U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon on Wednesday held attorney Tyrone Blackburn and client Terrance "T.A." Dixon in contempt for skipping two court-ordered depositions in a lawsuit involving rapper Fat Joe, but she awarded only limited sanctions, court records show.
The judge ordered the defendants to pay the reasonable costs for the videographer and court reporter for the Feb. 6 and Feb. 9, 2026, deposition dates, according to the ruling published by AllHipHop.
A court filing described Blackburn's failure to appear after he told plaintiff's counsel on Feb. 3 that he would not attend and promised to seek relief from the court the same day, but did not, according to the publication account.
A court official confirmed the court reporter and videographers were present on both dates, but the defendants were not.
Fat Joe's legal team had sought broader relief, including attorneys' fees, a referral of Blackburn to the Committee on Grievances of the Southern District of New York, and an order forcing Blackburn to serve certain filings directly on Dixon. The judge granted only reimbursement of deposition costs.
A court document summarized the order, "Defendants are ORDERED to pay Plaintiff the reasonable costs incurred to pay the videographer and court reporter for the February 6 and 9, 2026 deposition dates."
The no-show followed a pattern of conduct outlined in filings that trace back to mid-2025, when Blackburn was criminally indicted after an alleged incident in which he reversed his car into a 66-year-old process server's leg to avoid being served, the reporting states.
Controversial Conduct and Court Allegations Surround Blackburn During Fat Joe Lawsuit
The publication reported that Fat Joe's lawyers also accused Blackburn of padding court filings with fabricated AI-generated legal citations and misrepresenting his use of LexisNexis. LexisNexis told the publication Blackburn was "never an authorized user or subscriber" of the platforms he cited and called his claims "misleading and unsupported by evidence."
When Blackburn missed the February depositions, he told the court he was too ill to attend but later boarded a cruise ship; his opponents documented filings Blackburn made on the same day he claimed to be incapacitated, according to the outlet.
In another deposition, Blackburn said he had taken multiple medications and local anesthesia, telling counsel, "The medication and the local anesthesia does funny things that I don't know. It's messing my head up." The report says he then proceeded to answer questions for more than an hour.
It also noted that during a Feb. 24 deposition, Blackburn made remarks about opposing counsel's appearance and later apologized on the record, saying it "was not my intention to offend him in any way." The underlying dispute began with a $20 million suit by Dixon that has since been amended to drop several initial counts; Dixon now seeks claims including forced labor and unpaid wages, per Complex.
Fat Joe criticized Blackburn after last year's arrest, saying, "The time of lawyers using their law license as a badge to extort people and destroy families with no evidence is over. I'm not the one."
Blackburn and Dixon have 10 days from receiving invoices to reimburse Fat Joe's deposition costs, the ruling states.
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