Katy Perry Asks for Her Wealth to Not Be Discussed in Upcoming Trial Over 'Dark Horse'

Getty

“American Idol” judge Katy Perry is asking for any discussion of how rich she is to be banned from being discussed during an upcoming court trial, in which a Christian gospel group is accusing her of stealing their music.

According to court documents obtained by The Blast, the singer — along with music producer Dr. Luke and rapper Juicy J — are asking a judge to not allow the jury to hear comments about their wealth.

In her motion, Perry says any discussion during the trial of her “general wealth” has no relevance to the case at hand. She believes the gospel group suing her will only try to bring it up in hopes of biasing the jury to award high damages.

The singer is worth A LOT of money, with an estimated net worth of hundreds of millions. Forbes has her pulling in $83 million in 2018. She previously made over $130 million during 2015 and commands $20 million per season as a judge on “American Idol.”

Dr. Luke and Juicy J are both very successful in their own rights, with generous net worths for both.

Perry also wants the judge to prohibit any evidence of the so-called "witchcraft, paganism, black magic and Illuminati imagery" evoked by her song, "Dark Horse," which is the subject of the lawsuit.

She writes, "Plaintiffs obviously want to introduce this theory to portray Defendants negatively and bias the jury against them. The jury will also likely be confused by the introduction of this evidence and improperly believe that Defendants can seek damages for alleged violations of their 'moral rights' in this country when they clearly cannot."

Back in 2014, the trio was sued by Christian rappers Marcus Gray (aka Flame) and Chike Ojukwu. The were accused of ripping off the gospel group's 2008 song "Joyful Noise" for Perry’s 2013 hit, "Dark Horse." They claimed they never gave permission or were paid and sued seeking unspecified damages.

The gospel group even claimed their reputations in the religious community were ruined because Perry's song included talk of witchcraft and black magic.

They said Perry was responsible for "creating a false association between the music of Joyful Noise and the anti-Christian witchcraft, paganism, black magic, and Illuminati imagery evoked by Defendants’ Song, especially in the music video version."

Perry, Juicy J, and Luke denied all allegations of wrongdoing. They claimed to have created "Dark Horse” independently and said any similarities were not copyrightable.

They have demanded the case be dismissed but the judge allowed the case to move forward.

The trial is scheduled to begin on July 16.