Missouri street racer ‘feared for his life’ when TV host tried ‘to kill him,’ lawsuit says
In the season finale of “Street Outlaws: Memphis,” host Jonathan Day (JJ Da Boss) brought in “the biggest and the baddest” street racers to compete against the Outlaws in the reality drag racing show.
One of those racers was Chad Larkin, according to the show’s website. Larkin is from Missouri, Newsweek reported.
Now, about seven months after the episode premiered, Larkin and his wife, Genny, are suing Day, Discovery Inc. and Pilgrim Media Group, according to NC5. The federal lawsuit was filed in Memphis.
The lawsuit accuses the host of starting an assault while producers did nothing to stop it, Newsweek reported.
“As the assault continued, Larkin literally believed the Street Outlaws were attempting to kill him,” the lawsuit states, according to The Wrap. “He literally feared for his life.”
The lawsuit accuses the show producers of encouraging trash talk, violence and tension, WREG reported.
“The drama they’re creating is what they want,” Larkin told NC5. “They want us to get into it. They want arguments.”
And once the fight broke out, producers “made no effort to stop it,” the lawsuit states, according to NC5.
“While they’ve got (Chad) on the ground beating him, (a producer) is hollering at the camera guy to get in there and get a better shot because he wasn’t close enough,” Genny Larkin told the station.
A Discovery Channel official told WREG that they have no comment on the filed lawsuit.
The lawsuit states that when Genny Larkin tried to help her husband get away, “a female member of the Memphis Street Outlaws grabbed the back of her head and pulled her to the ground by her hair, resulting in physical and emotional injury,” according to The Wrap.
The racers allegedly gave Chad several injuries, including a chipped tooth, busted lips, and torn meniscus, WREG reported.
The fight aired in the finale, NC5 reported, and Chad Larkin’s face was “all bloody.” The episode also made it seem like Chad Larkin was the “aggressor” in the assault, the Associated Press reported.
The Memphis Police Department arrested Day, WREG reported, and he was charged with aggravated assault.
He has not been “formally indicted as evidence is still being presented to a Grand Jury,” a county official said, according to Newsweek. He has been released from jail on a $30,000 bond.
The lawsuit is seeking compensatory damages not to exceed $5 million and punitive damages not to exceed $5 million for Chad Larkin and compensatory damages not to exceed $500,000 for Genny Larkin, according to The Wrap.