T.I. and Tiny’s ongoing defamation battle with influencer Sabrina Peterson took another turn Friday when a Los Angeles judge refused to reinstate the original lawsuit Peterson filed against the married musicians in 2021.
In court filings leading up to the Friday morning hearing, Peterson claimed her complaint was unfairly dismissed in March. She argued she was the victim of “ineffective” lawyers who missed deadlines or failed to advocate for her, causing the court to lose patience and toss her claims. Opposing the requested reinstatement, lawyers for T.I. and Tiny argued that Peterson blew through three different law firms, was absent at key hearings, and failed to conduct any discovery whatsoever over four years.
“Plaintiff has not shown excusable neglect,” Los Angeles County Judge Shultz wrote in his final ruling Friday, denying Peterson’s motion to re-open the case. “Plaintiff has not demonstrated that she is entitled to relief from the judgment and dismissal.”
In her terminated case, Peterson accused T.I. and Tiny, whose real names are Clifford and Tameka Harris, of harming her reputation when they publicly denied her allegations that T.I. once put a gun to her head and also faced multiple accusations of sexual assault. When he dismissed the lawsuit in March, Shultz further cited Peterson’s failure to pay “a dime” of the more than $96,000 in attorneys’ fees she owes the Harrises after losing an earlier round in the case.
“The court incorrectly applied the law and there has been an extreme miscarriage of justice, not just today but throughout the entire life of the claim – mostly due to ineffectiveness of Ms. Peterson’s prior attorneys, whose actions, or lack thereof, have just been endorsed by the court,” Peterson’s new lawyer Keita T. Middleton, tells Rolling Stone in reaction to the Friday ruling. “It’s unfortunate for me to have to clean up a mess not caused by myself or Ms. Peterson, but we shall see if the appellate panel agrees with today’s decision.”
Peterson’s plan to appeal isn’t the only reason the battle remains ongoing. The day of the dismissal last March, Peterson was served in court with a summons for T.I.’s separate defamation lawsuit filed against her in federal court. A month later, acting as her own representative, Peterson answered the lawsuit and made counterclaims for defamation and abuse of process. When Peterson hired Middleton, the new lawyer amended and elaborated on those counterclaims on Oct. 8.
In the new filing last week, Peterson alleged T.I. defamed her when he claimed in his lawsuit that she had illegally marketed herself as a “cannabis entrepreneur” through her company, Pretty High Co., LLC, while lacking a license to sell cannabis products in California. In her counterclaim, Peterson says she did have a license while the website was active.
For his part, T.I. claims in his lawsuit that Peterson defamed him with a series of Instagram posts on September 17, 2024. He claims the posts were “particularly beyond the pale” because they “falsely stated that Harris was under federal investigation for sexual trafficking of women in connection with another celebrity entertainer currently being prosecuted for such conduct.” (The lawsuit did not name the celebrity.) Harris alleges Peterson published the statements knowing they were false and defamatory, “in order to advance her own personal interests.” Peterson denies the claims.
A trial in the federal court case is set for June 2026.
