Toots Revenge: Hibbert Files Suit Against Alleged Bottle-Thrower

GLASS BOTTLE THROWING INCIDENT LEADS TO
MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR LAWSUIT FILED BY TOOTS

Last month we reported on an incident in Richmond, VA; where a glass bottle was thrown by a 19-year-old man, William Connor Lewis, at legendary reggae performers Toots and the Maytals’ lead singer Fredrick “Toots” Hibbert. Toots went on with a handful of shows after suffering a “bloody forehead laceration,” but wound up cancelling the end of his tour to focus on recovering from the injury. Toots is seeking compensation for his injuries as Billboard reports that Hibbert filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Lewis.

According to Billboard, Hibbert is seeking “$1,000,000 in compensatory damages and $20,000,000 in punitive damages in addition to court costs and suit moneys.” Toots’s attorneys filed the suit in Circuit Court for the City of Richmond last week. Hibbert returned to Richmond, the site of the May 18 incident, recently to attend Lewis’s arraignment. Lewis was charged with felony assault and public drunkenness stemming from allegations he threw a Grey Goose vodka bottle at 70-year-old Hibbert.

“Toots attended Friday’s hearing to ensure maximum effort is made to protect other artists from possible injury,” Hibbert’s business manager, Andrea Davis, told Billboard. Toots’ complaint details the incident, “At approximately 10:15 p.m. Lewis intentionally threw with such great force and violence the bottle of Grey Goose Vodka which he had in his possession, the blow suffered by Hibbert caused a serious, significant tear to his forehead and face, forcing him to suffer permanent scarring and caused him to become disoriented and grievously injured in body and mind.”

Video of Toots & The Maytals’ performance of “Country Roads” shows what went down (the bottle gets thrown at the 4:24 mark):