An ex-employee of Sandra Bullock’s former husband, Jesse James, accused him of refusing to be videotaped during his deposition, In Touch can exclusively report.
According to court documents obtained by In Touch, Karen Sanchez-Roberts, who worked for Jesse, 55, and his company West Coast Choppers, asked the court to compel him to show up for a deposition.
In her suit, Karen said Jesse’s dogs attacked each other on April 11, 2023.
She said she tried to separate the dogs but was “also attacked and bitten without provocation on her right hand.”
She sued Jesse and his company claiming she suffered a fracture and needed stitches. Her lawsuit is seeking more than $250,000 in damages, but not more than $1 million.
Jesse and his company denied all allegations of wrongdoing. Now, Karen filed a motion to compel claiming Jesse refusing to be videotaped at the deposition.
Karen said her lawyers requested dates to depose Jesse on June 5.
She said his lawyer offered a date for Jesse to be deposed by Zoom on August 12. However, counsel for West Coast Choppers, objected to the depositions being remote.
In her motion, Karen claimed that “less than twenty-four hours before Mr. James’ scheduled deposition was to begin, and after the [her] videotaped deposition had commenced, [Jesse] objected for the first time to having [his] deposition video recorded.”
Her lawyer added, “[Jesse] scheduled deposition was canceled as a result of his refusal to be videotaped. As of the date of the filing of this motion, [Karen] has been unable to conduct the oral and videotaped deposition of [Jesse].”
“Plaintiff’s counsel offered to sign an agreement that the deposition video would not be used outside the litigation, but defendants still refused to allow the video deposition. There is no principled reason why Defendants would allow Mr. James to sit for deposition without a protective order in place, but object solely to its taping,” Karen’s lawyer argued. A judge has yet to rule.
In her lawsuit, Karen accused Jesse of being negligent by not taking actions to prevent the attack and failing to provide a safe work environment. She said he knew his dogs had a “propensity to be vicious and aggressive towards others before and at the time of the subject incident. Specifically, defendant knew his dogs had a propensity to violently attack each other to the point that someone needed to break up their fights.”
The lawsuit continued, “[Jesse] had prior knowledge that one of his dogs had bitten one of his children prior to hiring [Karen]. [Jesse] instructed [Karen] that he would kick his own dogs when they fought, in an effort to separate them.”
“Nevertheless, Defendant, Mr. James, failed to take any corrective action leading up to the incident,” the suit alleged. Karen’s lawyer said, “As a result of the incident, [Karen] suffered severe, debilitating, and permanent injuries that required surgical intervention.” In court documents, Karen claimed she suffered physical pain, physical impairment, mental anguish and disfigurement.
Jesse denied all allegations of wrongdoing. He asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit.
West Coast Choppers filed a separate response that denied all wrongdoing.
Jesse and Sandra, 60, were married 2005 to 2010. He later admitted to cheating on the Hollywood star.
