Nearly two months after the Bronx rapper accused his former collaborator of extortion, Fat Joe’s longtime hype man is suing him for $20 million, alleging that he engaged in sexual acts with minors.
In a roughly 160-page lawsuit that the Daily News was able to get, Terrance T.A. Dixon filed a lawsuit against Joseph Antonio Cartagena, a 54-year-old Lean Back artist, on Thursday.
In the lawsuit, which starts with a Trigger Warning for extremely explicit sexual content, Cartagena and other defendants, such as Peter Pistol Pete Torres, Richard Rich Player Jospitre, and Jay Z’s Roc Nation, are accused of engaging in a systematic and ongoing campaign of exploitation.
Dixon claims that while his contributions to Cartagena’s work, which would have generated royalties and future licensing and digital revenue, were all but deleted, he was the victim of systematic coercive labor exploitation, financial fraud, sexual manipulation, violent intimidation, and psychological coercion.
He claims that he and other people were forced to engage in demeaning sexual acts, frequently with the defendant watching, recording, or directing the interactions.
Dixon claims that at least three minors, identified as Minors Doe 1, 2, and 3, had intercourse with Cartagena. Cartagena allegedly offered 16-year-old Minor Doe 1 money in exchange for oral sex and other sexual activities, as well as to cover her clothing and cell phone cost.
He is charged with paying for a Brazilian butt lift for Minor Doe 1, who was 15 at the time, even though her body was still developing and adolescent. Dixon claims that she is now wed to a professional athlete.
Cartagena allegedly met Minor Doe 3 as she was about to become sixteen and fell in love with her, even considering leaving his wife for her. He allegedly bought her a property in Florida close to the one he and his family owned.
In addition to sex trafficking, Dixon is accusing Cartagena and his business associates of witness retaliation, conspiracy to conduct assault, interstate trafficking of children, tax evasion, and money laundering.
Dixon started accusing Cartagena of sexual misconduct on social media over two years ago, referencing a 2010 sexual assault report in which the rapper was questioned. This lawsuit follows that accusation.
Fighting Joe through the system is best done in this manner. Dixon told Variety on Thursday that there is no other way to defeat him. Joe believes he is invincible.
Cartagena’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, blasted the case in a statement to The News, calling it a desperate attempt to divert attention away from the civil claim we initially brought and a clear act of revenge.
Tacopina went on to say that law enforcement is aware of the extortionate demand at the core of this scheme. He mentioned Dixon’s attorney Tyrone Blackburn, who he said has been referred to the Southern District’s disciplinary committee, in addition to a disgruntled former employee attempting to revive a false claim. There will be no intimidation of Mr. Cartagena.
According to a lawsuit seen by The News, Cartagena accused Dixon and Blackburn of extortion in late April using completely false, obscene, and scandalous accusations, ranging from those pertaining to pay and credit to the unimaginable claims of pedophilia, statutory rape, and sexual assault.
All these years later, Dixon reads the file and makes the blatant money grab allegation that he should have received more. He dismisses Dixon’s accusations as part of a planned effort to damage Cartagena’s name and pressure him into caving in to Dixon’s ludicrous demands.
Judges Denise Cote and J. Paul Oetken’s personal concerns about Blackburn are also mentioned in the document; according to the former, he unlawfully files cases in federal court to attract media attention, humiliate defendants with lurid accusations, and pressure defendants into a speedy settlement.
In addition to the fact that some of Dixon’s accusations are remarkably similar to those made against Combs, Blackburn is defending Rodney Lil Rod Jones, who accused the 55-year-old Harlem entrepreneur of threatening, drugging, and sexual harassment.
