Jay-Z Gets Post-Christmas Coal As Judge Denies Effort To Dismiss Case Accusing Rapper & Sean “Diddy” Combs Of Assaulting 13-Year-Old In 2000

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 spouse Jay-Z lost his Hail Mary attempt to terminate the case against him and the incarcerated Sean “Diddy” Combs that allege the duo violently assaulted a minor over 20 years ago.

In a withering order published Thursday, a federal judge denied the desires of the  rapper born Shawn Carter and his sharp elbowed lead lawyer Alex Spiro down to see the allegations against Jay-Z and the Bad Boy Records founder tossed out.

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, U.S. District judge 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, Judge Torres does acknowledge that her opinion on anonymity could change down the line, depending where the case and its evidence leads.

As more and more suits and sordid accusations against September 16 arrested Combs came 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 a lot 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 very 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 very clear from today’s order is that Judge 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,” Judge Torres 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 in Torres’ POV.

“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,” Judge Torres states what has become a battle of the barbs between Spiro and the Houston-based Buzbee, who is representing literally dozens of case against the much accused Combs.

Skimming over Spiro’s scatter shot accusations about Buzbee’s so-called “misconduct” and allegations the is “apparently attempting to avoid its disciplinary authority,” the New York set federal judges adds: “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.”

Judge Torres makes a point of noting that the dismissal of a case like this is “generally disfavored” and only pass muster “if there is a strong reason to do so.” She curtly goes on to say 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.

One time 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 back in the summer when 2016 security camera footage from a tony LA hotel revealed a near naked Combs beating the daylights out of Ventura as she tried to escape down a hallway. Following March 25 raids by Homeland Security and others on Combs’ LA and Miami properties, the performer was arrest on sex trafficking and other charges on over three months ago in the Big Apple.

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 Buzbee down perviously in an Quinn Emanuel extortion suit for a “celebrity and public figure who resides in Los Angeles” a few weeks before, Jay-Z speedily countered being publicly named earlier this month with a handwritten statement. In that rare missive, the media Roc Nation founder that 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!!”

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 that was 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 LA premiere of Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King with 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 at one point, 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. Very very similar to the tact he took in Baldwin’s now dismissed manslaughter case and others for other very well-known clients, Spiro has jumped on those points of contention and self-declared “mistakes” from the accuser herself.

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, Judge Torres Thursday added a more than likely pleased Jane Doe and lawyer 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 in the case by then.