Pops YG preparing to sue RT Boss

Attorney-at-law Donovan Collins says his firm is preparing to take social media personality RT Boss to the Supreme Court over claims about an alleged sexual relationship with his client, Ansel Fairclough, otherwise called Pops YG.

The legal move follows a series of statements made by RT Boss, whose given name is Nardo Smith, on social media, including during a TikTok Live in which he made explicit claims that he had engaged in sexual activity with Pops YG. Pops YG, through his attorney, has categorically denied the allegations.

“He said that he had sex with my client five times and several other things. Saying that my client is a homosexual and he was in a sexual relationship with my client and that he had oral sex with him, which, based on my instructions, those are all false,” Collins told THE STAR.

Collins said his firm initially issued a public demand for RT Boss to apologise and retract the statements.

“By putting out that post that I did [it was] to demand he issues an apology and retract the false and defamatory statements that he has been making all over social media for the past week,” he said. But Collins said the matter has since escalated and that his client has instructed him to pursue legal action.

“We have instructions to file the matter in the Supreme Court [for] defamation of character, which we are in the process [of doing] now,” he said.

According to Collins, even an apology from RT Boss at this stage would not stop the planned action.

“If he apologises, we still will take it to court because he was made aware of my post today, he is aware of the letter, and he still went ahead and even went ahead to insult the attorney,” Collins said. “So he has now aggravated the situation, so certainly the matter will be before the court.”

“We trash it out in court. That’s where I like to play,” he added.

The dispute, Collins said, is indicative of a wider problem he has observed involving statements made on social media.

“There is a rise in these cases because persons use social media very loosely. Something has to be done about it soon,” he said. “A lot of persons just, especially in Jamaica, I realise that persons just talk. They are reckless in their statements. It is a very dangerous thing and can be very costly.”

The attorney explained that deleting a post after publication does not necessarily absolve a person of potential liability. Likewise, he said, issuing an apology or retraction does not necessarily prevent an aggrieved party from subsequently pursuing a claim.

“Normally you issue a letter seeking that the person apologise or retract their story or their statement. However, that is only, in most times, for mitigation purposes,” Collins explained.

“Even if you retract your story or apologise, it doesn’t prevent a person whose rights have been breached from filing the matter in court still.”

Collins urged social media users to exercise greater caution before publishing allegations about others.

“I advise social media users and content creators to be responsible and ensure that before they make comments about other persons, investigate thoroughly and ensure that they have evidence because it can be very costly when the matter gets to court,” he said.

“Some people only have their reputation, and once that reputation is gone they can’t get it back.”