Less than 24 hours after Beyoncé's hit NFL Christmas halftime show made Netflix viewers' hair fall, a legal storm has hit the Carter family as Jay-Z loses his Hail Mary bid to end the case against him and Sean “Diddy” Combs is imprisoned. Which alleges that the duo violently assaulted a minor more than 20 years ago.
In a damning order published Thursday, a federal judge denied an attempt by the Grammy-winning rapper, whose real name is Shawn Carter, and his lead attorney, Alex Spiro, to dismiss charges against Jay-Z and Combs.
Judge Analisa Torres also rejected the “99 Problems” artist's hopes of revealing Jane Doe's true identity and moving the whole matter along at a faster pace. Emphasizing the “weight of factors” including the “extremely sensitive and highly personal” nature of Jane Doe’s claims, Torres determined that the context of the matter “tips in favor of allowing the plaintiff to remain anonymous, at least at this stage of the litigation.” “.
Interestingly, the judge acknowledged that her opinion on anonymity could change over time, depending on where the case and its evidence lead.
As more lawsuits and vile accusations have surfaced against Combs over the past few months detailing the “freaks” and violence of his drug use, a graphic lawsuit was filed on October 20 that names the rapper for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl. Girl at a party after the 2000 MTV VMAs. Similar in detail to several other John Doe and Jane Doe filings against well-connected Combs, this document specifically cited a male “Celebrity A” and a female “Celebrity B” as active participants in the rape. On December 8, an amended complaint made no reference to the identity of “Celebrity B,” but named Jay-Z as “Celebrity A.”
In the legal f-bomb that followed, one thing was clear from the order of the day and that was that Torres didn't like the way Spiro was handling Jay-Z's defense so far.
“Carter's counsel's relentless submission of combative motions containing inflammatory language and personal attacks is inappropriate, a waste of judicial resources, and unlikely to benefit his client's tactics,” the judge wrote today about Quinn Emanuel's partner and his approach to his client. “The court will not expedite the judicial process simply because the lawyer requests it.”
In fact, Alec Baldwin and Elon Musk's typically aggressive tactics, Spiro Lawyer, are doing this billionaire client no favors on almost any level with this judge — and that's not reflecting well in his attacks on Jane Doe's lawyer, Tony Buzbee, according to Torres.
“Furthermore, although Carter's counsel attacks plaintiff's counsel as suffering from a 'chronic inability to follow the rules,' Carter's counsel has failed to adhere to this court's clear rules,” Torres writes of what became a battle of vitriol between Spiro and Houston Buzbee, Which represents dozens of cases against the frequently accused Combs.
The federal judges in New York, after reviewing Spiro's scattered accusations of Buzbee's so-called “misconduct” and allegations that he was “apparently trying to avoid his disciplinary authority,” added, “even though Carter's attorney stated that he 'intended'[ed] To immediately file a motion to dismiss the First Amended Complaint under [Rule 12(f)]The plaintiff was not given five working days to respond. See Individual Practices Wait until the court sets a motion schedule, or determines whether any individual court practice exception applies. This is not acceptable. Counsel is hereby advised that any further requests made in violation of the court's individual practices may be denied on this basis alone.
Torres noted that dismissing a case like this is “generally undesirable” and is only accepted “if there is a strong reason to do so.” “Carter's motion, which summarily asserts that plaintiff's allegations are 'baseless' and 'scurrilous,' does not remove that high bar,” she added curtly.
Representatives for Spiro and Quinn Emanuel did not respond to a request for comment from Deadline to date. If they do, this post will be updated.
Business mogul Combs was first accused of rape and other abuse in a quickly settled ($30 million) lawsuit from his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura. The “All About the Benjamins” rapper denied it all, but changed his tune a bit over the summer when 2016 security camera footage from a Los Angeles hotel revealed a semi-naked Combs punching Ventura as she tried to escape in the lobby. Following March 25 raids by the Department of Homeland Security and others on Combs' properties in Los Angeles and Miami, Combs was arrested while in New York on sex trafficking and other charges.
Currently behind bars at Brooklyn's tough-as-nails Metropolitan Detention Center (where healthcare CEO Luigi Mangione's shooter is now housed) and repeatedly denying $50 million bail efforts, Combs' hotly contested criminal trial is set to begin on May 5 of the year. Next. If found guilty, Combs, 55, will look forward to life behind bars.
After previously trying to shut down Buzbee in Quinn Emanuel's extortion lawsuit against a “celebrity and public figure residing in Los Angeles” a few weeks ago, Jay-Z last week quickly responded to his being publicly named in the lawsuit with a handwritten statement. In the rare letter, the founder of media company Roc Nation denied that he had raped anyone, saying in part: “These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!!”
(LR) Jay-Z, Sean “Diddy” Combs
Getty Images
As many of Combs' cases moved forward on parallel tracks, Team Jay Z and Team Jane Doe went scorched-earth on each other with assertions of bullying, hiring private investigators, and bribery — and those were the polite parts. Unlike a number of high-profile people who face such situations, Jay-Z didn't stay out of the public eye, appearing at the Disney premiere in Los Angeles. Mufasa: The Lion King with Beyoncé and her daughter Blue Ivy Carter on December 9, and receiving the support of Roc Nation's NFL partners via league commissioner Roger Goodell on December 11.
In what may have been a major misstep, Jane Doe, on December 13, appeared on NBC with a different account of what supposedly happened to her than what her court filings say. “I made some mistakes,” the Alabama resident, now middle-aged, told NBC News, while maintaining that the general allegations in her lawsuit are true even though some details are not 100% consistent. Similar to the tact he used in the now-dismissed manslaughter case brought by Baldwin and others on behalf of his famous clients, Spiro jumped on those sticking points and self-proclaimed “mistakes” on the part of the defendant.
Buzbee mocks Jay-Z himself as a bully who “preserved his right to different rules and quicker action” and brushed aside the disagreement and quickly subsequently filed a separate suit for barrification and more against Roc Nation and Queen Emanuel.
Moving on to other matters without missing a beat, Torres added on Thursday that Jane Doe and the likely happy Buzbee have until January 10 to respond to Jay-Z and Spiro's December 18 suggestion to the evidence preservation movement that there is “a significant risk that” Buzbee ordered the destruction of evidence damaging to the plaintiff's case, including evidence of his misconduct. Carter and his team have until January 17 to respond if they choose.
At the pace at which the two sides have so far competed in the courts, it would not be unreasonable to assume that at least one or two lawsuits or petitions will be filed by then.
