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Metro Boomin Found Not Liable in L.A. Civil Sexual Assault Case

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Metro Boomin, born Leland T. Wayne, is pictured in a promotional portrait. A Los Angeles jury on Sept. 25, 2025, found the producer not liable in a civil sexual assault case stemming from allegations dating to 2016. 
Metro Boomin, the Atlanta superproducer whose fingerprints are on some of the biggest records of the last decade, walked out of a Los Angeles federal courthouse today after a jury found him not liable in a civil lawsuit that accused him of rape. 

The verdict, delivered after two weeks of testimony, rejected claims by plaintiff Vanessa LeMaistre that he assaulted her in 2016, a case that put one of hip-hop’s most in-demand producers under a legal spotlight he never expected to face.

“I’m blessed. I’m relieved,” the 32-year-old producer, born Leland T. Wayne, told reporters outside the courthouse. “I never thought I would ever have to do anything like that. I’m just relieved. It’s a burden lifted off my back.” His remarks came minutes after jurors cleared him of four civil counts, ending a case that began when LeMaistre filed suit in October 2024.
In her complaint, LeMaistre alleged she blacked out after consuming Xanax and alcohol provided by Wayne during a recording session, and later awoke in a Southern California hotel room as he raped her. She testified that she drifted in and out of consciousness during the incident. Wayne, who took the stand in his own defense, flatly denied the account. Asked whether he ever assaulted her, he told jurors, “Absolutely not,” adding there was “no way in the world” he did what she claimed. He said their past encounters had been consensual and that he had not seen LeMaistre “in, like, a decade” until she filed the lawsuit.

The trial unfolded with the kind of twists rarely seen in federal court. Jurors were shown handwritten notes LeMaistre created during a 2024 ayahuasca ceremony in Peru, pages she titled Plan Ayahuasca Gave Me. In them, she wrote about her intention to “blow the whistle on Metro Boomin” and listed a damages figure between $3.4 million and $3.7 million. Defense attorney Justin H. Sanders called the case “preposterous” and told jurors, “This whole lawsuit was born out of a drug den in Peru. In the jungle.” Judge R. Gary Klausner struck part of LeMaistre’s testimony about the hallucinogenic brew, ruling that any evidence about its effects required expert testimony. “You are going to have to call an expert in that area, counsel,” the judge told her lawyer during the trial.
Questions of credibility were constant. LeMaistre faced cross-examination over her efforts to amend Planned Parenthood medical records from 2016, which initially reflected that she had not reported an assault. She testified she was not trying to falsify the record but wanted it to “reflect what I know is true.” The defense cast it as an attempt to strengthen her claim, while the judge allowed the jury to weigh it for themselves.

In the end, the panel of five men and three women sided with Wayne. One juror explained the decision bluntly afterward: “The evidence wasn’t there. A lot of it was just testimony or talking about it. There was no substantial ‘This is what happened.’ There were no dates recollected correctly.” For Wayne, the verdict offered relief and the chance to return to his career without the shadow of liability, though he acknowledged outside court the weight of having lived under the allegations. 

For LeMaistre, the fight may continue. Her attorney, Michael J. Willemin, said after the decision, “Though the legal system is often stacked against survivors, our client showed unwavering fortitude. We believe that the verdict will ultimately be overturned on appeal.”
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