Jonathan Hay tried to hit pause on CJ Wallace’s defamation lawsuit by pointing to an open criminal review of Sean “Diddy” Combs. A federal judge in Florida wasn’t buying it, noting that Hay isn’t the one under investigation at all. He’s the person who made the complaint.
In an October 1 order, Judge Mary Scriven shut down Hay’s request to freeze the case until Los Angeles County prosecutors either charged Diddy or closed their review. “[Hay] offers no basis for the issuance of an order staying these proceedings,” she wrote.
Hay argued that a public hearing could force him to talk about the alleged assaults before prosecutors make a charging decision. Scriven saw it differently. She pointed out that Hay has already been pursuing his own lawsuit in California over those same allegations, and described him as “not the target of the alleged criminal investigation, but rather the complaining witness.”
He also lost his fallback request. Hay wanted evidence about the alleged assaults kept out of Wallace’s damages hearing, but the judge found he “has not demonstrated good cause” for that kind of protection. She also noted Wallace had shown no plan to seek more records anyway.
The ruling doesn’t hand Wallace a dollar figure yet. What it does is clear the path to an October 27 hearing where the judge will weigh damages and legal fees, and Wallace will have to bring evidence backing up what he’s asking for.
The whole fight traces back to Ready to Dance, a project built around remixes of songs by Wallace’s father, The Notorious B.I.G. Hay claims Diddy assaulted him while that work was happening, and that Wallace helped bring him to one of the encounters.
Wallace sued for defamation after Hay publicly claimed Wallace had sexual contact with Diddy and helped set up an assault. Wallace calls the claims false, and both he and Diddy have publicly denied Hay’s allegations. Hay, for his part, has stuck to his account and sued both men in California.
There’s a criminal angle hanging over all of this. In June, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office confirmed that police and sheriff’s investigators had sent over two sexual assault cases involving one alleged victim. Hay says that’s him, though prosecutors hadn’t announced any charges when he filed his motion.
Hay’s trouble in the Florida case started earlier, when he never responded to Wallace’s lawsuit. A clerk entered a default against him in May, and Hay countered that he had never been properly served.
Scriven rejected that in August, finding Hay had repeatedly dodged process servers. According to AllHipHop’s earlier coverage, Wallace’s side tried 17 times with three different servers before turning to the Florida Secretary of State.
That August order put Wallace’s push for a final judgment on hold until the court could hear evidence on damages. Now the clock is running toward October 27, with the California suits and the LA prosecutors’ review still sitting unresolved in the background.
