Speaker 1: Hey, that folks.
Speaker 2: Sit is Tuesday, December thirtieth, and we have an update
Speaker 2: on the Christmas Day sexual assault lawsuit filed against Tyler Perry.
Speaker 1: After some newly revealed.
Speaker 2: Text messages have made their way to the public, his
Speaker 2: accuser has some explaining to do, and he is explaining
Speaker 2: himself and with that, welcome to this episode of Amy
Speaker 2: and TJ Roates.
Speaker 1: How much does this change the story?
Speaker 2: We've seen this plenty sexual assault accusers, Right, they make
Speaker 2: an accusation and then something comes out where they remained
Speaker 2: friendly with their alleged accuser.
Speaker 1: How does this change a story like this?
Speaker 3: So I don't think that because the texts are friendly,
Speaker 3: that that changes anything, because you are correct. We have
Speaker 3: seen this plenty of times, and we've heard from experts
Speaker 3: who say this is common behavior from people who have
Speaker 3: been victimized. They for some reason try to maintain a
Speaker 3: cordial relationship with their accused abuser. But to me, these
Speaker 3: texts reveal something a little bit more than that, because
Speaker 3: in them, he's painting a sad picture of his life.
Speaker 3: He's asking for money, so it shows his state of
Speaker 3: mind as recently as August.
Speaker 4: Of this year.
Speaker 2: And that's a problem because He claimed in his lawsuit
Speaker 2: that he cut off he cut off communication with Tyler
Speaker 2: Perry years ago because.
Speaker 1: Of the alleged abuse.
Speaker 2: So we will get into those very big points, but
Speaker 2: I guess worlds, we need to go back for folks
Speaker 2: who aren't familiar. Christmas Day, Tyler Perry gets hit with
Speaker 2: a seventy seven million dollar lawsuit.
Speaker 3: Yes, this is an aspiring actor and model. His name
Speaker 3: is Mario Rodriguez. He claims that from twenty fifteen to
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen, Tyler Perry made unwanted sexual advances towards him.
Speaker 4: He says that he was sexually.
Speaker 3: Making claims of sexual abuse and sexual battery, and he
Speaker 3: claims at one point that Tyler Perry even reached down
Speaker 3: into his pants and grabbed his penis and then shoved
Speaker 3: five thousand dollars in his I guess.
Speaker 4: Pockets as he was leaving, putting him in an uber.
Speaker 3: So he describes this awful thing, and eventually after that
Speaker 3: incident boom, he cuts off communication with Tyler Perry. And
Speaker 3: he said Tyler Perry occasionally would text him over the
Speaker 3: years beyond that. But the text messages that we just
Speaker 3: were shown show a very different story. It shows Mario
Speaker 3: Rodriguez reaching out to Tyler Perry, not the other way around.
Speaker 2: And again that flies in the face of credibility and
Speaker 2: a lawsuit that already maybe had some issues, including misspelling
Speaker 2: the movie studio that you're also accusing in this lawsuit.
Speaker 2: So this just flies in the face of credibility. But Robes,
Speaker 2: we do have to make the point that we have
Speaker 2: seen things like this before that is not uncommon.
Speaker 1: To But let's go through now.
Speaker 2: We will share with you the text and we should
Speaker 2: also say where these are coming from. The Associated Press
Speaker 2: that they got their hands on these. They're not revealing
Speaker 2: their source, but these are screen grabs from text messages
Speaker 2: that they've seen again the AP. And again we're talking
Speaker 2: about who the accuser is because the accuser has put
Speaker 2: his name on this lawsuit. It's not something we normally do.
Speaker 2: But Mario Rodriguez, but these are the text messages now
Speaker 2: that have come out and are in question. And it
Speaker 2: should be said, I mean he's acknowledging that these are real.
Speaker 4: Oh yes, he's not denying that these are real.
Speaker 3: In fact, he made a statement about these text messages
Speaker 3: particularly so yes, actually, if you want to, he confirmed
Speaker 3: essentially the validity of them by reacting to them and
Speaker 3: actually defending them.
