“Empire” leading man Terrence Howard just got slapped with a nasty lawsuit.
This week, Howard’s ex-wife, Michelle Ghent, filed suit against the actor claiming that he assaulted her in 2013. In the civil complaint filed in Los Angeles, Ghent claims the assault took place while they were staying in a rental home in Costa Rica.
The alleged assault, which transpired on the evening of July 29, 2013, began when Howard “followed the Plaintiff into the restroom of the rental house and punched her on the left side of her face. Defendant also grabbed Plaintiff by her neck and pushed her against the bathroom wall and strangled her for several seconds,” states the complaint. The filing continues he “grabbed her neck again and pinned her against the shower glass and her head hit the wall.”
When she attempted to flee, Howard’s son-in-law tried to intervene. “While Billy tried to pry Defendant’s hands from Plaintiff’s neck, Defendant whispered to Plaintiff, ‘Remember what I told you in Bora Bora? That is what I’m gonna do,’ referring to a prior instance where Defendant told Plaintiff that her body would never leave the island,” states the complaint. “Plaintiff interpreted the reference to mean that Defendant was going to kill her.”
However, Ghent reveals in her suit, that the assault didn’t end there. Later on in the evening of the 29th, she claims that Howard charged at her, forcing her to pepper spray him in the face. “Defendant continued swinging his arms and caused Plaintiff to fall down. While Plaintiff was on the ground, Defendant repeatedly mule-kicked Plaintiff in the head and shoulders,” states the complaint.
And while Ghent doesn’t specify damages, she is suing for assault and battery, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress after Howard defamed her by “mak[ing] false accusations disseminated to the public through the media that Plaintiff had made death threats and other threats against Defendant and his family through various social media accounts.”
This could get very messy for Howard, who has previously been accused of spousal abuse. In 2001, he was arrested on charges of assaulting his then-wife Lori McCommas, and in Ghent’s 2011 divorce decree, she claimed he repeatedly threatened and hit her throughout their marriage. In 2013, she was granted a restraining order against him on claims including the allegations regarding the Costa Rica trip detailed in the suit.
While we’d like to believe that Howard is an upstanding guy, if we take an honest look at the evidence so far (the abuse photos presented to the court on behalf of Ghent) and consider past allegations made against the star, all signs are pointing to a possibility of guilt. What do you think of Ghent’s lawsuit? Do you believe the allegations she made against her A-list husband?
