Elton received a May 17, 2016 trial date for his battle with the Los Angeles police officer suing him for sexual battery.

A judge assigned the date after first alerting both sides that he had a connection to Elton. "I did attend an Elton John concert maybe 25 years ago," Judge Howard Halm said at a hearing on August 11, 2016 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, adding that crooner Billy Joel also performed. "I think I went to one, too," the lawyer for plaintiff Jeffrey Wenninger also confessed.

Elton's lawyers said they hoped to avoid a trial by filing a motion for summary judgment at the end of the discovery process. Wenninger, 49, sued Elton for sexual battery in March 2016. He claimed Elton touched him inappropriately on multiple occasions while he was working as an off-duty security guard for him.

He alleged that during a ride to the airport in March 2014, Elton groped him in the area of his crotch and buttocks while stating, "Say Hello to Uncle Elton." Wenninger claimed Elton also twisted his nipples during a subsequent car ride. Elton's lawyers have called the lawsuit "baseless" and "patently false."

Wenninger received an LAPD Medal of Valor in 2007 for entering a burning building in 1996 to help rescue dozens of elderly residents. But the cop was accused of abusive behavior by an ex-wife who won a temporary restraining order November 2002 after claiming Wenninger flicked water in her face and screamed profanities at her.

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