Speaker 1: But how many in total do we have?
Speaker 5: I have?
Speaker 3: So there's an exchange from Thanksgiving of twenty twenty four,
Speaker 3: and then there's basically a bunch of texts from Mario
Speaker 3: Rodriguez to Tyler Perry on August thirty first of this year.
Speaker 4: So two different text exchanges. The first one we'll start.
Speaker 4: I guess we'll just do kron a lot.
Speaker 3: Thanksgiving of twenty twenty four, So just a year ago,
Speaker 3: Mario Rodriguez wrote this to Tyler Perry. You know that
Speaker 3: I love you and I thank you for everything. I
Speaker 3: appreciate you to the moon. You got my Mexican ass
Speaker 3: out of a lot of bad places, and I just
Speaker 3: want to tell you thank you. I can't buy you anything,
Speaker 3: but I just want to tell you that your boy
Speaker 3: right here appreciates you more than anything. Straight from my heart. Bro,
Speaker 3: Nothing I wouldn't do for you.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 3: Anyways, enjoy your time and I hope to see you
Speaker 3: again soon.
Speaker 2: And again, from all accounts, this is unsolicitou It's not
Speaker 2: like he's responding to something from Tyler Perry. And again
Speaker 2: his lawsuit, he claims he stopped reaching out to the gap.
Speaker 4: That is correct.
Speaker 3: So this flies in the face of that, because again,
Speaker 3: this is Thanksgiving of twenty twenty four. Tyler Perry responds
Speaker 3: in this text exchange and says, happy Thanksgiving, my friend. Yep,
Speaker 3: you've been through it. I'm glad you're doing well. You
Speaker 3: don't have to give me a thing or pay me
Speaker 3: a thing. I'm just glad you're good. And then Mario
Speaker 3: Rodriguez responds, I'm still going through it, but you know me, man,
Speaker 3: I'm a survivor just like you are. And I'm glad
Speaker 3: that you're my friend and I love you, bro respectfully.
Speaker 2: All Right, again, you look at that, and somebody's accusing
Speaker 2: someone and asking them for demanding seventy seven million dollars,
Speaker 2: that text exchange will be brought up in a lawsuit
Speaker 2: in a courtroom and go to his state of mind. Now,
Speaker 2: both sides will argue differently, right, but that is clearly
Speaker 2: what friendly.
Speaker 1: It was unsolicited.
Speaker 3: I would say it's more than friendly. It was loving,
Speaker 3: It was grateful, it was appreciative. Look and look if
Speaker 3: he says he took cut off all communication in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 3: this is twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4: This is five years later, So I think.
Speaker 2: I take more issue with that discrepancy versus what's in
Speaker 2: the content of this, Because how many freaking messages did
Speaker 2: we go through in the damn Diddy trial? How many
Speaker 2: times do we read loving messages that came periods in
Speaker 2: time and years after he's physically abusing people. So I
Speaker 2: guess the content's not surprising, but the time is.
Speaker 1: I'm scratching my head.
Speaker 4: Bout correct correct? I agree?
Speaker 3: And then as recently as August thirty first, twenty twenty five,
Speaker 3: this is the text message. Actually, the effusive one wasn't
Speaker 3: as big of a deal to me. This one is.
Speaker 3: So this was just from a few months ago. This
Speaker 3: is from Mario Rodriguez to Tyler Perry. Brother, haven't been
Speaker 3: feeling okay, confused and ill, nauseous?
Speaker 4: I got blood work.
Speaker 3: Thinks it's my teeth. I know it's none of your business, IDK,
Speaker 3: what do I know? I promise you I would never
Speaker 3: ask you for anything. But if it is what I
Speaker 3: think it is, I don't think I could do it
Speaker 3: on my own because I can barely pay my bills.
Speaker 4: Scared a f.
