Tyrese Gibson fired back Tuesday over his arrest in Georgia after being found guilty of contempt of court for failing to pay child support.
The “Fast and Furious” franchise star was arrested Monday after Fulton County Superior Court Judge Kevin M. Farmer ordered the actor to pay more than $73,500 to his ex-wife, Samantha Lee, who divorced him in 2020 after three years of marriage.
Gibson was found guilty of “willful contempt” for failing to pay child support for his five-year-old daughter, Soraya (the actor is also the father of 17-year-old Shayla, whom he shares with his ex-wife Norma Mitchell). The sentence came during Lee’s third contempt hearing, and the judge said the actor must remain in custody until he makes the payment, according to court documents obtained by The Times on Tuesday.
The actor's team also filed a notice of intent to appeal the ruling. Representatives for Gibson did not immediately respond Tuesday to requests for comment from The Times.
TMZ reported Tuesday that after Gibson was found guilty of contempt of court, a bailiff handcuffed him and led him out of the courtroom. The New York Post said Gibson was arrested and then released after failing to pay the $10,000 monthly child support ordered by the court.
The “Sweet Lady” singer was released, TMZ said, after his attorney Tanya Mitchell Graham filed an appeal. The appeal bought the actor some time and did not require payment of back child support before he was released. His attorney filed a similar appeal in April 2023, during the former couple's contentious divorce battle, when Gibson was first ordered to pay child support, the outlet said.
The “Morbius” star addressed the arrest on Tuesday on his Instagram Stories, writing, “Getting arrested was not fun, in fact it was very traumatic… One would wonder why this Judge Kevin M. Farmer HATES me so much.” He added a second story taking aim at his ex-wife’s attorney and said “getting arrested was not easy.”
Gibson also included Google Drive links to appellate documents dated May 13, 2024, in which he described the appeal as a “nightmare” for the judge. The documents, while it is unclear whether they had been filed with the court, listed three “key issues and arguments” on which the appeal was based and characterized the child support claim as “excessive and punitive.”
Gibson’s attorneys, Graham and Beverly L. Cohen, first argued that an arbitrator in the couple’s divorce case found Gibson and Lee’s prenuptial agreement valid but somehow invalidated a portion of it dealing with attorney fees. (Lee is seeking $7,500 in attorney fees.)
Second, her attorneys said Gibson “has been voluntarily financially supporting” Soraya since her birth and throughout the divorce proceedings “at the highest level of the Basic Child Support Obligation.” Her attorneys argued that the court’s award of a retroactive lump-sum payment for child support “will undoubtedly have a chilling effect on other divorced persons who voluntarily financially support their minor children during a divorce proceeding without the need for a temporary hearing and temporary injunction.”
Finally, they argued that Gibson was “de facto” paying spousal support by awarding Lee alimony with a high-income variance, allowing her to buy a home, work less, and cover 50 percent of her son’s school tuition. (The document said that “the trial court found that alimony was not warranted.”)
“Instead of applauding the Appellant [Gibson] “By doing what he was supposed to do voluntarily by financially supporting the minor without judicial intervention, Appellant was punished for doing the right thing,” the document says.
The attorneys did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
On Sunday, Gibson took to Instagram, calling his ex's legal maneuvers “silly” and insisting he is innocent because their prenuptial agreement supposedly covered everything related to their 2020 divorce. He also posted about the meaning of being a father in a series of posts before and after his arrest.
