Pop star Katy Perry is once again headed to court with a property dispute.

This time, an elderly veteran is claiming he never meant to sell her and husband Orlando Bloom his sprawling $15 million Santa Barbara estate. And if this case sounds familiar, that’s because it is. In 2014, Perry went toe-to-toe with two elderly nuns, Catherine Rose Holzman and Rita Callanan, when an archbishop sold the convent out from under them, which they claimed he had no right to do.

The saddest detail of that ordeal? Holzman collapsed and died in the courtroom after going on record with her urgent plea, saying “Katy Perry, please stop. It’s not doing anyone any good except hurting a lot of people.” Callanan accused the “Dark Horse” singer of having “blood on her hands.”

The optics of a millionaire celebrity battling an elderly veteran and two nuns over property may not be great, but the details of each situation make both cases worthy of debate. And of going to court.

First up, Perry’s most recent debacle. The 38-year-old mom of one is being sued by Carl Westcott, the founder of 1-800-Flowers.

A report obtained from Daily Mail found that Westcott, 83, said he signed sale documents in July 2020 when he was under the influence of painkillers after having major back surgery. Westcott had also been battling Huntington’s disease since 2015, which he is saying contributed to his inability to agree to binding legal documents.

Westcott tried to back out of the sale days later when he said the influence of the painkillers wore off, but Perry and Bloom refused his request and threatened to sue if he did not go through with the sale. A representative for Perry and Bloom sent a letter following Westcott’s request to rescind the documents, saying he was legally obligated to complete the sale of the home.

Westcott claims he never listed the home for sale and never asked a real estate professional to help sell it. He said he purchased the 9,285 square-foot, eight-bedroom, 11-bathroom home in May 2020, just two months before selling it to Perry and Bloom. Westcott further stated he had purchased with the intention of staying there “for the rest of his life.”

The plaintiff had back surgery in July 2020 and three days later signed the sale paperwork. Westcott was allegedly presented with a written offer from Perry and Bloom for more money than he paid for the property in May.

“Upon discharge from the hospital, Mr. Westcott was prescribed at least two opiates in pill form that he was to continue taking for pain, which he took as prescribed several times each day,” the complaint states.

“’The combination of his age, frailty from his back condition and recent surgery, and the opiates he was taking several times a day rendered Mr. Westcott of unsound mind.”

The veteran’s lawyers argue he was “unable to understand the nature and probable consequences of his actions” due to being on pain medication. They say their client is “in the final years of his life and cannot sell his home.”

Westcott will not attend the trial because he is mentally incapacitated and bedridden, leaving his family to fight the celebrity couple over who should be the rightful owners of the estate. One person who is part of the family is “Real Housewives of Dallas” star Kameron Westcott.

On the same day the news of Carl’s lawsuit started making headlines, Kameron discussed her father-in-law’s health battles on Instagram. 

“My incredible father-in-law Carl has been suffering Huntington’s disease in silence….” she wrote, sharing photos of the family. “Before Carl’s health continues to deteriorate I wanted to share some of our favorite happier memories with him and use his story, to share with you information on Huntington’s and to bring light to this terrible disease!” 

A nonjury trial is scheduled for August 21, 2023, per USA Today. The current status of the home’s occupants, if any, remains unclear.

Perry’s previous property dispute also made it to court. In 2014, Perry made an offer on a $14.5 million convent which belonged to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, an order of nuns who combined their money to purchase the property for $600,000 in 1972. As the population of nuns decreased, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles forced five remaining nuns to move out in 2011 despite them wishing to remain living there.

Two of the resident sisters met with Perry as she tried to convince them to sell to her, per a report from Insider. They said Perry was “nice,” but decided they would rather sell the property to restaurant owner Dana Hollister. 

That was partly because of statements Perry had made. Holzman said she found a video of Perry joking about selling her soul to the devil in exchange for success.

“Even mentioning that she would sell her soul to Satan is against our principles and beliefs,” Holzman told Billboard in 2015. “Katy Perry represents everything we don’t believe in. It would be a sin to sell to her.”

Hollister and the sisters completed the sale and the restaurateur moved in. He wanted to turn the convent into a hotel, but he got sued by Perry and the archdiocese, who claimed the nuns didn’t have the right to sell on their own in the first place. Eventually, the Vatican got involved.

In 2017, an L.A.-based judge ruled that Perry did have the right to purchase the property. The singer won her case against Hollister, who then declared bankruptcy.

Holzman and Callanan were the two nuns most involved in the legal drama. After Holzman died in court, her nephew Brian Holzman told RadarOnline, “[Katy Perry] is a pretty evil woman. It sounds like she is at it again. She is who she is, and she’s going to do what she’s going to do. It’s all about money and greed!”