Speaker 3: I don't want to get sepsis like my dad and
Speaker 3: pass away. I don't even want to mention it because
Speaker 3: I don't want to make it real.
Speaker 4: I feel sick most days.
Speaker 3: Never told anybody this, but my mom and everybody is
Speaker 3: starting to notice my broke ass.
Speaker 4: Don't have insurance.
Speaker 3: I'd never like, I'd never lie to you, but I
Speaker 3: think that's what's wrong. My dentist is supposed to take
Speaker 3: care of it in Beverly Hills, but he's in prison
Speaker 3: for fraud. I've always been healthy, but lately I've been
Speaker 3: waking up confused and dizzy.
Speaker 4: And a bunch of stuff.
Speaker 3: I just can't go to the doctor because I can't
Speaker 3: even afford it. I don't want anything. I just want
Speaker 3: to be Okay, scared brother, was there a.
Speaker 1: Response that they knew from.
Speaker 3: So if Tyler Perry stopped responding to him, I don't
Speaker 3: know if that's the case, But if there was no
Speaker 3: response and then a lawsuit comes a few months later,
Speaker 3: that's problematic.
Speaker 2: Okay, you gotta give and we always, always, always right,
Speaker 2: want to give space for the accuser and what their
Speaker 2: experience might have been, and that's fine.
Speaker 1: We will leave that open.
Speaker 2: We have to put together a very big butt here,
Speaker 2: because you're talking about August thirty, first of this year.
Speaker 2: The other lawsuit was what June that the other actor,
Speaker 2: Dickson two hundred and what sixty.
Speaker 1: Million or something on a lawsuit.
Speaker 2: Now, this guy, Mario Rodriguez, has admitted that once he
Speaker 2: saw that lawsuit filed, that is what put him in
Speaker 2: the mindset of, Wow, this is happening to other people.
Speaker 2: I need to speak out, I need to say something.
Speaker 2: But you had three months and in that three months
Speaker 2: you asked Tyler Perry for something. You asked him for
Speaker 2: financial help in that time.
Speaker 1: Rose. That doesn't bode well, it doesn't look.
Speaker 4: And we don't know what happened.
Speaker 3: The only two people who know what happened are Mario
Speaker 3: Rodriguez and Tyler Perry. But these text messages are a
Speaker 3: window into at least his mindset in August, and it
Speaker 3: doesn't jibe with what he is saying in his lawsuit
Speaker 3: in terms of what his mindset was when he first
Speaker 3: saw the news about Derek Dixon's lawsuit in June and
Speaker 3: what we're hearing from him now on Christmas Day when
Speaker 3: he filed this lawsuit.
Speaker 2: Everything he filed in that lawsuit, even if it's true,
Speaker 2: this looks bad for your argument was moved because this
Speaker 2: is happening to other young men, So I need to
Speaker 2: speak out, I need to say something, And.
Speaker 1: You're the thing he was thinking about first though he knew.
Speaker 4: About the lawsuit, of course in.
Speaker 2: Junely he's got three four months that he knows about
Speaker 2: this lawsuit, and he didn't think about filing his own.
Speaker 2: He didn't think about other young men, He didn't what
Speaker 2: not at that time at least, or maybe he was
Speaker 2: maybe this was a way to maybe maybe he'll hook
Speaker 2: me up. Maybe this was his way of, now, let
Speaker 2: me stop saying maybe ropes that is just for an attorney.
Speaker 2: They are going to hold on through that text messag.
Speaker 3: Yes, it looks like a fishing expedition after you see
Speaker 3: that somebody is already now vulnerable and now not wanting
Speaker 3: probably any more negative press or certainly anything that would
Speaker 3: act as though this was a pattern of behavior. So yes,
Speaker 3: he reached out at a time where clearly Tyler Perry
Speaker 3: was vulnerable and talked about his own vulnerability, talked about
Speaker 3: his own needs medically and financially, and that can't be ignored.
