Ja Rule Hit With Lawsuit Over Florida Mansion

Ja Rule was hit with a lawsuit by the owner of a mansion in the plush Star Island section of Miami, Florida. According to a lawsuit filed yesterday (August 26), Jeanette Varela said the rapper hosted a party for 600 people and damaged the home. The lawsuit also named The Inc., Universal Studios and MTV, […]

Ja Rule was hit with a lawsuit by the owner of a mansion in the plush Star Island

section of Miami, Florida.

According to a

lawsuit filed yesterday (August 26), Jeanette Varela said the rapper hosted

a party for 600 people and damaged the home.

The lawsuit also

named The Inc., Universal Studios and MTV, claiming the network is illegally

showing clips of her home on the show “Cribs” and billing the residence

as Ja Rules’.

“She lives

there," Varela’s Robert H. Cooper told the Miami Herald. "They filmed

and showed her bedroom, her living room."

Varela said she

was paid $46,000 for Ja Rule to stay at the waterfront mansion for Memorial

Day weekend of 2001 and the party took place shortly thereafter.

MTV taped scenes

of Ja Rule walking around the mansion for "Cribs," and the lawsuit

alleges the clip has been played regularly and is slated to run this weekend

during MTV’s 2004 Video Music Awards.

The lawsuit says

The Inc. and Ja Rule breached their contract by holding the party. Varela alleges

holes were knocked in the walls, doors were broken and the mosaic tile in the

driveway was severely damaged.

She says that Universal

Studios unjustly benefited by using the footage to promote “The Fast and

the Furious,” which stars Ja Rule.

The lawsuit says

“there were numerous syringes and condom wrappers strewn about the mansion”

and that damages to the house were in excess of $1 million dollars."

”The privacy expectations

would be a lot different if this were a rental home,” Cooper said. "MTV

has profited from the use of having my client’s house as the basic subject matter

of this video. They have collected revenues from this. There should be some

restitution.”

Varela’s

lawsuit says the party caused strain in her relationship with neighbors. Such

celebrities as Shaquille O’Neal, Rosie O’Donnell, Gloria Estefan

and others live in the exclusive area.

Ja Rule is planning

to release his latest album, R.U.L.E. on November 9th.