Jerry Heller's $110 Million Lawsuit Against 'Straight Outta Compton' FiImmakers Uncertain Following Death (UPDATE)

Mickey Shapiro says Jerry Heller's defamation suit against 'Straight Outta Compton' producers will continue despite his death.

October 4, 2016

Not Available Lead — Image via Complex Original
Complex Original

UPDATED 10/4/16 4:45 p.m. ET: Jerry Heller‘s death could put his Straight Outta Compton lawsuit in jeopardy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Court papers filed Monday contended that the lawsuit might not proceed. Heller's lawyer, Michael Shapiro, is seeking a stay of the lawsuit until Oct. 20 in order to get the court's permission to continue the suit in the name of a successor, although no successor has been named yet.

See original story from 9/11/16 below.

Mickey Shapiro, lawyer of deceased N.W.A. record executive Jerry Heller, told a TMZ reporter at Los Angeles International Airport that Heller's $110 million defamation suit against Straight Outta Compton producers would continue despite Heller's death.

In the video, which TMZ posted Saturday, Shapiro defends Heller's claims that the film's producers (including Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and NBC Universal) knowingly created an untruthful portrayal of him in the movie. You can watch the interview in full below.

"I think some of the things that were said about him in that movie literally broke his heart," Shapiro told TMZ of Heller, who died Sept. 2 after reportedly suffering a heart attack. He says the defamation claim will be "somewhat altered," because Heller is dead and therefore can't prove future damages–but "we can still prove defamation, and we're going to do that," Shapiro said.

“Other parts of the case aren’t affected by his death at all. His lawsuit against Tomica for violating a confidentiality agreement, that’s a fact. His lawsuit against everyone in the studios for taking material from his book, which he wrote years before, and lifting it out of the book and putting it into the movie and changing it for dramatic impact. He was the good guy. They made him out to be a horrible exploiter,” Shapiro added. "It was like his whole reason for being a manager was just being demonized. They made him a contemporary slaveholder. He wasn't that. No one cared about that group. Jerry Heller cared about that group."