In a new filing submitted Thursday, Dr. Carlon Colker and his clinic Peak Wellness asked the Connecticut Superior Court to dismiss former WWE employee Janel Grant’s effort to obtain evidence from him.
Colker’s attorneys contend they have already provided Grant’s legal team with electronic copies of the medical and billing records she’s seeking. To support this claim, Colker’s attorneys provided the court with copies of emails they sent to Grant’s counsel when they shared the records.
In July, Grant filed the petition in state court, just over one month after her high-profile federal lawsuit against WWE, Vince McMahon, and John Laurinaitis was put on hold.
The federal case was stayed in June at the request of U.S. Attorneys from the Southern District of New York where McMahon is reportedly under criminal investigation for sexual assault and sex trafficking claims.
In her federal lawsuit, Grant alleges that McMahon trafficked her, and was assaulted by McMahon & Laurinaitis with WWE executives having knowledge of the relationship between Grant and McMahon.
She also says McMahon directed her to go to Peak Wellness, which she says she visited at least 60 times. She alleges Colker treated her at the Greenwich, Conn., clinic with pills and infusions without telling her the substance of what he was prescribing her.
In addition to obtaining records from her visits, Grant wants to conduct discovery on Colker and the clinic to include records of communications between Colker and McMahon. She’s also seeking evidence related to Colker’s recommendation of an attorney that Grant worked with to negotiate the nondisclosure agreement that she made with McMahon and WWE upon her exit from the company in January 2023.
Grant’s petition listed eight categories of evidence she’s pursuing:
- Plaintiff’s [Grant’s] electronic medical records, including all associated metadata;
- Defendants’ [Colker and Peak Wellness’s] recordkeeping and billing procedures;
- Payment records relating to Ms. Grant;
- Defendants’ payment arrangements with McMahon and/or the WWE;
- The purpose of Ms. Grant’s prescribed treatments;
- The substance of Ms. Grant’s prescribed treatments;
- Any communications between Dr. Colker and McMahon relating to Ms. Grant; and
- Dr. Colker’s involvement in recommending Ms. Grant’s attorney for negotiation of the purported non-disclosure agreement.
Obtaining that evidence could lead to Grant filing a separate lawsuit against Colker and Peak Wellness, or could result in Grant adding those parties as defendants in the existing case involving McMahon, WWE, and Laurinaitis.
Colker’s attorneys accept that Grant’s petition doesn’t violate the stay on the federal case, as Judge Jeffrey Meyer ruled in August. Instead, the defendants argue Grant isn’t using the petition to file a lawsuit in state court, and that violates state law. Based on her complaint, the defendants say Grant is trying to sue the doctor and the clinic in federal court.
“This is not a violation of Judge Meyer’s stay,” Colker’s legal team stated in the filing, “it is an effort to evade Connecticut’s requirement that bills of discovery… must be brought for the purpose of litigation in Connecticut Superior Court.”
“All that Grant would have to do to avoid dismissal on this ground would be to acknowledge, forthrightly and unconditionally, that she will use whatever information she obtains in this proceeding in an action that she will bring in the Connecticut Superior Court,” Colker’s attorneys wrote. “She cannot truthfully do so. A review of the eight categories of information she seeks to discover here, when read in light of the summary of her allegations relating to her federal action… makes clear that this action is joined at the hip with her federal action.”
If the federal case wasn’t put on hold, lawyers for Colker say, Grant “could and would be pursuing this discovery and suing defendants in the federal case,” not in a lawsuit in Connecticut state court. The defendants say that because this is an attempt to violate state law, Grant’s petition should be dismissed.
Attorney for Janel Grant, Ann Callis of the Holland Law Firm, said in a statement to POST Wrestling that the defendants are still holding onto records to avoid being sued.
“By his own admission, Dr. Colker’s filing today all but confirms they have withheld the requested records for fear they could lead to further legal action against him,” Callis said. “Ms. Grant deserves answers, and we respectfully ask the court to compel Dr. Colker and Peak Wellness to provide her with long overdue clarity.”
Attorneys Frank Silvestri and Robert Laplaca of Verrill Dana LLP represent Colker and Peak Wellness. They declined to comment on Callis’s statement or to confirm whether the medical records provided included “all associated metadata” as specified in Grant’s earlier complaint.
After Grant filed her petition in July, Colker filed his own bill of discovery against her weeks later. In September, though, Colker withdrew that case.
