Singer Halsey scored a small victory in her court battle with the former nanny she accused of being “intoxicated” around her son.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted a motion brought by Halsey demanding her ex-employee Ashley Funches show up for a deposition.
The judge ruled that Ashley would be grilled under oath this month but declined to award Halsey her requested sanctions.
As we first reported, Halsey claimed Ashley was deposed for one day, but they did not finish. She said they agreed the ex-employee would come back for another day. However, the singer said Ashley and her legal team kept making “empty promises” and failed to provide Ashely’s availability.
Halsey said she notified Ashley of a deposition on May 8 but the ex-nanny canceled last minute.
“[Ashley] continues to be noncommittal or outright ignore [Halsey’s] requests to complete [Ashley] deposition,” the singer’s lawyer wrote.
Halsey said she has made “good faith efforts to coordinate [Ashley’s] deposition for months, and it is still not complete. Defense counsel has tried on countless occasions to secure and confirm the deposition of [Ashley] but has been met with silence or empty promises.”
The legal drama started in 2022 when Ashley sued Halsey for wrongful termination and disability discrimination. In her suit, she claimed she worked as Halsey’s live-in nanny and was responsible for caring for her newborn son, Ender.
During her employment, Ashely claimed she noticed she didn’t receive the overtime she was owed. She raised the issue.
The ex-nanny said things got worse when she asked for time off for a medical procedure. Ashley said she was fired.
Her lawyer said Halsey “illegally and wrongfully terminated [Ashley] in retaliation for complaining about" the singer's "illegal and unlawful practice of failing to pay her overtime wages and on the basis of her disability and/or perceived disability."
In response, Halsey came out swinging against Ashley.
Her rep said, "These allegations are baseless. This individual’s employment was recently terminated in response to specific incidents in which Halsey’s infant was left unsupervised in an unsafe location while under the nanny’s care, and it was discovered the nanny was intoxicated while the child was in her care."
"Furthermore, at no time during this individual’s term of employment with Halsey were any complaints even raised. Consequently, while Halsey is both saddened and disappointed by this turn of events, they feel it is important to refute these allegations publicly, as they take ableism and ethical working conditions very seriously,” the rep added.