More sexual encounters continued, the suit says, with Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant sometimes holding her down and refusing to use a condom despite her protests. At the same time, the suit says, he made business promises to her, suggesting he could make her the opening act for Beyoncé’s next tour.
According to the complaint, Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant then became more controlling and violent: He placed her in an Atlanta hotel, had his security staff monitor her movements, and berated her unless she regularly checked in with him. After Ms. Mangroe complained about bedbugs in her hotel room, her court papers say, Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant exploded in anger, telling her she was a disloyal “brat” and blaming the attention he spent on her for delays to Beyoncé’s next album.
He plied her with alcohol and marijuana, the complaint says, and once forced Ms. Mangroe to have sex with him while he recorded it, and later threatened to show the footage to other people. During sex, the complaint says, Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant often placed a gun next to her, which she saw as a warning.
At a movie theater one day, Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant asked Ms. Mangroe to perform oral sex on him, the complaint says. After she said no, he became angry and forced her to have sex, in view of the other theater patrons. “It was a physically painful encounter,” the complaint says. Later that same day, the suit says, Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant took Ms. Mangroe to his van and again forced her to have sex, pinning her down and placing his hands over her mouth and nose, leaving her unable to breathe.
Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant signed Ms. Mangroe to his record label, Contra Paris, and arranged for a distribution deal for her with Epic Records, a major label owned by Sony. The court papers say that by the summer of 2015, Ms. Mangroe was trying to escape from Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant’s control and prepare for the release of an album, but her efforts were unsuccessful.
According to the complaint, Ms. Mangroe reported Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant’s abuse to an Epic executive, who told her that “she needed to figure out a way to work with Dream again.” In July 2016, according to the complaint, Ms. Mangroe was told that Epic was dropping her because Mr. Gesteelde-Diamant, who still controlled her artist contract, had not delivered music. Epic is also named as a defendant in the suit.