A backstage argument that allegedly started over who picked up Nicki Minaj’s prescriptions has turned into a fight over $3,900 in legal fees.
Minaj has asked a Los Angeles judge to throw out a sanctions request from Brandon Garrett, the former employee who says she hit him before a show in Detroit in 2024.
The money is small by celebrity lawsuit standards. Garrett wants it to cover what he spent bringing a motion to force Minaj to answer his written questions more fully, and her lawyers say that ship has already sailed.
According to filings reported by MyNewsLA, Minaj’s team says it answered six sets of written questions in July. The two sides met in August, and more answers went out in September.
“(Garrett) should be barred from using the outdated motions to compel further responses after the verified further responses were served in July,” her lawyers wrote. They also argued that Garrett missed his deadline to challenge those responses in the first place.
Garrett’s attorneys see the timeline differently. They say Minaj blew a February deadline, then handed over answers in March that didn’t go far enough.
What they want is the factual basis behind her denials. That covers his claims about threats to his safety, lost wages and the emotional harm he says he suffered.
The underlying case dates back to January 2025, when Garrett sued Minaj and her company, Pink Personality, for assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
His complaint centers on April 21, 2024, backstage at Little Caesars Arena during the Pink Friday 2 World Tour.
Garrett says the trouble started when Minaj found out he had asked another staffer to collect her prescriptions. He says he handed off the errand because he was busy helping her change clothes for the show.
He alleges Minaj struck him in the face and on the wrist, hard enough to knock his hat off. Garrett says he locked himself in a bathroom afterward and later went to police, and he is seeking damages to be set at trial.
Minaj has denied all of it. When news of the suit first broke, her attorney Judd Burstein called it “completely false and frivolous.”
The criminal side hasn’t gone anywhere yet either. FOX 2 Detroit reported on January 6, 2025, that Wayne County prosecutors turned down a warrant request, citing insufficient evidence of a crime, and asked Detroit police to investigate further.
That leaves the civil suit grinding through discovery, the slow paperwork stage where each side tries to pin down what the other can actually prove. For a case built on a few minutes backstage, the battle over documents is already months deep.
Judge Eric Harmon is scheduled to hear the discovery dispute on November 10 in Los Angeles Superior Court. His ruling on the $3,900 could hint at how much patience the court has for Garrett’s push to dig deeper.
