Ready for her day in court. Scheana Shay’s attorney, Neama Rahmani, denied that Raquel Leviss dropped her temporary restraining order ahead of their upcoming hearing.
“We plan to show up in court tomorrow to prove these allegations are false and that Rachel lied about the entire thing,” Rahmani told Us Weekly in a statement on Tuesday, March 28. “Despite reports that Rachel has dropped the temporary restraining order, the case remains on the court calendar for Wednesday, and we will be there to vigorously defend Scheana.”
Shay’s attorney claimed that Leviss’ representation didn’t go through the proper channels to halt the proceedings.
“If they want to move forward with this tomorrow, we’re going to need to request a continuance in order to get our witnesses lined up, but we feel very confident that we will prevail in this case,” Rahmani continued. “The court has confirmed that the case is still on the calendar. These types of hearings cannot be dismissed so we must show up in order to resolve the matter or to seek the continuance to fight these scurrilous accusations and win.”
Leviss, 28, for her part, announced her plans to drop the restarting order on Friday, March 24. “I can confirm that my attorney took my case off the court calendar Wednesday and is filing the appropriate paperwork requested by the court today to dismiss the TRO from moving forward after the 29th,” the former beauty pageant contestant said in a statement. “We let the court know I will not be moving forward with a permanent restraining order.”
The California native originally filed an order of protection on March 7 after rumors swirled of a physical altercation between her and Shay, 36, after their joint appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen that same month. The speculation came as news broke about Leviss’ affair with Tom Sandoval.
After photos of Leviss’ alleged injuries surfaced online, Rahmani denied that the “Good as Gold” singer harmed her costar.
“This case is a fabrication by a known liar and a cheat who has betrayed everyone close to her. Scheana never punched Raquel, period,” the attorney told Us at the time. “The supposed dark markings around her left eye have been there for months.. … Scheana is obviously upset. [She] and Raquel were friends for years. She actually invited Raquel into her home where she lived for six months. So, for her to betray her like this, she’s devastated.”
Leviss and Scheana ultimately were not able to cross paths on Thursday, March 23, while the Vanderpump Rules cast filmed the season 10 reunion together. Us confirmed that the coworkers swapped places during the taping since Shay was ordered to stay 100 yards away from Leviss until their hearing.
Shortly after cameras stopped rolling, Leviss claimed that she made attempts to work out her issues with Shay before the reunion.
“My team tried to work with Scheana on a mutually beneficial agreement hoping to get the TRO dropped earlier so we could film together,” she stated in Friday’s statement. “The TRO was intended to provide a cooling-off period after I was punched but I didn’t want to continue with the permanent RO nor did I want to cause Scheana further agony and stress. The document was a dismissal form that the court asked us to submit and I wanted to show Scheana my intentions and that we had informed the judge we weren’t moving forward – and it was an explanation at the reunion to alleviate Scheana’s concerns.”
Meanwhile, Rahmani, called Leviss’ decision to give Andy Cohen legal paperwork on screen to hand over to Shay a “stunt.”
“Rachel had Andy ‘serve’ Scheana with a document during the reunion, but the papers have no legal meaning. It was a request to dismiss a complaint or a civil lawsuit, but Rachel had requested a permanent restraining order, which is something completely different,” he added that same day. “There is no way for Rachel to ‘drop’ the temporary restraining order before next week’s hearing. This is California law and even on the court’s website. Even if Rachel had the correct document, which she didn’t, it wasn’t filed with the court. There is no file stamp in the top right corner.”
