Raquel Leviss is dismissing her restraining order against Scheana Shay.
Following failed negotiations between their legal teams at Thursday’s Vanderpump Rules reunion taping, Raquel has confirmed plans to drop her case against Scheana, who she accused of punching her amid an altercation reportedly prompted by the reveal of her affair with Tom Sandoval.
“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. We let the court know I will not be moving forward with a permanent restraining order. My team tried to work with Scheana on a mutually beneficial agreement hoping to get the TRO dropped earlier so we could film [the Vanderpump Rules reunion] together,” Raquel confirmed in a statement to Entertainment Tonight on March 24.
“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,” she added.
Although Raquel had host Andy Cohen “serve” Scheana with a document detailing her plan to drop the order at the Pump Rules reunion, Scheana’s attorney, Naema Rahmani, told Reality Blurb, via email, that 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 explained.
According to the attorney, there is no way for Raquel to drop her request prior to Tuesday’s hearing.
“Even if Rachel had the correct document, which she didn’t, it wasn’t filed with the court,” he noted. “There is no file stamp in the top right corner. This was just another public relations stunt by Rachel and her team. If Rachel really wanted to make this go away, she would come out and publicly say the ‘punch’ never happened and she is sorry for all the harm she caused Scheana, Ariana, and her other friends.”
Naema went on to say that if Raquel truly wants to make her case against Scheana go away, she should tell everyone that she was never punched and that her claims against Scheana were a lie.
“That wouldn’t undo the damage she has caused, and she still filed a false police report, but it would go a long way toward resolving the legal issues,” he stated.
Still, Raquel insisted her document was a dismissal form.
“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,” she explained.
According to Entertainment Tonight, Raquel and Scheana’s teams attempted to work out an agreement that would allow them to film together at the reunion. However, as seen in the seating charts for the two women, their negotiations fell apart.
“Raquel’s team, with productions knowledge, attempted to find a mutually acceptable resolution with Scheana to help get the TRO dropped prior to filming so that they could both attend the reunion together,” their source shared. “Raquel’s team proposed they would both agree that the argument escalated and got physical but that both women wished to move forward from it, agreed there was no fault, would stop talking about it after the reunion, and would stop making any disparaging remarks related to the incident after the reunion.”
The insider then said that Scheana rebuked the offer, forcing production to figure out a solution.
“Scheana’s team wanted Raquel to say the punch never happened, and Raquel refused,” they added.
Vanderpump Rules season 10 airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Bravo.