Dwayne Johnson’s reputation in Hollywood is as squeaky clean as his bald head. The former pro wrestler turned movie star quite literally has it written into his contracts that he can’t lose in a fight.
In other words, his public persona is more important than a good or believable story, and anything on screen must match the off-screen perception he so meticulously cultivates. It goes without saying then, that a $3 billion kidnapping lawsuit does not bode well for Johnson’s hard-earned image.
Indeed, Johnson’s name was slapped with a dirty scandal after court documents obtained by Snopes revealed the actor has been listed as a defendant in a kidnapping lawsuit relating to a fellow former pro-WWE wrestler, Rhaka Khan, also known as Trenesha Biggers.
Trenesha Biggers’ kidnapping lawsuit and what it has to do with Dwayne Johnson
Trenesha Biggers went by the name Rhaka Khan when she was employed by WWE, a career that just so happened to overlap with Johnson’s. Although she mostly goes by the last name Biggers, she is also known as Trenesha Sims and Trenesha Williams.
On Oct. 8, 2022, Biggers filed a lawsuit with the United States District Court, Southern District of New York accusing the defendants therein of conspiring “to kidnap Plaintiff [Biggers] and her two children from Brighter Tomorrows Domestic Violence Shelter.”
As it turns out, Biggers has a history of domestic violence. In 2009, she accused ex-boyfriend and former pro-wrestler Kurt Angle of domestic violence. The charges were eventually dropped during the case’s preliminary hearing. Prior to that, Biggers accused Angle of violating a protection order; but he was also cleared of those charges.
In 2019, 10 years later, Biggers claimed that Angle aided and abetted the kidnapping allegations she’s put forth in her lawsuit with the United States District Court, Southern District of New York. As it turns out, Angle is just one of hundreds of people and entities named in the lawsuit, and yes, Johnson is one of them.
Biggers also claims her ex-husband, Ephram Sims stalked and kidnapped her and her two children across state lines despite being on active probation for family violence. She asserts that law enforcement and all the named defendants, Johnson included, assisted in the effort.
Yes, Dwayne Johnson was named as a defendant, but he is not the only celebrity
Dwayne Johnson is indeed named as a defendant in Bigger’s $3 billion lawsuit, however, he was not referenced by name in the written account of Biggers’ overarching statement or timeline of events. Instead, he is listed as one of the many individuals and entities that law enforcement aided in terrorizing Biggers, or so she claims.
In total, there are nearly 400 named defendants. Several of them are repeated throughout the document, often with a different spelling or completely capitalized instead of written in lowercase. A portion of the the hundreds of named defendants include:
- Eminem
- Michael Jordan
- Booker T. Huffman
- Home Debut
- Bank of America
- GAP
- Universal Studios
- Sea World
- Tyra Banks
- Naomi Campbell
- Hertz
- IMAX
- Warner Brothers
- Ford
- T-Mobile
- Spring
- Verizon
- Victoria’s Secret
- Staples
- Kinkos
- CVS
- Walgreens
- USPS
- McDonald’s
- Gucci
- Chanel
- Taco Bell
- NBC
- CNN
- MTV
- Fox News
- Venmo
- Cash App
- Petco
- LA Fitness
Several of the named Universities include Penn State University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Florida, Harvard, Yale, Florida State University, and the University of South Florida.
The list goes on, with states like Colorado, Connecticut, and Illinois also included. To top it off, Biggers listed the United States of America as a defendant. (Yes, she’s suing the country.) The U.S. was one of the entities Biggers named more than once, the second time around including a question mark — “USA?”
In 2019, right around the time Biggers claimed the whole world aided and abetted her kidnapping allegations, she was listed as one of El Paso’s most wanted fugitives. The charge? “Interference with child custody.”
Biggers claims in the kidnapping lawsuit that El Paso Times falsely accused her of being a wanted fugitive. In addition to a 73-point list of all the events that have happened between 2015 and 2016, she demanded “relief in the amount of $3 billion dollars.” Next to the date (Oct. 8, 2022), she signed her name, and next to that, she drew a tiny heart.
As of June 2023, the case has (unsurprisingly) been dismissed by United States District Court Judge, Laura Taylor Swain. The order that dismissed the suit stated the following on the matter:
“The Court must dismiss an IFP complaint or portion thereof, that is frivolous or malicious, fails to state a claim on which relief may be granted, or seeks monetary relief from a defendant who is immune from such relief.”
Published: Nov 27, 2023 11:48 am