Photo:Emma McIntyre/Getty
Emma McIntyre/Getty
As testimony continued Thursday in court forKaty Perry and Orlando Bloom’s legal battlewith business entrepreneur Carl Westcott over a Montecito house, the proceedings took an unexpected turn when a woman stormed into the courtroom.
An unidentified woman barged twice into the room, where a PEOPLE reporter was present: the first time, the court clerk asked her to calm down and leave, and Westcott’s attorney Andrew Thomas, who appeared shaken, urged deputies to be called. After the woman stormed into court again, deputies arrived to remove her from the courtroom.
The judge — who asked those present to stay in the courtroom until deputies deemed the situation safe — later shared that the woman was someone who was upset from a previous case he presided over.
Bloom, 46, and Perry, 38, are tangling with 84-year-old Westcott, who filed a suit against Gudvi in an attempt to stop the couple’s 2020purchase of the 1930s mansion in Montecito.
The non-jury trial kicked off earlier this week, and Thomas told the court during opening statements on Wednesday that his client had been showing signs of “delusion” and “intrusive thoughts” after taking painkillers, hydrocodone, gabapentin and tramadol when he sold his home to the couple on July 15, 2020. Thomas also claimed Westcott had spinal surgery on his back, and that the contract for the sale was presented to Westcott while he was still recovering from “post-operative delirium.”
Eric Rowan, an attorney for Gudvi, argued that Westcott’s degenerative brain diagnosis had not impacted Westcott’s mental capacity and that he had been recovering from his operation when he purchased the home six weeks prior in May 2020. Rowan also claimed Westcott was not diagnosed with “mild mental incapacity” until a year later.
Earlier this week, the judge ruled thatPerry will have to testifylater this month for her countersuit, adding, “I am not inclined to have a closed court. She is a person like anyone else. She is asking for a lot of money.”
Closing arguments in Westcott’s suit are expected to begin Nov. 3.
source: people.com
