A judge sided with T.I. and Tiny in a Los Angeles courtroom Thursday, ruling there was good cause to drag the couple’s defamation accuser into court for a contempt hearing. The judge also delayed by six months the jury trial in the underlying case that was set to begin Tuesday.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Shultz agreed to sign an order “charging” Sabrina Peterson with contempt for not forking over the $96,702 in attorneys’ fees she was ordered to pay T.I. and Tiny. The judgment stemmed from a prior appeals court ruling that struck down five of the seven causes of action in her lawsuit filed back in March 2021.
“If she doesn’t appear, the presumption is I’m going to issue a warrant for her arrest,” Judge Shutlz said from the bench, setting the contempt hearing for March 6. He pushed the trial over Peterson’s remaining claims of defamation and invasion of privacy out to June.
“It’s our position that there shouldn’t be a trial until they comply with the court’s orders,” T.I. and Tiny’s lawyer, Andrew Brettler, told the court. “We’re interested in hearing Ms. Peterson’s reasons for not complying with the court’s order. I assume we’ll hear that at the [contempt] hearing.”
“This has been a very long and very emotionally, mentally, and financially taxing road. I’m heartbroken I’m not able to go to court in five days, but I’m happy it’s moving forward,” Peterson told Rolling Stone after the hearing. “I’m looking forward to my day in court. I’m excited for justice to be served.”
In her lawsuit filed more than three years ago, Peterson accused T.I. and Tiny of defaming her with social media posts that called her “strange,” denied her allegation T.I. once held a gun to her head, and disputed her claims T.I. sexually assaulted multiple women.
T.I. and Tiny fought the lawsuit up through California’s 2nd Appellate District, which eventually spiked Peterson’s claims for trade libel, intentional and negligent interference with prospective economic advantage and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. After the five claims were dismissed, Peterson was ordered to cover T.I. and Tiny fees.
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Despite the judgment, the underlying allegations in Peterson’s lawsuit remain at issue. She says she was telling the truth when she stated T.I. held a gun to her head and said, “Bitch, I’ll kill you,” after she got into an argument with his assistant. She posted about the alleged assault on her Instagram account in January 2021 and stands by her decision to share video and screen shots purportedly showing other women in Atlanta accusing T.I. of abuse.
According to Peterson, T.I., Tiny and another friend, Shekinah Jones Anderson, defamed her when they subsequently used their own social media accounts boasting a combined 23.6 million followers to issue “demonstrably false” statements that people online “reasonably” understood to be about her.
Tiny’s post included a photo of T.I. posing with Peterson’s son, who was eight years old at the time. “Hold up,” Tiny wrote in a Jan. 26, 2021, post. “So you want your abuser to train your sons? He was just uncle 2 years ago… now when did you say my husband assaulted you? Did you change your mind or change it back? What’s up wit you today Pooh?… You strange. Everybody know you been special.”
Three days later, T.I. and Tiny posted a joint statement denying Peterson’s claims. T.I. then posted a video to his Instagram that went viral. “Whatever we ever have done has been done with consensual adults who into what we into and like what we like,” he said. “We want something, we know exactly where to go to get it. We ain’t never forced nobody, we ain’t never drugged nobody against their will. We ain’t never held nobody against their will. We never made nobody do anything. We never trafficked anything. Well, sexually traffic, anything. I ain’t ever raped nobody.”
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Anderson, meanwhile, posted on Jan. 29, 2021 that Peterson allegedly wanted Tiny to be her girlfriend and was seeking “attention.”
Peterson claimed that after the couple and Anderson responded, she was “inundated with harassing and threatening Instagram messages.” She said T.I. and Tiny’s denials caused Peterson “to be shunned by clients” and exposed her to “hatred, ridicule, and contempt.”
On Thursday, Anderson appeared at the hearing by video and said the litigations has created a hardship for her. After the parties discussed pushing the trial out to September 2025, she objected.
“That’s a long time. This case has been drug out,” Anderson told the judge. “I don’t have money to afford counsel, so I represent myself. It’s really hard.” She said she deserved an earlier date.
The judge agreed and set the trial for June 9.
