A federal judge has granted Jay-Z’s attorney Alex Spiro’s request to file a motion to dismiss an amended lawsuit.
The ruling is good news and bad news for the rapper.
The good news is, Judge Analisa Torres has agreed to delay the trial until she rules on the motion to dismiss.
The bad news is, Jay-Z will have to wait until at least mid-March to find out if she will dismiss the case. His chances don’t look good.
Jay-Z has until Feb. 6 to file the motion. The plaintiff has until Feb. 28 to file her opposing documents. Then Jay-Z has until March 14 to file his reply, if any.
In an amended lawsuit filed on Dec. 8, an Alabama woman identified as “Jane Doe” claims Jay-Z and Sean Combs drugged and assaulted her at an after-party following the MTV Video Music Awards in September 2000.
Combs was arrested in Manhattan in September and charged with human trafficking. He is in a Brooklyn jail awaiting trial scheduled for May 2025.
Jay-Z vigorously denied the allegations. In a new motion filed on Monday, Spiro argued that the statute of limitations expired in August 2021.
In an explosive rebuke last month, Judge Torres rejected the “combative” letters and motions filed by Spiro.
“The Court will not fast-track the judicial process merely because counsel demands it,” Judge Torres wrote.
Torres noted that Spiro used aggressive legal tactics “attempting to impugn the character of Plaintiff’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee”.
Torres added that “[Spiro’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.”
