By: Brandon Thurston & John Pollock
This article has been updated with new comments from a spokesperson for Vince McMahon and a response from Grant’s attorney Ann Callis
Lawyers for Janel Grant filed a pre-action discovery petition today against Dr. Carlon Colker and his clinic, Peak Wellness, Inc.
Grant, who is a former WWE employee, says that beginning around November 2019 she was sent at the direction of Vince McMahon to Colker’s clinic in Greenwich, Conn., where she received treatments that weren’t disclosed to her, including pills and I.V. infusions.
Grant says when she asked Colker about the substance of the pills she was being given, Colker allegedly pushed back and questioned whether Grant trusted him.
Grant’s attorneys wrote:
On multiple visits, Dr. Colker prescribed Ms. Grant with “adrenal trays” or “adrenal supplement trays,” provided by his office and instructed her to take the unmarked pills daily. Dr. Colker did not explain the substances, dosages, or purpose of the pills to Ms. Grant beyond purportedly addressing her symptoms of fatigue. When Ms. Grant asked Dr. Colker about the substance of the supplement trays, and specifically which substance(s) caused her to experience nausea, he responded with pushback about trust, including, “If you don’t trust me, we have bigger problems.”
According to Grant’s petition, Colker “routinely treats employees and talent of World Wrestling Entertainment”.
Grant is seeking medical records related to the sex trafficking lawsuit she filed earlier this year against Vince McMahon, WWE, and John Laurinaitis. The paper records the clinic has provided up to this point are incomplete and inaccurate, Grant’s attorneys say.
“For example,” the petition states, “there are billing records that do not have a corresponding medical record, medical records that do not have a corresponding billing record, inconsistent billing rates, and double charges.”
Grant alleges that a Peak Wellness employee was involved “in several instances of sexual abuse against Ms. Grant by McMahon as further described in Ms. Grant’s federal complaint.”
The federal complaint filed in January described, among other allegations of sexual abuse, that McMahon recruited a physical therapist, whose identity is obscured as “Physical Therapist”, from an unnamed clinic (referred to only as “Alternative Clinic”) to participate in threesomes involving McMahon and Grant. Grant said McMahon pressured her into these and other sex acts.
Grant’s federal complaint also alleged she was sex trafficked under the control of McMahon. She says she was sexually abused by McMahon and Laurinaitis, and that WWE was supportive of McMahon’s relationship with her.
In the January complaint, Grant alleged that McMahon urged her to see a physician who is anonymized in the complaint as “Celebrity Doctor”, who was said to operate out of the anonymized “Alternative Clinic”.
We could not confirm if the individual referred to as “Celebrity Doctor” in the Grant complaint is in fact Colker and if the facility referred to as “Alternative Clinic” is in fact Peak Wellness.
Grant alleged in January: “After the initial visit, it became apparent to Ms. Grant that McMahon and Celebrity Doctor wanted Ms. Grant to remain in the care of Celebrity Doctor’s practice and Ms. Grant felt pressured to do so.”
The parties in the federal case agreed in May to put the lawsuit on hold pending a federal investigation.
A spokesperson for McMahon took issue with Grant taking legal action on Colker while the federal lawsuit is on hold.
“Ms. Grant’s petition for pre-action discovery against Dr. Colker is a direct violation of the court-ordered stay, and nothing more than an attempt to generate publicity on her false allegations and to harass people connected to Mr. McMahon, who is being sued by Ms. Grant in a separate matter. The facts are that Ms. Grant told Mr. McMahon she was fatigued and asked him to recommend a doctor. Ms. Grant called Dr. Colker and became a patient of his. Her statement in the filing is inconsistent with her prior remarks. Ms. Grant never had anything but good things to say about the doctor when speaking to Mr. McMahon and others about him.”
Grant’s attorney Ann Callis responded as well this afternoon, saying, “We did not violate a federal stay by filing a state action against a non-defendant.”
We sent a message requesting comment to email addresses believed to belong to Colker and Peak Wellness but have yet to receive a response.
The new document filed today in Superior Court in Connecticut alleges Colker knew about the nondisclosure agreement between Grant and McMahon, which is among the issues at the center of the federal lawsuit.
“Dr. Colker had personal knowledge of the circumstances surrounding a purported non-disclosure agreement at issue in the Federal Action,” Grant’s attorneys wrote in the new filing.
Grant also says Colker recommended Grant work with Colker’s attorney, who helped her negotiate the NDA with McMahon in early 2022.
That claim is consistent with what Grant alleged in January about the unidentified “Celebrity Doctor” when Grant claimed that McMahon “approved of Ms. Grant asking Celebrity Doctor for an attorney referral.”
Colker is a doctor who is popular with celebrities and professional athletes. Published news stories indicate he’s worked with Justin Bieber, Jeremy Piven, NBA center Kristaps Porzingis, and NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal. Colker appeared in a 2007 reality show with O’Neal, “Shaq’s Big Challenge” on ABC that addressed challenges with childhood obesity.
The official website for Peak Wellness describes its facility as offering “traditional medical care along with advanced diagnostics, functional medicine, naturopathy, physical medicine, anti-aging, and aesthetics.”
The new legal action naming Colker is filed in Connecticut Superior Court in Stamford, unlike Grant’s federal lawsuit which is in federal court in Connecticut.
The parties in the federal case agreed in May to put the lawsuit on hold pending a federal investigation.
The Wall Street Journal reported in February that the Southern District of New York was investigating allegations of sex trafficking and sexual assault against McMahon. In its regulatory filings last summer, WWE disclosed that a subpoena and search warrant had been executed on McMahon.
WWE Chief Content Officer Paul Levesque declined to comment on whether the company is still cooperating with the investigation when asked at the press conference following the company’s Money in the Bank event earlier this month.
