Attorneys for musician Chuck Redd say a D.C. Superior Court docket decide dismissed a breach of contract lawsuit filed in opposition to Redd after he canceled a Christmas Eve performance on the Kennedy Center in protest of President Donald Trump’s affect over the venue.
The dismissal on Friday was granted below Washington’s Anti-SLAPP laws, that are designed to forestall meritless lawsuits meant to silence opposing factors of view on issues of public curiosity.
Redd, a drummer and vibraphone participant who has toured with everybody from Dizzy Gillespie to Ray Brown, had presided over vacation “Jazz Jams” on the Kennedy Middle since 2006. He known as off final yr’s efficiency shortly after Trump’s handpicked board on the Kennedy Middle voted to add the president’s name to the power.
“The Middle sued Mr. Redd as a result of he publicly and rightly objected to including Donald Trump’s title to the Kennedy Middle, a residing memorial to former President John F. Kennedy,” Lisa J. Banks, one in every of Redd’s attorneys, mentioned in an announcement. “The lawsuit in opposition to Mr. Redd was political retribution, pure and easy, by the Trump Kennedy Middle, and the Court docket accurately noticed it as such in dismissing the case with prejudice.”
Redd advised The Related Press in an e-mail Saturday morning that he’s “very happy with the decide’s ruling.”
The movement to dismiss, filed in March, argued that Redd wasn’t contractually obligated to carry out. It included the contract supplied by the Kennedy Middle, which the artist by no means signed.
Representatives for the Kennedy Middle didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon the swimsuit’s dismissal.