Speaker 2: Or I'm laughing because I stopped myself. I'm like, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm never mind and you flat out said it, So
Speaker 2: this is a fishing expedition. That is exactly the thing
Speaker 2: I stopped, and I wasn't gonna speculate and then you
Speaker 2: just boom. But no, that's the point it's gonna come
Speaker 2: off to somebody like he's testing the waters, correct, right,
Speaker 2: This is he knows and maybe I can do something
Speaker 2: to him. So let me just kind of drop this
Speaker 2: to That is how it's going to be spun by
Speaker 2: his attorney. And his attorney has been talking and talking plenty.
Speaker 2: He's talking again about these new revelations.
Speaker 1: But here's the.
Speaker 2: Thing, folks, he ain't saying a whole lot different than
Speaker 2: he said the first time that this is a flat
Speaker 2: out money grabbing scam. Stay here, all right, folks, we
Speaker 2: continue here on Amy and TJ. I guess I should
Speaker 2: probably just let you take it from here. I'm trying
Speaker 2: to tiptoe and be careful with my words. You are
Speaker 2: absolutely saying it and keeping it real and saying what
Speaker 2: a lot of people are thinking. Robes and dealing with
Speaker 2: these stories are very difficult because you want to you
Speaker 2: have to leave room for the accuser and what they
Speaker 2: possibly went through. But when you're talking about destroying a
Speaker 2: man's reputation. You're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.
Speaker 2: He's on the line for Yes, there is going to
Speaker 2: be scrutiny and there should be right.
Speaker 3: Yes, I believe so, and I do think I've said
Speaker 3: this before, and I understand that it takes time and
Speaker 3: this isn't an easy thing to do for someone to
Speaker 3: come forward. But when you come forward in a civil
Speaker 3: lawsuit versus a criminal proceeding where you take it to
Speaker 3: the police versus taking it to a lawyer, I do
Speaker 3: think there is a different level of scrutiny involved as well,
Speaker 3: just in terms of people's skepticism as to the intent
Speaker 3: or why you're asking for such a large sum of
Speaker 3: money versus going to the police and seeking some sort
Speaker 3: of justice through our criminal justice system. Now we should
Speaker 3: mention Mario Rodriguez has come out we mentioned before the
Speaker 3: break and spoken out about these text messages. He's not
Speaker 3: denying them, he is not saying they're not real. He's
Speaker 3: actually defending them. And here's what he said. People are
Speaker 3: pointing to messages where I was polite, grateful or vulnerable
Speaker 3: and trying to use that to discredit me. Survivors often
Speaker 3: stay cordial. They often ask for help when they feel desperate.
Speaker 3: That doesn't mean that abuse didn't happen. Those messages were
Speaker 3: sent to Perry at a time when I was especially vulnerable,
Speaker 3: as can be seen from the context. He went on
Speaker 3: to say, continued financial support and access are not inconsistent
Speaker 3: with abuse. They are often part of the power dynamics
Speaker 3: that follow it.
Speaker 1: True. Yes, agreed, everything he said is true.
Speaker 2: Someone else could look at that and say he's well
Speaker 2: trying to cover his bases.
Speaker 1: Correct, He's explaining things.
Speaker 2: Away to a certain degree, looks fine line between an
Speaker 2: excuse and a reason, and this will come off as
Speaker 2: he's just making excuses for it and using a legitimate
Speaker 2: reason that other people often have.
Speaker 4: Yeah, because I don't think anyone.
Speaker 3: I don't think most people are now at this point
Speaker 3: with all that we've seen in trials and things coming
Speaker 3: out from the Me too movement, we all understand that
Speaker 3: that is true that someone or an alleged victim or
Speaker 3: a victim being cordial with their abuser.
Speaker 4: That we have absolutely seen cases of that.
Speaker 3: But I don't think that's what the problem is for
Speaker 3: him with these texts. It's not about him being cordial.
Speaker 3: It's not about him being grateful. It's not even about
Speaker 3: him expressing love or gratitude. We've seen that all before.
