A lawyer who brought shocking racketeering claims against Fat Joe and previously tried to drag Universal Music Group (UMG) into the Sean “Diddy” Combs litigation chaos has been arrested for allegedly hitting Fat Joe’s process server with his car.
Attorney Tyrone Blackburn was taken into custody the morning of Wednesday (June 25) in Brooklyn on allegations of assault, a New York Police Department spokesperson confirmed to Billboard. Reps for Fat Joe (Joseph Cartagena) say the arrest stems from an incident in which Blackburn allegedly struck the rapper’s process server with his car “in a failed attempt to avoid being served” with paperwork for an extortion lawsuit.
“Tyrone Blackburn’s arrest comes as no surprise to me — it’s just the latest example of his malicious and manipulative pattern of misconduct finally coming to light,” said Fat Joe’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, in a statement. “Today’s arrest is just the first step, but I’m confident that my client’s name will be cleared from all of these falsehoods and Blackburn will be brought to justice once and for all.”
Blackburn did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday. It was not immediately clear what the next steps will be now that he’s been taken into police custody.
The attorney represents former Fat Joe hypeman Terrance “T.A.” Dixon, who sued the rapper last week, claiming he was forced to work without pay while being subjected to psychological manipulation and exposed to the trafficking of underage girls and other sexual misconduct.
Fat Joe has strenuously denied the allegations, and before Dixon even filed his lawsuit, the rapper launched a suit of his own accusing both the ex-hypeman and Blackburn of extortion. Fat Joe’s process servers were allegedly attempting to give Blackburn the paperwork for that case when the alleged incident occurred.
The lawsuit that Blackburn is bringing against Fat Joe frames his activities as a wide-ranging criminal enterprise falling under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — the federal “RICO” statute often used in cases against mobsters and drug cartels.
Blackburn unsuccessfully tried to lob similar RICO claims last year in a sexual assault lawsuit he brought on behalf of producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones against Combs. The case originally accused UMG and CEO Lucian Grainge of participating in Combs’ racketeering conspiracy, but Blackburn later dropped those claims amid fierce opposition from the label. Blackburn admitted in a sworn declaration that there had been “no legal basis” for dragging UMG and Grainge into the salvo.
The attorney’s litigation tactics have been criticized by multiple judges handling his cases. One federal judge referred Blackburn for disciplinary proceedings last year, saying he was using the court system to “garner media attention, embarrass defendants with salacious allegations and pressure defendants to settle quickly.”
