EXCLUSIVE: Fat Joe’s Rival Lawyer Hires Experts To Examine His Own Deposition Meltdown

Tyrone Blackburn is asking a federal judge to pause sanctions against him while experts examine whether prescription medication affected his conduct during two explosive depositions.

Blackburn represents Terrance “T.A.” Dixon, Fat Joe’s former hypeman, in an increasingly chaotic legal battle with the Bronx rap legend.

In the latest legal wrangling obtained by AllHipHop, Blackburn asked Judge Jennifer L. Rochon to review a June 23 sanctions order and temporarily stop the court from calculating Fat Joe’s financial award.

Blackburn said Fat Joe’s attorneys are requesting fees and costs totaling “well over a quarter million dollars.” No final amount has been awarded.

The court also referred Blackburn to its Grievance Committee, which could investigate his conduct and potentially recommend professional discipline.

Blackburn now wants those proceedings paused while Fifth Avenue Forensics examines medications he received following two surgical procedures.

“I have retained Fifth Avenue Forensics, a forensic psychiatric and psychological evaluation practice, to conduct an assessment concerning whether and to what extent the narcotic analgesic and sedative-hypnotic medications prescribed to me following two surgical procedures affected my cognition, memory, mood, temperament, inhibition, or emotional regulation on February 24 and March 6, 2026,” Blackburn wrote. “That assessment is in progress.”

The attorney also submitted a letter from his treating physician, Dr. Jason Emer, addressing his prescriptions, their expected duration and their recognized behavioral effects.

Blackburn stopped short of claiming the medical examination would completely clear him.

“I do not represent that the assessment will establish any particular conclusion,” he wrote. “I represent only that the question is a genuine one, that it was not developed below, and that it is material to the sanction and to the referral.”

The request is the latest twist in a dispute that began with a $20 million demand from Blackburn and Dixon. Fat Joe, whose real name is Joseph Cartagena, sued Dixon and Blackburn first in April 2025.

The rapper accused them of launching an extortion campaign built around damaging allegations involving his personal life, finances and music career.

Dixon previously worked as Fat Joe’s hypeman and claimed he also contributed vocals and songwriting during their time together.

According to Fat Joe, Blackburn initially demanded compensation for Dixon before threatening to unleash far more serious allegations unless the rapper paid $20 million.

Fat Joe denied the accusations and went to court, alleging extortion, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Dixon answered with his own $20 million lawsuit in June 2025, accusing Fat Joe of exploitation, fraud and other misconduct. Fat Joe has denied Dixon’s claims.

The case quickly moved from ugly to cinematic.

In May 2025, a process server named Jim Hunt claimed Blackburn struck him with a vehicle while avoiding legal papers connected to Fat Joe’s lawsuit.

Hunt alleged Blackburn reversed into his left knee and drove away after the confrontation. Video allegedly showed Hunt stumbling with an injured and bleeding knee.

Blackburn was later charged with second-degree assault and related offenses.

However, a New York judge dismissed the indictment in May 2026, meaning Blackburn was not convicted over the incident.

The lawyer’s problems continued after Fat Joe’s attorneys accused him of submitting fabricated quotations attributed to real court decisions.

Judge Jennifer E. Willis later said Blackburn repeatedly placed nonexistent language inside quotation marks and presented it as wording taken from cited cases.

“This Court is deeply troubled by Blackburn’s use of language in quotation marks that does not exist in the cases he’s citing the language for,” Willis wrote.

The judge was equally troubled by “Blackburn’s insistence that his behavior is acceptable because the cases exist even though the quoted language does not.”

Blackburn also faced scrutiny over artificial intelligence-generated material in other filings. Willis accused him of deflecting blame instead of accepting responsibility for the inaccurate quotations.

Then came the cruise.

Blackburn and Dixon missed court-ordered depositions scheduled for February 6 and February 9. Blackburn cited health issues, medication and concerns about traveling while recovering.

During the dispute, Blackburn revealed he was leaving for a cruise.

“I’ll be on a cruise,” Blackburn said. “I’m not flying anywhere. I’m on a cruise starting tomorrow.”

Blackburn said he could rest inside his cabin and could not obtain a refund for the vacation.

“So it’s just a cruise,” he explained. “It’s not like I’m going to be walking around or anything like that. I’m sitting, I’m laying in my cabin.”

Fat Joe’s attorneys argued that Blackburn’s itinerary required flights to and from Puerto Rico. Blackburn later acknowledged flying back to New York after the trip.

Willis eventually held Blackburn and Dixon in contempt for missing the depositions. They were ordered to reimburse the court reporter and video crews who appeared for proceedings that never happened.

Blackburn finally sat for questioning on February 24, but that deposition produced the conduct now sitting at the heart of his medication defense.

According to the sanctions order, Blackburn repeatedly insulted Fat Joe’s lawyer Chad Seigel and made sexualized comments involving Seigel’s mother.

Blackburn called Seigel a “piece of s###” and asked him, “What date is your transition surgery?”

“Your mother is an alleged criminal,” Blackburn said during another exchange. “She should have spit you out instead of swallowing.”

Blackburn also warned Seigel about how he spoke to him.

“You’d never do this if it was outside,” Blackburn said. “So watch your mouth and watch how you speak to me.”

At another point, Blackburn erupted, “Who the f### do you think you’re yelling at? Who do you think you’re talking to?”

Dixon joined the confrontation by telling Seigel, “I could take you down with my left hand.”

“Everybody could take you down,” Blackburn added. “Very easily.”

Willis described the behavior in unusually blunt terms.

“The Court has never seen the sort of behavior from an attorney that Blackburn engaged in at the deposition on February 24th,” she wrote.

The judge said Blackburn’s attacks, including “homophobic, transphobic, and sexualized comments about his mother shock the conscience.”

Blackburn previously argued that his medications affected his conduct, but Willis rejected that explanation based on the evidence then available.

“The medical record does not support Blackburn’s assertion that his unconscionable behavior at the February 24th deposition was due to medication he was taking,” Willis wrote.

The court sanctioned Blackburn and Dixon in June, ordering them to cover expenses connected to the failed depositions and Dixon’s continued questioning.

Willis also sent Blackburn’s name to the Grievance Committee because of his conduct during the February 24 and March 6 sessions.

Meanwhile, Blackburn’s efforts to step away from Dixon’s case created another bizarre detour. Blackburn sought permission to withdraw as Dixon’s attorney, citing a conflict and personal safety concerns.

He later requested additional time after claiming an external hard drive containing material needed for his withdrawal request had become inaccessible and required data recovery.

The court was unmoved.

“A technological issue is not a valid excuse for missing yet another court deadline,” Rochon wrote, adding that Blackburn should have requested more time immediately after discovering the problem.

Rochon warned that Blackburn’s continued failure to meet his obligations could bring additional penalties.

Now Blackburn is asking the same court to consider a more developed medical explanation for his deposition behavior.