Security Guard Suing WWE & Montez Ford Over 'Lap Dance' On Raw

A Cook County Sheriff's officer has filed a lawsuit against WWE and Montez Ford (real name Kenneth Crawford) over the multi-time tag team champion allegedly performing an unwanted "lap dance" towards him on the July 6 edition of Monday Night Raw.

The incident occurred during The Street Profits' entrance inside the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois, ahead of a WWE World Tag Team Title defence against The Vision's Bron Breakker and Austin Theory. After walking through the crowd, Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins reached the sheriff's officer, who was working as a private security guard for the show. The guard was seated in front of the barricade and Ford proceeded to gyrate and thrust in front of the security guard for around 30 seconds. The clip of Ford's gyrating was shared on WWE and Montez Ford's social media channels and it aired on the live broadcast of Raw, although the dance is no longer available on the replay of the July 6 edition of Raw.

POST Wrestling has reported the Cook County Sheriff's officer, named Noel Lucas, filed the lawsuit against WWE, Montez Ford, and Event Services, LLC, on October 14, alleging 14 counts, including assault, battery, violations of the Illinois Gender Violence Act, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and his image being used for commercial purposes in violation of the Illinois Right of Publicity Act.

Within the lawsuit, Lucas alleges that Ford danced towards him without warning and without his consent.

"Defendant Crawford then began performing a sexually provocative dance immediately in front of and over Plaintiff [Lucas], repeatedly thrusting and gyrating his hips and pelvis towards Plaintiff, performing a sexualized ‘lap dance,'" the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit also alleges that Montez Ford "moved his body increasingly closer to [Lucas]; continued the lap dance" and that Ford's "left inner thigh repeatedly rubbed against Plaintiff’s leg."

The clip receiving hundreds of thousands of views on social media, according to the lawsuit, resulted in Lucas becoming publicly recognisable and when he reported for his day job at a courthouse "members of the public recognized him from the videos of the encounter that had circulated on social media and mocked him, thrusting their hips in his direction, imitating the sexual movements." Lucas has also alleged that his children were "mocked and ridiculed" at school because of the social media clips of Ford's dance.

As a result of the video, the lawsuit alleges that Lucas "suffered humiliation, embarrassment, and emotional distress" and he continues to suffer because of the video being widely shared and publicly viewable online.

Lucas is asking for monetary damages, punitive damages, legal fees, and for an order to be issued that WWE and Montez Ford can't use his identity. A case management hearing is scheduled for December 10.