Coolio’s Estate Receives $173K Claim from Casino ‘Assault’ Victim

A woman who claims she was assaulted at the MGM Detroit Casino by Coolio is demanding $173K from the late rapper’s estate, RadarOnline reports.

Randa Davis has filed a creditor’s claim for the sum, which she says she was owed as part of a default judgment in 2013. That judgment came after Coolio, who died from a drug overdose in September 2022, ignored a civil complaint filed by Davis two years earlier.

According to the lawsuit, the Gangsta’s Paradise rapper, real name Artis Leon Ivey Jr, “jumped on [Davis’] back and rode her like a bull” while “heavily intoxicated” at the after-show party that followed his September 2009 performance at the MGM Grand.

‘Mental Anguish’

Coolio had invited Davis and a friend to the VIP area at the casino’s V Nightclub. The alleged assault occurred while she was standing on a VIP balcony peering over the dance floor. Davis claimed the rapper’s actions injured her back, and embarrassed and humiliated her.

She said she suffered “pain, disability, mental anguish, medical expenses, wage loss, loss of future earning potential, and other damages.” She initially demanded $1 million from the artist.

In issuing the default judgment, a federal judge in Detroit determined that Ivey apparently “has decided to avoid participating in this matter entirely.”

“Defendant’s refusal to cooperate in discovery is willful, that it has prejudiced Plaintiff, that Defendant was previously warned that a default judgment could be entered against him if he continued to refuse to cooperate in discovery, and that a lesser sanction is not appropriate,” wrote US District Judge Paul D. Borman.

Accidental OD

Coolio was discovered unresponsive on the bathroom floor of a friend’s house in Los Angeles on the morning of Sept. 28, 2022. He was pronounced dead by first responders. In April of this year, the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office announced the artist had died from an accidental overdose of fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine. He was 57.

At the time of his death, Coolio was about to finalize a deal for a Las Vegas residency, where he would headline 10 shows at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino.

Coolio first appeared on the LA hip-hop scene in the late 1980s as part of the gangsta rap group WC and the Maad Circle. His career took off with the release of his 1994 debut solo “It Takes a Thief,” whose opening track, “Fantastic Voyage,” reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

He will be remembered above all for his chart-topping “Gangsta’s Paradise” single, released a year later. The track, which samples Stevie Wonder’s “Pastime Paradise,” appeared in the Michelle Pfeiffer film  Dangerous Minds, and won Coolio a Grammy.