Frank Ocean has had a rough start in the legal battle against his father. Last year, Frank published a Tumblr letter in response to the Orlando nightclub shooting, where he recounted how his father dragged him out of a restaurant as he called a transgender waitress a “faggot.” The recollection moved his father Calvin Cookse to sue him last February for defamation, demanding $14.5 million because the letter has “damaged his financial opportunities in film and music.”
In response, Ocean said the Tumblr post “speaks for itself” and outlined 17 “affirmative defenses” explaining why the case should be dismissed.
It doesn’t look like the defenses quite worked. According to legal documents obtained by Pitchfork, Judge Stephen V. Wilson found a lot of Ocean’s responses “completely devoid of any factual support” and threatened to consider sanctions if he is “persisting with arguments with no factual support.” The court decided to uphold all but one of Ocean’s 17 defenses.
The judge in the case has noted that Ocean and his father have both used “unnecessary litigation tactics” during the case and has warned both of them to stop their behavior dealing with such a straightforward case.
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