Brian McKnight is seeking permission from a California court to notify Jaguar Wright of his defamation lawsuit by publishing legal notices in a newspaper, after repeated attempts to serve her in person have been unsuccessful.
According to court filings described by AllHipHop, process servers visited a Phoenix address associated with Wright six times between May and August without success.
On some visits, the blinds appeared to move, but no one answered the door; on another, someone inside stated that no one named Jaguar lived there. Certified mail attempts also failed.
“It is apparent that [Wright] is evading service,” McKnight’s attorney Ryan Saba wrote, adding that “service by publication is necessary to provide notice of [McKnight’s] complaint.”
The civil action, filed in April, alleges that Wright posted false statements about Brian McKnight online, including claims that he abused his ex-wife, Julie McKnight, and that he hired sex workers to harm them during alleged encounters.
The complaint denies those allegations as fabricated and damaging, and it also disputes Wright’s separate assertion that Julie McKnight is her cousin. After the lawsuit became public, Wright responded on social media by calling Brian McKnight a “scumbag” and promising to be a “nightmare” for him.
Because standard service methods have not been effective, Brian McKnight is requesting that the judge approve service by publication in The Arizona Republic, the newspaper serving the area where Wright is believed to reside.
Under California law, courts may authorize service by publication when a plaintiff demonstrates diligent but unsuccessful efforts to serve a defendant by other means. If granted, the notice typically must run once a week for four consecutive weeks.
A ruling on the request would allow the case to move forward even if Wright does not personally accept the papers. For now, the litigation is stalled on the threshold issue of formal notice.