Speaker 3: This is about the inconsistency of what he said in
Speaker 3: his lawsuit about what he did that he cut off
Speaker 3: ties that Tyler Perry was.
Speaker 4: Reaching back out to him.
Speaker 3: This basically reveals something very different than what he was
Speaker 3: describing in his lawsuit.
Speaker 2: Yes, he gave us this is a different direction. It
Speaker 2: is a different story. We had one idea in our
Speaker 2: mind about how this thing possibly went, and he told
Speaker 2: one story. This is a very big detail to leave
Speaker 2: out of your story, wrote, he had to know. He
Speaker 2: knew what he had done the past several months. He
Speaker 2: knew he reached out in August. I mean he might
Speaker 2: have reached out more recently. And this has now come
Speaker 2: out and we don't know where it came from. Do
Speaker 2: you think do you have an idea maybe where this
Speaker 2: had come from.
Speaker 3: I would think if I were Tyler Perry, I would
Speaker 3: want those texts to come out for sure. I would
Speaker 3: want the other side to be shown. I would want
Speaker 3: people to have a fuller picture of the experience he had. Now,
Speaker 3: Tyler Perry hasn't said anything correct about this in particular,
Speaker 3: just through his chance through his.
Speaker 4: Attorney, who I love what Alex Spiro said. I said
Speaker 4: it before and I'll say it again.
Speaker 3: This is nothing but a seventy seven million dollar money
Speaker 3: grab scam.
Speaker 1: End of statement period. What else you need to know?
Speaker 1: That is all they're saying.
Speaker 2: And this guy remind me it was Alec Baldwin jay
Speaker 2: Z who this guy has defended.
Speaker 3: He has some incredible experience with some heavy hitters being
Speaker 3: accused of some pretty heinous things.
Speaker 2: I don't know where this goes from here. Again, it
Speaker 2: was filed on Christmas Day. It's just a coincidence. I'm
Speaker 2: sure that it was filed on that day, seventy seven
Speaker 2: million dollars. But these are difficult stories. Will continue to
Speaker 2: speak on this one. And this is another Weinstein. I'm
Speaker 2: not comparing these two in any way, but I'm saying
Speaker 2: Tyler Perry is at a height and at a level
Speaker 2: of success, and they are empires and people and networks
Speaker 2: and careers that could end if he goes down in
Speaker 2: some way.
Speaker 4: It's a big deal.
Speaker 2: It's a huge This can't be a bigger name out
Speaker 2: there that for something like this to start happening to
Speaker 2: And again, I want to be clear of a comparison.
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to see yes, he is in any
Speaker 2: way guilty of the same heinous things that how Weinstein is.
Speaker 2: But I'm saying that the type of collapse something like
Speaker 2: this causes.
Speaker 1: This isn't just a celebrity.
Speaker 2: This is a guy who has created shows, he has
Speaker 2: created movies, he has created careers. He's created a studio
Speaker 2: in Atlanta, a whole studio.
Speaker 4: He has a movie empire.
Speaker 2: He does, and so this is a very important story.
Speaker 2: We will keep our eye on. We just wanted to
Speaker 2: get you this update that it came in yesterday, and
Speaker 2: over nights we'll keep an eye on to stay with
Speaker 2: us here on Amy and TJ. Our feed will be
Speaker 2: full of all kinds of updates during the day. Of course,
Speaker 2: our morning run coming your way, hear me. Just a
Speaker 2: couple of hours you can look for that. And what's
Speaker 2: the other. We have a crazy, crazy story to update
Speaker 2: you about, especially at a time when people are going
Speaker 2: to be thinking.
Speaker 1: About the holidays.
Speaker 2: Robes drinking alone has been banned in a bar. Yes, folks,
Speaker 2: we had a full day here on Amy and DJ
Speaker 2: is a by all means, stick with us. We always
Speaker 2: appreciate you spending some time, but for now I'm TJ
Speaker 2: holmes On, behalf of my dar Amy Robot.
Speaker 5: We will talk to y'alls
Speaker 2: M