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Violinist Brian King Joseph filed a civil complaint on December 30, 2025, in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Will Smith and Treyball Studios Management, Inc. He alleges sexual harassment, retaliation, wrongful termination, and civil-rights violations connected to work on Smith’s Based on a True Story: 2025 tour. Smith’s lawyer denies every allegation. In May 2026, the judge sustained the defendants’ demurrer and granted their motion to strike, ruling that the complaint lacked enough factual support and giving Joseph 30 days to amend. A June 2026 docket summary records that Joseph asked to dismiss the original action without prejudice. None of the claims has been decided on the facts.
What Joseph’s complaint alleges
The complaint is Joseph’s account, filed by him. Everything in this section is an allegation as it was described in press coverage of the filing, not a finding by a court.
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The Las Vegas hotel-room incident
Joseph says he had performed with Smith before and joined work connected to the 2025 tour. He alleges that in March 2025, while the tour was in Las Vegas, he found a note and other unfamiliar items in his hotel room. According to the complaint as reported, he then contacted police, hotel security, and Smith’s management team. He says he was removed from the tour within days.
Coverage quoted the note as reading: “Brian, I’ll be back no later 5:30, just us,” followed by a drawn heart. That is the complaint’s description of the exhibit, and it is reported here as Joseph’s allegation.
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Statements Joseph attributes to Smith
The complaint, as quoted in reporting, attributes this statement to Smith: “You and I have such a special connection that I don’t have with anyone else.” It is included in the complaint as Joseph’s recollection; no independent record of it has been published.
The claims Joseph brought
- Sexual harassment under California employment law
- Retaliation, including the claim that his removal from the tour followed his report of the hotel-room incident
- Wrongful termination
- Civil-rights violations
Each is a claim Joseph asserts against Smith and Treyball Studios Management, Inc. Naming the claims does not establish that any of them is valid.
The defendants’ response
Smith’s denial
Smith’s attorney, Allen B. Grodsky, responded: “Mr. Joseph’s allegations concerning my client are false, baseless, and reckless. They are categorically denied, and we will use all legal means available to address these claims and to ensure that the truth is brought to light.”
The defense account of Joseph’s engagement
In court filings, Smith and Treyball’s attorneys disputed Joseph’s description of how he was engaged. They said he was hired on a per-show basis rather than invited to join the tour, and argued that he was not a good fit for the band. These are the defendants’ arguments in the case, not findings about what happened.
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The May 2026 ruling
A demurrer is a motion arguing that a complaint, even if its facts are taken as true, does not state a legally valid claim. A motion to strike asks the court to remove specific language or claims from the complaint. Judge Michael Shultz heard both motions on April 28, 2026, and on May 5, 2026, sustained the demurrer and granted the motion to strike.
The ruling concerns whether the complaint is sufficiently pleaded. It does not decide whether the allegations are true. Reporting by MyNewsLA quoted the judge’s explanation of the retaliation theory: “The facts do not infer an unlawful intrusion — there were no signs of forced entry — nor does the complaint allege that the intrusion was perpetrated by a contractor, employee or by the employer.” That is the judge’s reasoning on the pleading, not a statement about what occurred in the hotel room.
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Reporting said Joseph had 30 days to file an amended complaint with more factual support.
Timeline
| Date | Event | Status of the information |
|---|---|---|
| March 2025 | Hotel-room incident in Las Vegas, as described in the complaint | Joseph’s allegation |
| December 30, 2025 | Joseph files the civil complaint against Smith and Treyball Studios Management, Inc. | Confirmed by reporting and the docket summary |
| April 28, 2026 | Hearing on the demurrer and motion to strike | Reported by MyNewsLA |
| May 5, 2026 | Demurrer sustained, motion to strike granted, 30 days to amend | Reported by MyNewsLA and the docket summary |
| June 4, 2026 | Joseph’s request to dismiss the original action without prejudice is entered | Docket summary |
| June 23, 2026 | Case 25STCV38237 and case 26STCV18067 are recorded as related, with 26STCV18067 as lead | Docket summary |
Where the case stands as of October 8, 2026
The original action was dismissed without prejudice at Joseph’s request, according to the June 2026 docket summary. A dismissal without prejudice generally does not decide the merits, and in general it leaves the plaintiff able to file again, subject to applicable deadlines.
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The docket also lists the original case as related to case 26STCV18067, which is the lead case. The reporting and docket summary available for this article do not establish what claims that lead case contains or whether it remains pending as of October 8, 2026. Readers should treat any report that the case has been resolved, or that a court has found Smith liable or not liable, as unsupported by the material currently public.
Until a court rules on the merits, the central questions remain what happened in the Las Vegas hotel room, how Joseph’s engagement with the tour was structured, and why he was removed. Those are the points on which the complaint and the defense disagree.
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