Steve Harvey’s $5 million lawsuit from Essie Berry has some new accusations to it according to an affidavit filed late last week.
In documents obtained by Radar Online, the widow of “What’s Happening” star Fred “Rerun” Berry says she has lost her livelihood thanks to her ongoing blacklisting from the industry she claims is because of the comedian.
(Manny Hernandez/Contributor/Getty Images)
“From 2013 – August 2018, the Defendant and known affiliates have harassed, bullied, stalked, silenced, threatened, and intimidated Ms. Berry,” the affidavit read. “Furthermore, the Defendant went at great lengths to make Ms. Berry’s life a living hell. The Defendant manipulated media and entertainment outlets with his mistruths and caused intentional harm to Ms. Berry’s health and likeness without any apparent justification. She lost contracts and wages as a result of the defendant’s actions.”
Berry’s original suit also seeks damages for emotional distress, infliction of mental anguish, harm caused to her reputation, harassment and witness intimidation. The latter speaks to claims that Harvey has sent his “cronies” to threaten her online, which she claims has caused her to lose methods of income.
“Ms. Berry filed numerous reports to local enforcement and other reporting agencies to restrain the Defendant from constant harassment, which was granted in the State of Arizona in 2013 prior to his retaliating attempt at a restraining order that was in direct violation of the protective order granted to the Plaintiff,” the affidavit said. “On two occasions in 2017, the Defendant sent an unidentified male to Ms. Berry’s family members home after business hours.”
Still, Harvey has denied these claims, with his attorney Kimberly Chemerinsky, writing in a June affidavit that her client, “promptly filed a demurrer to Ms. Berry’s rambling and incoherent original complaint. That challenge was mooted days before a hearing when Ms. Berry amended her pleading to assert new claims and theories. Through the present demurrer, Mr. Harvey seeks to end Ms. Berry’s continued misuse and abuse of the judicial system. Her operative pleading remains woefully deficient under even the most relaxed pleading standard. It purports to plead claims that do not exist.”
Harvey’s team has also alleged Berry and his ex-wife, Mary Vaughn, were colluding to launch a “quixotic campaign” to drag down his reputation.
