Movie producer Tyler Perry fighting assault accuser over private texts with friends

Tyler Perry has asked a court to keep private text messages confidential in his ongoing legal dispute with actor Mario Rodriguez, who has accused the filmmaker of defilement.

According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Perry said he had provided messages exchanged with associates as part of the proceedings. He argued that the correspondence should remain confidential under an agreement previously reached between the parties. Perry said some conversations involved financial matters and that both he and the people he communicated with understood the exchanges to be private.

He also argued that the associates were not involved in the allegations at the centre of the lawsuit and that publishing their messages would cause unnecessary embarrassment and annoyance. Rodriguez had not filed a response to the confidentiality issue at the time of the report. The dispute forms part of Rodriguez’s $77 million lawsuit against Perry over alleged defilement.

Rodriguez said he met Perry at a gym in 2015, leading to a role in the filmmaker’s comedy, Boo! A Madea Halloween. In his lawsuit, Rodriguez alleged that Perry assaulted him during a visit to the filmmaker’s home in 2018. He claimed Perry made a s3xu@l proposition before touching him without consent, then apologised and gave him $5,000.

Rodriguez alleged that another incident of unwanted touching occurred during a separate meeting and was followed by a further $5,000 payment. Perry and his company have denied all allegations of wrongdoing. The filmmaker has argued that Rodriguez continued communicating with him after the alleged incidents and brought the claims after Perry stopped providing financial assistance.

The parties have also disputed whether Perry should be required to answer questions about his sexuality during a deposition. Perry’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, previously described the lawsuit to TMZ as a “shakedown”. The allegations and the competing accounts remain before the court.