Dr. Dre's former divorce therapist denied restraining order

Dr. Dre gets restraining order dropped in legal battle with former divorce therapist

Dr. Dre looks straight ahead with a serious expression while clad in a dark gray jacket and black shirt

Nov. 6, 2024 4:19 PM PT

Dr. Dre has secured a victory in his ongoing legal battle against a celebrity psychiatrist who last month filed a lawsuit accusing the rapper of harassment.

Dre previously was served a temporary restraining order after his former divorce therapist, Dr. Charles Sophy, filed a $10-million lawsuit alleging his ex-client subjected him to a “systematic and malicious campaign of harassment.”

That provisional order was dissolved Tuesday after a judge ruled that Sophy failed to prove that Dre, born Andre Young, poses a threat to his physical safety — denying the psychiatrist’s request for a permanent restraining order.

“The Court finds the party requesting the order of protection did not sustain the applicable burden of proof and accordingly the request is denied,” Los Angeles County Judge Melanie Ochoa said Tuesday afternoon, according to a minute order obtained by The Times.

Sophy’s professional relationship with Young dates back to 2018, the psychiatrist said in his Oct. 9 lawsuit, when he began offering marriage counseling to the “Still D.R.E.” artist and his now ex-wife, Nicole Young. After working “diligently, independently, and fairly to help Young and his ex-wife resolve their disputes,” Sophy ceased contact with the couple in 2021, when their divorce was finalized.

“Fourteen months later, and suddenly, without warning, Young launched a sustained campaign of abusive messages, late-night reminders that he would not ‘forget’ Dr. Sophy, and homophobic slurs,” Sophy’s lawsuit said, adding that Young took out his frustration at the outcome of the mediation on the psychiatrist.

The Oct. 9 filing also claimed that Young once sent people to Sophy’s address to intimidate him — an accusation Young denied at Tuesday’s hearing, which he attended via Zoom.

In a statement, Young called Sophy’s lawsuit and subsequent restraining order request elements of “a misguided attempt to undermine” his reputation after he filed a complaint against Sophy with California’s medical board last May, according to a Monday filing reviewed by The Times.

The rapper filed that complaint, he said, after allegedly discovering that Sophy “had attempted to poison my relationship with my son, including by urging him to disclose my financial records to the media as part of his attempts to pressure me into settling my divorce on unfair terms.”

While Young admitted sending some of the texts Sophy included in his Oct. 9 harassment lawsuit, he said they “were sent in the context of my discovery of his malpractice and my unsuccessful attempts to have Sophy explain to me why he was undertaking these inappropriate actions.”

In the Monday filing, Young’s attorney Howard E. King referenced a Sept. 30 police report wherein Sophy told law enforcement that he was “concerned for his safety ‘because of recent events involving P. Diddy because of the violent behavior of Young’s friends.’” King argued that Sophy’s proof of emotional distress “consists entirely of invoking the racist caricature that depicts Black men, like Young, as inherently violent.”

Sophy’s lawyer, Christopher Frost, said in a statement to Rolling Stone that Young’s filing “hurled ugly and unfair claims of racism at my client.”

“We have always been aware that we are up against a celebrity in this matter and, while it might be easy to make those charged and disingenuous claims and amplify them, it does not change the fact that Dr. Sophy has pursued legal action solely because of Mr. Young’s consistent pattern of behavior,” Frost said, adding that Sophy remains committed to his lawsuit despite Tuesday’s ruling.

An initial hearing in the harassment case is scheduled for April 4.