G L Askew II for The FADER
Lil Peep's mom, Liza Womack, has been successful in her efforts to take her late son's management company to trial. On Wednesday, Rolling Stone reports, a judge ruled that Womack's wrongful death case against First Access Entertainment (FAE) will move forwards. The lawsuit was first filed in 2019, two years after Peep's 2017 drug-related death. FAE, alongside tour manager Belinda Mercer, applied to have the suit thrown out but that was rejected by Judge Teresa Beaudet. A trial is now set for March 2023.
Lil Peep died on his tour bus of a drug overdose in November 2017. Womack claims that he was given the drugs by Mercer and, via unsealed text messages, FAE oversaw a culture of "drug-infected mismanagement" that ultimately led to her son's passing.
FAE's efforts to have the suit dismissed centered on testimony by another artist, Gothboicliq's Cold Hart, but that version of events was thrown out by the judge as inadmissible hearsay.
“There’s no question there’s a triable issue as to whether [Mercer] provided the drugs or not,” Judge Beaudet reportedly said at the hearing. “If you’re going to create an environment like that where drugs are flowing, and you’re providing it, and hey, you actually don’t have any life-saving device or any Narcan to help people who are going to have a problem with these drugs, it seems to me you are creating a very dangerous situation there.”
One defendant in Womack's case was dismissed by Judge Beaudet, Peep's manager Bryant Ortega. It was decided there was insufficient evidence to suggest that Ortega, known as "Chase," was linked to the negligence that led to her son's death.
The FADER has reached out to legal representatives for Womack, FAE, and Mercer for comment.
