Photog Strikes Back: Rapper Hit With $21M Suit

New York Post photographer Jim Alcorn has slapped rap star 50 Cent and his entourage with a $21 million lawsuit, claiming one of the celebrity's bodyguards assaulted him outside a Manhattan jewelry store.

"James Alcorn said what happened to him was wrong and he doesn't want what happened to him to happen to any other photographer," says Sanford Rubenstein, Alcorn's lawyer. "He's looking for justice." Rubenstein says the hope is that the $21 million lawsuit will be a deterrent for future assaults on photographers.

The complaint, filed November 10 in Queens County, names 50 Cent, a.k.a. Curtis Jackson, as well as Interscope Records, Shady/Aftermath Records, and the rapper's seven security guards, who are unidentified, as defendants. Rubenstein, no stranger to high-profile litigation, previously represented police brutality victim Abner Louima.

Alcorn alleges the assault occurred Aug. 27 while he photographed the rapper leaving an upscale jeweler. The rapper had reportedly just bought an $18,000 watch. "One of the guys had a cast on his arm, and he cross-checked me into one of the two black, Chevy Suburbans that were outside the store," Alcorn told the Post. "I hit my head on the Suburban and fell on the street. They just stood over me laughing."

After the incident, Alcorn was taken to the emergency room for examination. Rubenstein says X-rays at the hospital showed his client suffered "severe" neck and jaw injuries. Calls to 50 Cent's manager, Chris Lighty, were not returned.

Although Alcorn took pictures of the alleged attackers while he was on the ground, and the picture ran in the Post, Rubenstein says the police have yet to identify the assailant.

The suit alleges that Interscope Records and Shady/Aftermath Records were "negligent in the hiring and retention" of the security guards and "did not exercise reasonable care and diligence in the selection, engagement, employment and training of its agents."

The $21 million figure includes four causes of action for $5 million each, including assault and battery, negligence, loss of service and punitive damages.

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Although Alcorn is the first to file suit, other New York photographers have complained of similar assaults in recent months. In October, several photographers were roughed up at a Manhattan nightclub where Britney Spears was performing. Spears's publicity company hired WireImage to be the official photographers, but several paparazzi got access to the club, apparently angering the singer's security force.

One photographer was reportedly put in a headlock, and one female photographer had her pictures deleted after her camera was wrested away from her. According to one magazine editor who called the scene "brutal" and "ugly," the security guard picked the photographer up by her camera, snatched it away and ran behind a locked door. Then he deleted her entire flash card, before handing back her camera. "Sorry sweetie, it's not going to work this time," the security guard reportedly said.

"If the pictures were not recovered, there might have been [legal action]," says Splash News' Gary Morgan, the photographer's agent.