Maybe the most perplexing detail of all is that Perry keeps getting into battles over California property after going on record saying how she prefers living outside the Hollywood “bubble.”

“I’m like, living in Kentucky, and I have for almost a month now. And that’s quite an amazing experience. Because it reminds you that Hollywood is not America,” the “I Kissed a Girl” singer told Chelsea Handler in May 2023, as The Daily Wire previously reported.

She also discussed how living in other parts of the country, especially rural areas, can help celebrities understand how most people live.

“You need to remember that,” Perry said. “Because I think you can understand people better.”

A small-town newspaper in Kansas is raising First Amendment questions on a national level after local police raided its office and homes of staffers on Friday, seizing material linked to alleged identity theft violations.

Marion County Record, a family-owned weekly newspaper published in the midwestern state about 60 miles north of Wichita, was named in a search warrant signed by Marion County Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar on Friday morning, which alleges violations of identity theft and “unlawful acts concerning computers.” CNN reported.

Eric Meyer, co-owner and publisher of the paper founded more than 150 years ago in the small city of Marion, reportedly said four Marion police officers and three sheriff’s deputies seized personal cell phones, computers, and other materials at his home and Marion County Record office, including some unrelated equipment needed to publish.

“Our first priority is to be able to publish next week,” Meyer said. “But we also want to make sure no other news organization is ever exposed to the Gestapo tactics we witnessed today.”

Reporter Deb Gruver wrote in a post on Facebook she had filed a report with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation that accused Marion, Kansas Police Chief Gideon Cody of re-injuring a previously dislocated finger after he allegedly “forcibly yanked” her cell phone from her hand.

“I thought I lived in the United States,” Gruver added.

Authorities also searched the home of its 98-year-old co-owner Joan Meyer, who died less than 24 hours later — after she collapsed from hours of “shock and grief” that caused her to lose sleep and not eat, the newspaper reported.

According to the search warrant reported by The Epoch Times, the judge authorized police to seize material related to identity theft allegations of Kari Newell, a local coffee shop business owner. The newspaper reportedly received a tip that Newell allegedly drives without a valid driver’s license after a traffic offense in 2008.

Although a reporter verified the information, Meyer told local media he decided not to publish the story. Instead, he notified the police based on suspicions of being set up by an unknown source. When authorities contacted Newell, she allegedly accused the Record at a city council meeting of illegally obtaining and disseminating personal information that only law enforcement, private investigators, and insurance agencies could access.

Meyer then published an article sequencing the timeline of events on Thursday, less than 24 hours before police executed the search warrant.

“Not only did they have information that was illegal for them to obtain in the manner in which they did, but they sent it out as well,” Newell told CNN, adding the paper published the story “strictly out of malice and retribution for me asking him to exit my establishment.”

Earlier this month, the publisher said he and reporter Phyllis Zorn went to Newell’s coffee shop for a public meeting event with US Representative Jake LaTurner (R-KS) but were told to leave by the local police chief at the request of Newell.

Newell reportedly said she asked Meyer and Zorn to leave out of concerns the constituents would face the risk of being misquoted by the Record, which she said: “has a long-standing reputation for twisting and contorting comments within our community.”

Newell described the situation to The New York Times as the Record violating her privacy rights instead of exercising the First Amendment.

“There’s a huge difference between vindictive and vindication,” Newell said. “I firmly believe that this was a vindictive move, full of malice. And I hope, in the end, I receive vindication.”

But Meyer reportedly plans on suing the city of Marion and the individuals involved in the raid while raising constitutional concerns that federal law protects authorities from searching and seizing materials from journalists.

Although authorities typically need to obtain a subpoena to seize materials, Marion County police chief Cody told CNN that there are exceptions in limited circumstances to bypass a subpoena when “there is reason to believe the journalist is taking part in the underlying wrongdoing.”

“I believe when the rest of the story is available to the public, the judicial system that is being questioned will be vindicated,” Cody told The New York Times.

Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association, called the move a dangerous attack on press freedom in the US.

“There’s a lot of healthy tension between the government and newspapers, but this?” Bradbury told The New York Times. “This is not right, this is wrong, this cannot be allowed to stand.”

Seth Stern, director of advocacy for Freedom of the Press Foundation, told CNN the raid appears to have violated federal law and is “the latest example of American law enforcement officers treating the press in a manner previously associated with authoritarian regimes.”

“Based on the reporting so far, the police raid of the Marion County Record on Friday appears to have violated federal law, the First Amendment, and basic human decency. Everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves,” Stern said.