Discovery in a high-profile Los Angeles defamation battle tied to A$AP Rocky is still on ice, and a local judge is being asked to keep it that way a little longer.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Randolph M. Hammock is weighing whether to extend a stay that has frozen discovery in Terell Ephron’s lawsuit against the rapper’s attorney, Joseph Tacopina, and Tacopina’s firm. The stay, first issued in January, affects only the portion of Ephron’s case that targets the lawyer. The court is set to take up whether to leave the hold in place next Tuesday.
According to MyNewsLA, Tacopina’s legal team asked Judge Hammock to maintain the pause while a notice of appeal works its way through the Second District Court of Appeal. Filings note that Ephron first sued Rakim Mayers over an alleged confrontation on Nov. 6, 2021, and later added separate defamation claims naming Tacopina, court records state. Documents from Rulings.law show the assault complaint landed in August 2022, with the defamation case following in 2023.
Judge Rejected Attorney's 'Litigation Privilege' Shield
In an October ruling, Judge Hammock dealt Tacopina an early setback by rejecting the argument that the lawyer’s media interviews were protected by California’s litigation privilege and by denying an anti-SLAPP bid to toss the claim. Hammock wrote that the comments "were made to shape the public opinion, not to 'achieve the objects of the litigation' in any way," according to Courthouse News Service.
Appeal Puts Claims Against Tacopina On Ice
Tacopina filed a notice of appeal in December, asking an appellate panel to revisit Hammock’s ruling and to keep discovery frozen while the appeal is briefed and decided, Los Angeles Sentinel reported. His lawyers maintain that their public remarks were exactly the kind of advocacy that California’s anti-SLAPP statute is designed to protect and that those statements should not be treated as actionable defamation.
Criminal Acquittal Left Civil Fights Alive
Mayers, better known as A$AP Rocky, was acquitted by a Los Angeles jury in February 2025 of two felony charges stemming from the November 2021 incident, but Ephron’s civil cases did not end there. That not-guilty verdict, and the media spotlight surrounding it, sit at the center of Ephron’s claim that Tacopina’s interviews and statements harmed his reputation, as documented by NPR.
What’s Next For The Case
If the appellate court agrees with Hammock’s analysis, Ephron’s defamation claims against Tacopina would move ahead into full discovery and potentially toward trial. If the Second District sides with Tacopina, the defamation counts could be dismissed outright.
Hammock has previously urged Ephron to think hard about settling, warning that a failed anti-SLAPP challenge could leave him responsible for the defense’s legal fees, a concern highlighted by Courthouse News Service. For now, the appeal is the procedural hinge that will decide whether discovery in downtown Los Angeles restarts or stays on hold while the appellate judges sort out the privilege fight.
