Less than 24 hours after Beyoncé‘s triumphant Christmas Day NFL halftime extravaganza blew Netflix viewers’ wigs off, a legal storm has hit the Carter household as Jay-Z lost his Hail Mary attempt to terminate the case against him and the incarcerated Sean “Diddy” Combs that alleges the duo violently assaulted a minor more than 20 years ago.
In a withering order published Thursday, a federal judge denied an effort by the Grammy-winning rapper, real name Shawn Carter, and his sharp-elbowed lead lawyer Alex Spiro to see the allegations against Jay-Z and Combs dismissed.
Judge Analisa Torres also rejected the “99 Problems” performer’s hopes to to see Jane Doe’s real identity made public, and to move the whole thing along at a quicker pace. Stressing the “weight of the factors” including the “highly sensitive and extremely personal” nature of Jane Doe’s claims, Torres has decided the context of the matter “tips in favor of allowing Plaintiff to remain anonymous, at least for this stage of the litigation.”
Interestingly, the judge did acknowledge that her opinion on anonymity could change down the line, depending where the case and its evidence leads.
As more suits and sordid accusations against Combs have come out over the past few months with details of his drug-fueled “freak offs” and violence, a graphic October 20-filed lawsuit named the rapper for the rape of a 13-year-old girl at a party after the 2000 MTV VMAs. Similar in specifics to several of the other John Doe and Jane Doe filings against the well-connected Combs, this particular document mentioned a male “Celebrity A” and a female “Celebrity B” as active participants in the rape. On December 8, an amended complaint gave no indication who “Celebrity B” might have been, but it named Jay-Z as “Celebrity A.”
In the legal atom bombs that have followed, one thing that was clear from today’s order is that Torres does not like the way Spiro is conducting Jay-Z’s defense so far.
“Carter’s lawyer’s relentless filing of combative motions containing inflammatory language and ad hominem attacks is inappropriate, a waste of judicial resources, and a tactic unlikely to benefit his client,” the judge wrote today of the Quinn Emanuel partner and his methodology for his client. “The Court will not fast-track the judicial process merely because counsel demands it.”
In fact, Alec Baldwin and Elon Musk legal beagle Spiro’s usual aggressive tactics are not doing this billionaire client any favors on almost any level with this judge – and it’s not reflecting well in his attacks on Jane Doe’s own attorney Tony Buzbee, according to Torres.
“Moreover, although Carter’s attorney assails Plaintiff’s lawyer as having a ‘chronic inability to follow the rules,’ Carter’s counsel has failed to abide by this Court’s clear rules,” Torres writes about what has become a battle of the barbs between Spiro and the Houston-based Buzbee, who is representing dozens of case against the much accused Combs.
Skimming over Spiro’s scattershot accusations about Buzbee’s so-called “misconduct” and allegations he is “apparently attempting to avoid its disciplinary authority,” the New York federal judges added: “Although Carter’s attorney stated that he ‘intend[ed] to file immediately a motion to strike the first amended complaint under [Rule 12(f)],’ he did not give Plaintiff the requisite five business days to respond, see Individual Practices, wait for the Court to set a motion schedule, or state whether any exception to the Court’s Individual Practices applied. This is unacceptable. Counsel is hereby advised that any further motions filed in violation of the Court’s Individual Practices may be denied on that ground alone.”
Torres made a point of noting that the dismissal of a case like this is “generally disfavored” and only passes muster “if there is a strong reason to do so.” She curtly added that “Carter’s motion, which summarily asserts that Plaintiff’s claims are ‘baseless’ and ‘salacious,’ does not clear that high bar.”
Representatives for Spiro and Quinn Emanuel did not respond to request for comment from Deadline this Boxing Day. If they do, this post will be updated.
Onetime mogul Combs was first accused of rape and other abuses in a quickly settled ($30 million) suit from ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura. The “All About the Benjamins” rapper denied everything, but changed his tune a bit in the summer when 2016 security camera footage from a tony Los Angeles hotel revealed a near naked Combs beating Ventura as she tried to escape down a hallway. Following March 25 raids by Homeland Security and others on Combs’ L.A. and Miami properties, Combs was arrested while in New York on sex trafficking and other charges.
Currently already behind bars at Brooklyn’s hardcore Metropolitan Detention Center (where healthcare CEO shooter Luigi Mangione is now housed) and repeatedly denied his $50 million bail efforts, the heavily lawyered up Combs’ criminal trial is set to start May 5 next year. If found guilty, the 55-year-old Combs is looking at life behind bars.
Having tried to shut down Buzbee previously in a Quinn Emanuel extortion suit for a “celebrity and public figure who resides in Los Angeles” a few weeks before, Jay-Z last week speedily countered being publicly named in the suit with a handwritten statement. In the rare missive, the media Roc Nation founder denied he raped anyone and said in part: “These allegations are so heinous in nature that I implore you to file a criminal complaint, not a civil one!!”
(L-R) Jay-Z, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Getty Images
As various Combs cases moved forward on parallel tracks, Jay-Z’s team and Jane Doe’s team went scorched Earth on each other with assertions of bullying, hired P.I.s, and bribery — and those were the polite parts. Unlike a number of high-profile people in such situations, Jay-Z has not stayed out of sight, showing up at the Los Angeles premiere of Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King with Beyoncé and daughter Blue Ivy Carter on December 9, and getting the backing of Roc Nation’s NFL partners via league commissioner Roger Goodell on December 11.
In what may prove a significant misstep, on December 13, the Jane Doe appeared on NBC with a different telling of what supposedly happened to her than her own court filings say. “I have made some mistakes,” the now middle-aged Alabama resident told NBC News, while maintaining that the overall allegations in her suit are true despite some of the particulars not being 100% consistent. Similar to the tact he took in Baldwin’s now dismissed manslaughter case and others for his well-known clients, Spiro has jumped on those points of contention and self-declared “mistakes” from the accuser.
Mocking Jay-Z himself as a bully who has “shrilly maintained an entitlement to different rules and faster procedures” Buzbee waved aside the contention and soon afterwards filed a separate suit for barratry and more against Roc Nation and Quinn Emanuel.
Moving on to other matters without missing a beat, Torres on Thursday added that the more than likely pleased Jane Doe and Buzbee have until January 10 to reply to Jay-Z and Spiro’s December 18 motion on preservation of evidence motion that there’s “substantial risk that Buzbee will destroy evidence damaging to Plaintiff’s case, including evidence of his own misconduct.” Carter and his team have until January 17 to reply if they choose.
At the rate the two sides have clawed at each other so far in the courts, it would not be unreasonable to presume that at least one or two more lawsuits or motions will be filed by then.
