Patti LaBelle Accused Of Verbal Attack On Toddler

R&B crooner Patti LaBelle, 67, may be taking her "diva" reputation to a whole new level. LaBelle is being sued by a New York City mom who alleges that the Grammy winner tried to physically attack her and screamed obscenities at her 18-month-old daughter.

According to the lawsuit filed by Kevin and Roseanna Monk, the parents of toddler Genevieve, LaBelle lost her cool in an argument in the lobby of a Donald Trump-owned apartment building in Manhattan, where the family resides and where LaBelle stayed last year while she was performing in Broadway's Fela. LaBelle reportedly approached Roseanna, whose daughter was walking around the lobby, and asked, "Do you know what your daughter is doing?" said the Monks' lawyer, Samuel L. Davis, according to ABC News. Davis claims that LaBelle was "implying that she was a bad mother."

When Roseanna told LaBelle to mind her own business, LaBelle allegedly "started cursing and screaming," said Davis, before flying into a rage and "throwing water from a bottle at the mother's face and the baby's face." After a few more hostile words exchanged between LaBelle and Monk, "Patti lost it and she lunged at her, tried to punch her and had to be restrained by her entourage. The bodyguard had to get out and drag Patti into the car."

The Monks are suing for unspecified damages, but claim that Genevieve has since had trouble sleeping through the night. "She had issues with loud noises and strangers," Davis said. Though the couple would have initially been satisfied with a mere apology, they decided to sue after hearing about another scrape with the law LaBelle and her staff had back in June, when a U.S. Military cadet claimed that LaBelle's hairdresser and bodyguard assaulted him in Houston, reports the New York Daily News. LaBelle maintained that the cadet was drunk, unruly, and trying to climb into her limo at the time.