Kim Kardashian may have a budding acting career on top of her SKIMS clothing line and reality TV show (The Kardashians Season 6 premiered recently on the 2025 TV schedule), but over the years we’ve also seen her put work into reforming the criminal justice system. Now she's facing some legal trouble of her own, as what her lawyer is calling a “simple mistake” has led to a possible defamation lawsuit after she used a photo of the wrong man on social media, saying he was on death row.
Civil Complaint Accuses Kim Kardashian Of Mental Anguish After Social Media Mixup
In February 2024, Kim Kardashian posted a photo of Ivan Cantu, a resident of Westchester, New York, incorrectly identifying him as a Texas death row inmate of the same name who was headed for execution. According to an unfiled civil complaint submitted February 20, 2025, to the Los Angeles Superior Court, the L.A. Times reports, this resulted in severe emotional distress for Cantu. According to the complaint:
Cantu suffered serious emotional damage and injury in the form of emotional and mental anguish, psychological harm, embarrassment, anxiety, loss of sleep, nightmares, post-traumatic stress, headaches, need for medical care and emotional counseling.
The man Kim Kardashian was referring to in her social media post was Ivan “Abner” Cantu, who was convicted in the 2000 murders of his cousin and his cousin’s fiancée. He died by lethal injection on February 28, 2024.
According to the New York resident’s complaint, Ivan Cantu is suing The Kardashians star for libel, slander, intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, negligence and representing him in false light by identifying him as a double murderer. The paperwork reads:
Kardashian published and disseminated false information without privilege or authorization, and her acts were intentional, negligent, reckless and/or violated standards of ethics and decency.
He is seeking damages in an amount yet to be determined.
Kim Kardashian’s Lawyer Says Misidentification Was A ‘Simple Mistake’
Kim Kardashian’s lawyer Michael Rhodes responded to the civil complaint, saying the social media post was taken down after the error was discovered. In a statement to the L.A. Times, Rhodes said:
[It was] a simple mistake of using the public photo of another man with the same name to promote Kim’s longstanding commitment to the cause of criminal justice reform. The image was taken down almost immediately once the error was discovered. We’d prefer to solve this without litigation, but of course will defend Kim as needed.
Ivan Cantu argues that despite his image ultimately being removed from Kim Kardashian’s social media platforms (which reach more than 350 million followers), the case of mistaken identity caused serious damage to his reputation and exposed him to hate. Cantu posted his own message to Facebook, US Weekly reports, saying at the time:
To all my friends and family, I am not getting executed, some idiot who runs @kimkardashian used my picture instead of Ivan ‘Abner’ Cantu.
Kim Kardashian began working on prison reform long before she passed the baby bar in 2021. In 2017 she became involved in the case of Alice Marie Johnson, an inmate serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense. Kardashian worked with President Trump, who ultimately granted Johnson clemency.
The SKIMS boss also met with Lyle and Erik Menéndez — the latter of whom used to play tennis with Robert Kardashian Sr., according to Kris Jenner on an episode of The Kardashians (available to stream with a Hulu subscription) — and was in support of their upcoming resentencing in the 1989 murders of their parents.
As for Ivan Cantu, we’ll have to wait to see if he gets his day in court.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
