Patti LaBelle Sued Over Water Fight

Patti LaBelle is facing legal action after diva-like behavior involving a thrown bottle of water during a kerfuffle in the lobby of a New York apartment building.

The incident in question occurred on November 10th, 2011 when LaBelle was staying in the building at which the altercation occurred while she appeared in the Broadway show Fela! LaBelle and building resident Roseanna Monk were both in the lobby, and Monk was trying to carry luggage and a car seat while managing her small child. The child toddled off, which prompted LaBelle to get snippy with Monk, criticizing her parenting style.

Monk balked and told LaBelle that her parenting was none of the soul singer’s business, at which time she says LaBelle began an “obscenity-filled tirade,” culminating in the star dousing the mother and child with a bottle of water. The New York Daily News recounts:

“‘What are you doing letting your kid run around like that?'” [Monk’s lawyer] quoted LaBelle as asking Roseanna Monk… He said LaBelle, a mother of five whose real name is Patricia Louise Holte, then started “screaming at my client, throwing water from a bottle at the mother’s face and the baby’s face…”

“‘Are you happy that this is what you have done to this baby?!'” [the lawyer] said Roseanna Monk asked the singer… At that point LaBelle, “tries to take a swing” at his client, he said… LaBelle’s entourage then shoved her into a black car and the baby violently threw up all over her mother, [the lawyer] said.

Earlier this year, LaBelle was sued by a different party for allegations of similar behavior.