A soldier allegedly bashed over the head with a champagne bottle by Gucci Mane has filed a civil suit against the Atlanta-based hip-hop artist.
The rapper, born Radric Davis, has already been charged criminally for the March 16 incident at the Harlem Nights Ultra Lounge on Courtland Street.
The plaintiff, James Leonard Lettley, said he was celebrating his birthday when he spotted Gucci Mane. Telling the rapper he was a soldier and a fan, Lettley asked him to pose for a picture. According to his suit, filed in Fulton County State Court, Davis responded by plunking Lettley with the bottle.
Davis was charged with aggravated assault last month. He was released on $75,000 bond and ordered to remain on 24-hour curfew at home, wear an ankle monitoring device, surrender his passport and submit to random drug and alcohol testing. Court permission is required for any travel, and he was told to stay away from Lettley and anyone who might have witnessed the alleged attack.
Davis’ attorney, Drew Findling, questioned Lettley’s account, noting there’s been no other evidence to substantiate the soldier’s claims.
“The evidence continues to just be only the victim’s statement,” Findling said at the March bond hearing. “In these days if somebody makes an epically prejudicial statement … or commits a violent act, it’s all over YouTube before you can pronounce YouTube. But nothing surfaced in a week after the incident.”
Lettley’s attorney, Parag Y. Shah, did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Davis has been in and out of trouble since rising to fame in 2005. Murder charges against him were dropped that same year, but he has been arrested more than a dozen times since on charges ranging from reckless driving to aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
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