 million to the family of his late girlfriend (the Browns) after he was found legally responsible for her unfortunate death.
Generally, break-ups leave people feeling sad, lonely and in need of isolation. However, comedian Amy Schumer proved this past week that she handles a break-up differently than the average human.
Back in May, Amy’s representative confirmed to E! News that the star had split from her longtime boyfriend, furniture designer Ben Hanisch. Amy and Ben had been dating for around 18 months and their split was seemingly out of nowhere.
Up until last week, both Amy and Ben have avoided commenting on their mysterious break-up. However, on Thursday, while performing at Hilarity for Charity’s Third Annual New York City Variety Show (which benefited Alzheimer’s research), Amy decided to poke fun at her recent split.
During her stand-up routine on Thursday night, Amy quipped, “So [Ben and I] were kind of like – we were a year and a half, you know it’s not that bad but it’s like – we went out with a couple who’s been together for a long time and we were kind of trying to rush the intimacy. Like I was trying to impress the girl and I was like, ‘Well he woke me up this morning with a fart.’ And he just slowly turned to me and he goes, ‘Are we doing this?’ and I was like, ‘No, no, no, no, no. We’re not opening fire. Don’t tell me any of the disgusting s*** I’ve done.” Amy went on to reveal, “[Ben] was just like, ‘I want male confidence.’”
While Amy didn’t divulge any serious, in-depth details about what led to her and Ben’s split, she did joke about her newly single status. The Train Wreck star jokingly told the audience, “I’m dating this new dude. He’s awesome. He’s like Stephen Hawking, sexually.”
Prior to dating Ben, there were rumors that ABC was trying to convince Amy to give the whole Bachelorette thing a shot. Maybe this recent break-up will get Amy to reconsider the idea of finding love on national TV…but probably not.
Jurors at Bill Cosby‘s sexual-assault trial have heard accuser Andrea Constand’s side of the story and have heard Cosby’s version in the form of his police statement and his lurid deposition in her 2005 lawsuit, but they don’t know if they’ll hear from him in person when his defense starts Monday.
Cosby’s spokesman says maybe. His lawyers are staying mum.
Experts say the “Cosby Show” actor and storyteller could charm the jury but the risk would be considerable.
“He could be a fantastic witness. … He’s an actor, and he’s a very good actor,” Duquesne University School of Law professor Wes Oliver said. “(But) he is potentially opening the door to a whole lot of cross-examination that they fought really hard to keep out.”
Prosecutors wanted 13 other accusers to testify, but the judge allowed just one, an assistant to Cosby’s agent at the William Morris Agency. That meant the prosecution rested its case Friday, just five days after the trial started.
Constand says Cosby drugged and molested her, which he denies. Cosby, who’s 79, could face decades in prison if convicted.
If Cosby testifies and denies drugging and molesting Constand or anyone else, the judge might allow more people to testify as rebuttal witnesses.
“It would be very bad for him for the jury to even begin to think about the other women,” Oliver said.
Not surprisingly in a “he said, she said” case, the defense’s main goal has been to attack the credibility of Constand and the William Morris assistant, Kelly Johnson. Johnson had corroborating evidence in the form of her 1996 workers’ compensation claim against the talent agency. A lawyer who worked on the case recalled her account of being drugged and sexually assaulted by Cosby and had notes to back up his memory.
The defense seized on a glaring discrepancy in the account. The lawyer’s notes say the encounter occurred in 1990, while Johnson insists it was 1996, the year she left work and filed the claim.
The defense had more trouble trying to discredit Constand, a former Temple University employee. It hammered home the point that she was initially unsure what month the encounter took place and had regular phone contact with Cosby afterward. However, Constand proved unflappable, explaining that she had to return calls from Cosby, a university trustee, because he was an important booster and she worked for the women’s basketball team.
Constand left Temple when the season ended in March 2004 and filed a police complaint in January 2005 after moving back home to the Toronto area. She sued Cosby in March 2005 when the local prosecutor decided not to charge him.
Cosby’s four days of testimony in her civil case show just how hard a witness he’d be to control. His answers, like his comedy routines, meander from point to point and veer toward stream of consciousness.
Asked to describe what he called an earlier “romantic” encounter with Constand, he said, “The action is my hand on her midriff, which is skin. I’m not lifting any clothing up. This is, I don’t remember fully what it is, but it’s there and I can feel.”
“I don’t hear her say anything,” he continued. “And I don’t feel her say anything. And so I continue, and I go into the area that is somewhere between permission and rejection.”
And the language he uses to describe his sexual encounters with various young women can be jarring. He talks in the deposition of “the penile entrance” and “digital penetration.” He told Constand’s mother, when she called to confront him, that Constand had had an orgasm. And he might give off hints of arrogance.
“One of the greatest storytellers in the world, and I’m failing,” Cosby said when asked to repeat an answer in the deposition.
The defense could call other witnesses to try to bolster its argument that Cosby had a consensual relationship with Constand, 35 years his junior. It has stressed that Constand went to his house several times, went to New York and Connecticut to have dinner with him and others and spent about 15 minutes alone with him on a hotel bed.
Cosby, who built a wholesome reputation as a family man during his 50-year career in entertainment and was called America’s Dad, told police he held her in his arms that night but did not kiss her. Constand said he called her to his room to grab some leftover pastries.
The trial will move to closing arguments Monday if the defense chooses not to call any witnesses.