A judge has denied a request by Eminem’s mother to collect more money for settling a pair of lawsuits against the rap superstar. Debbie R. Mathers-Briggs tried to change attorneys and protest efforts forcing her into a settlement of $25,000 in her claims against her son, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III.
“It’s clearly a settlement,” Macomb (Mich.) County Circuit Judge Mark S. Switalski ruled yesterday (June 4). “If someone feels remorse subsequent to it, that doesn’t change that it is a settlement, established in writing by agents of the parties.”
The judge ruled that Mathers-Briggs, who initially sued for $12 million, had abandoned her legal standing to jockey for more money.
Her new lawyer said the $25,000 settlement is invalid. “She didn’t sign anything, and this so-called settlement went through after she’d already written a letter attempting to fire her attorney,” Michael Marsalese said.
Mathers-Briggs filed two defamation lawsuits over Eminem’s statements in magazines and radio talk-show interviews that portray her as an unstable, lawsuit-happy drug user who moved about aimlessly during the rapper’s formative years. She sued for $10 million in 1999 and an estimated $2 million last year.
“Debbie dropped the lawsuit because she wanted to try reconciling with her son,” Mathers-Briggs’ mother, Betty Kresin of St. Joseph, Mo., told The Macomb Daily. “But then she’s told me she wants to bring it back, and then she doesn’t, and I don’t know what’s going on.”
Eminem was to appear today in Oakland County Circuit Court for sentencing on a weapons possession charge, but the hearing was postponed because the judge’s docket was full. The 28-year-old rapper faces sentencing after pleading no contest to a felony charge of carrying a concealed weapon and a misdemeanor charge of brandishing a weapon during a fight with a rival Detroit rap group.
Oakland County Circuit Judge Denise Langford Morris has said she is unlikely to consider jail time for Eminem.
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