Patti LaBelle sued over Houston scuffle

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HOUSTON, June 5 (UPI) -- A West Point cadet is suing singer Patti LaBelle over a confrontation with her bodyguards at a Houston airport that left him with a head injury.

Richard King, 23, alleges the singer ordered her three-member security team to rough him up for unknown reasons at the passenger pick-up area outside George Bush International Airport in March.

King told the Houston Chronicle that incident left him with a concussion and led to a U.S. Military Academy decision to terminate him for his senior year and place him in an 18-month mentorship program.

"I've invested so much of my time, so much of my effort," said King. "It almost seems that it's gone down the drain."

The newspaper said King claims to remember nothing about the attack but a former security guard said it began when LaBelle's bodyguards ordered King, who was talking on his cellphone, to move away from her limo.

Houston police took a report on the fracas, but the Chronicle said the department was reviewing the actions of the officers, who posed for photos with the singer after their investigation, to determine whether they were appropriate.