Lil Pump was sued over his involvement in streamer Vitaly Zdorovetskiy’s controversial “Catching Predators” stings. According to court documents obtained by In Touch Weekly, a man named Edwin Valenzuela accused Lil Pump and Zdorovetskiy of assault, battery, false imprisonment and theft.
Zdorovetskiy hosted an online series in which he purportedly caught and humiliated child predators. The series was reminiscent of NBC’s To Catch a Predator, but no law enforcement was involved in Zdorovetskiy’s production.
“Rather than turn the alleged predators over to law enforcement, Vitaly and his associates beat, harass, torture, terrorize, defame and humiliate the alleged predators on a livestream,” Valenzuela’s lawsuit noted.
Lil Pump participated in more than one of Zdorovetskiy’s stings. Valenzuela was caught during an August livestream but claimed he was tricked into showing up with a job offer.
Valenzuela, an Uber driver, said he was approached by two males who asked for a ride. They chatted during the trip, used his phone to play Lil Pump’s music and asked Valenzuela if he was interested in earning money by cleaning a boat. He gave them his number and they contacted him later, per the lawsuit.
Zdorovetskiy and others allegedly lured Valenzuela onto a boat. Zdorovetskiy, Lil Pump and UFC fighter Colby Covington ambushed Valenzuela. The plaintiff said fake messages were read aloud to make it look like he had sexual conversations with minors.
Valenzuela said he was confused because he didn’t speak English. Zdorovetskiy asked Lil Pump to talk to the man since the rapper knows Spanish.
“Throughout the ordeal, plaintiff was bombarded by verbal abuse, including racial slurs, accusations of illegal status and threats of deportation with multiple defendants screaming in his face, all while being urged by an attorney to sign a release for a ‘game show,’” the lawsuit contended.
Lil Pump allegedly punched and kicked Valenzuela, cut the man’s hair and hit the plaintiff in the face with a condom. The lawsuit accused Lil Pump of trying to force Valenzuela to eat a condom and threatening to feed the victim to alligators.
Valenzuela said he was banned from Uber, his main source of income, after the ordeal. He sued Lil Pump, Zdorovetskiy and Covington for unspecific damages.