Tory Lanez has once again made changes to his legal team — and this time, he’s bringing a whole new attorney on board as he awaits sentencing for the shooting of Megan Thee Stallion.
Legal Affairs & Trials reports that Lanez’s longtime attorney, Jose Baez — best known for his defense of Casey Anthony — added longtime criminal attorney Thomas Edward “Ed” Welbourn to the team ahead of the rapper’s sentencing on August 7.
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Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Herriford verbally confirmed with Lanez on Thursday (July 13) that it was, indeed, what he wanted — to which the rapper replied in the affirmative.
Baez also made clear to Herriford that no other attorneys would be joining Lanez’s legal team.
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This latest news comes in the wake of the recent legal trouble that Tory Lanez faced on Wednesday (July 12), when Herriford denied his request to have Ronda Renee Dixon as replacement counsel for Matthew Barhoma.
In a prior conversation with journalist Meghann Cuniff ahead of the court date, Dixon said Lanez wants her to work under his current lawyer, prominent Miami attorney Jose Baez, but “me and him have some serious issues, because he won’t talk to me.”
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“These guys are just taking advantage of [Lanez],” Dixon told Legal Affairs and Trials with Meghann Cuniff. “They’ve had him sign powers of attorneys. They’re acting on his behalf. … They’re not really asking him what he wants.”
But according to Cuniff’s most recent report, Dixon did not come recommended by Baez, and he told Judge Herriford that as long as he’s lead attorney for the case, that he would advise his client against hiring her.
“That is not something as lead counsel I am endorsing,” Baez said.
Dixon also shared a copy of a motion she drafted that argues Tory Lanez is being subject to cruel and unusual punishment in jail because of his celebrity status — and, as such, the motion was requesting that Lanez be released from jail.
“Because Mr. Peterson has viable, meritorious post-conviction litigation, this court should award bail,” she wrote. “The unconstitutional nature of his confinement provides ample justification. Peterson’s conviction is not punishable by death. Because he will apply for probation, file an appeal, and pursue additional post-conviction remedies, this court should admit him bail within the court’s discretion.”
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She continued: “Merely because he is well known, the Sheriff has decided that Mr. Peterson is of such great threat that he must be confined in the same manner as those convicted of serial rape charges and murder.”
Now, Dixon claimed that she’ll be withdrawing the motion, even though Herriford claimed that he never formally recognized it — though entered it as part of the record — because Dixon was never Tory Lanez’s lawyer.
