Takeoff’s mother, Titiana Davenport, and the late rapper’s estate have asked a Los Angeles court to dismiss a civil lawsuit filed by a woman identified in court papers as Jane Doe. The October 27 motion points to Doe’s October 14 deposition and alleges that relevant text messages were deleted after the lawsuit began.
The request is a procedural move in a long-running civil case, not a ruling on the underlying allegations. A hearing is scheduled for January 21, 2027. Until the court acts, the case remains unresolved.
What the lawsuit alleges
Doe filed her lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court on August 5, 2020. Her complaint alleged sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, gender violence and civil-rights violations in connection with an Encino house party.
The lawsuit said Doe had communicated through social media with DJ Durel, whose legal name is Daryl McPherson, before attending the party to meet him. She alleged that Takeoff’s advances during the gathering made her uncomfortable and that she told Durel she did not want an intimate relationship with Takeoff.
Doe further alleged that, after an argument between the two men, she went to Durel’s bedroom. The complaint alleged that Takeoff entered the room, ignored her refusal to have sex and raped her. It placed the alleged assault at approximately 2 a.m. on June 23 and said Doe later sought hospital care, where staff observed evidence of rape and contacted police.
Those are allegations in a civil complaint, not facts established by a court judgment. Takeoff denied them while he was alive. Through attorney Drew Findling, he said the allegations were “patently and provably false.”
Why the text-message issue matters
The estate’s newest filing focuses on alleged deletion of texts following the start of litigation. In civil cases, messages, emails, photographs and other digital material can be central evidence because they may help establish a timeline, show what people communicated, or test competing accounts of events.
When a party is accused of deleting potentially relevant material, the dispute is generally about preservation of evidence. Once litigation is underway, or reasonably anticipated, parties may be expected to retain material that could matter to the claims and defenses. The legal significance of any allegedly missing messages would depend on facts still to be evaluated by the court, including what was deleted, when it was deleted, whether it was relevant, whether it can be recovered, and whether any loss was intentional.
A motion seeking dismissal is the estate’s request for the court to end the lawsuit. Filing such a motion does not by itself mean dismissal will be granted. Courts can deny a request, grant it, or choose another remedy depending on the governing rules and the record before them. The available information does not describe what relief, if any, the court may ultimately consider beyond the estate’s dismissal request.
The motion’s reference to Doe’s October 14 deposition is also important procedurally. A deposition is sworn testimony taken outside a courtroom as part of pretrial evidence-gathering. Attorneys use it to question parties or witnesses under oath before trial. Deposition testimony can shape later motions, but its existence is not itself a finding that either side’s position is correct.
The criminal and civil tracks were separate
The allegations previously led to a police investigation. In 2020, Doe’s attorney, Neama Rahmani, said he would ordinarily have waited for the criminal investigation to conclude before bringing a civil action. He said that more than a month had passed without an arrest or charges, and that the lawsuit could help produce witnesses and evidence.
In April 2021, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to prosecute, citing insufficient evidence. That decision did not end Doe’s civil lawsuit. Rahmani said at the time that Doe intended to continue pursuing the civil case.
It is useful to distinguish the two paths. A criminal case concerns whether the government can prove a charge and may result in penalties imposed by the state. A civil case is a private lawsuit in which the plaintiff seeks legal relief from a defendant. They use different procedures and can reach different outcomes. A decision not to bring criminal charges is not, by itself, a civil-court determination about liability; likewise, a civil allegation does not establish criminal guilt.
Here, the district attorney’s office cited insufficient evidence when it declined prosecution. The currently scheduled hearing concerns the estate’s effort to dismiss the surviving civil litigation, including its claim regarding allegedly deleted texts.
The case continued after Takeoff’s death
Takeoff, born Kirshnik Khari Ball, was a member of Migos. He was shot and killed in Houston on November 1, 2022, at age 28. His death did not automatically bring the pending civil case to a close; his mother and estate are now involved in the defense reflected in the dismissal motion.
That posture changes the practical shape of a case. The reported dispute is now between Doe and the representatives of Takeoff’s estate rather than Takeoff personally. But the central questions remain legal ones for the court: whether the claimed handling of text-message evidence warrants dismissal and whether the case should otherwise proceed.
For readers following music and entertainment coverage, the matter sits apart from the work that made Takeoff widely known with Migos. It is a pending civil proceeding involving serious allegations, a prior denial, a prosecutor’s earlier decision not to file charges, and a new defense request that has not yet been decided. Joking Joystick’s wider entertainment coverage also includes recent news involving Mary J. Blige’s television work.
What happens next
The next identified date is January 21, 2027, when the court is set to hear the matter. That hearing should provide the first public indication of how the court will treat the estate’s request and the claims tied to the alleged deletion of messages.
For now, the key limits are clear: Doe’s account remains an allegation in a civil complaint; Takeoff denied it; prosecutors previously declined to bring a criminal case because they said the evidence was insufficient; and the estate’s current dismissal request remains pending. Any definitive assessment of the text-message question or the lawsuit’s merits will depend on further court action.
