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A “Dancing With the Stars” judge is accused of negligence in a 2019 car accident.
On February 18, 2021, a man named Jessie Raymond Zimbro filed a civil suit against Dancing With the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba over a car accident that Zimbro said caused severe injuries. Zimbro said in his filing that the accident was Inaba’s fault due to negligence, according to court documents obtained by Heavy.
Here’s what you need to know:
Zimbro Says Inaba Was Negligent Due to Her Speed
According to the complaint filed with the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, Zimbro said that on December 16, 2019, he and Inaba were involved in a motor vehicle collision near Coldwater Canyon Driver and Betty Lane in Los Angeles, California.
Zimbro said that Inaba owed a duty to other drivers and pedestrians to “use reasonable care when operating a motor vehicle on the roadway,” but Inaba “negligently breached said duties” by “unreasonably and negligently” operating a motor vehicle, which caused a car accident that “severely injured” Zimbro. The causes of action include general negligence and negligence per se, which is when an act is considered negligent because it violates a legal statute.
The statute in question is California Vehicle Code 22350, which states, “No person shall drive a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than is reasonable or prudent having due regard for weather, visibility, the traffic on, and the surface and width of, the highway, and in no event at a speed which endangers the safety of persons or property.”
Zimbro is suing in an unlimited civil case, which means he believes the damages exceed $25,000. The complaint says that Zimbro suffered property damage, personal injury, wage loss, loss of use of property, hospital and medical expenses, general damage, loss of earning capacity and pain and mental suffering.
Zimbro is seeking compensatory damages for his claimed expenses. He is being represented by Arash Khorsandi and Brian G. Beecher of Arash Law, an injury lawfirm. According to the summons, Inaba has 30 days to file a written response in court.
According to the case information page, future hearings have been set for the case — the final status conference is set for August 4, 2022; the non-jury trial, if it comes to that, is set for August 18, 2022, and the order to show cause regarding dismissal is set for February 15, 2024.
Heavy has reached out to Zimbro’s attorneys for comment and has not yet received a response.
Inaba Has Not Responded Publicly
Inaba has not yet issued a statement or responded on social media.
Heavy has reached out to Inaba but has not yet received a response.
Inaba, 53, has been judging Dancing With the Stars since its inception in 2005. She and fellow judge Bruno Tonioli are the only judges who have been present for every season of the show. She also currently hosts The Talk on CBS, having replaced longtime host Julie Chen Moonves in early 2019.
Inaba has also choreographed dances for a number of television programs, including American Idol and the Miss America pageant. Prior to that, one of her first entertainment gigs was being cast as a “Fly Girl,” one of the backup dancers on the sketch comedy series In Living Color on FOX.
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