Connecticut Superior Court Judge David Bothwell ordered Dr. Carlon Colker and Peak Wellness to hand over requested documents to attorneys for Janel Grant on Monday during a hearing between parties to discuss discovery ahead of the civil trial between the two parties.
Bothwell also denied a proposed schedule from Grant’s attorneys that would have allowed them to depose Peak Wellness employees ahead of the trial.
Grant has said that Colker and his company, Peak Wellness, have failed to follow through on handing over required documents that were part of discovery in Grant’s federal lawsuit against Vince McMahon, as well as the bill of discovery complaint she filed against Colker and Peak Wellness last year.
Colker, a celebrity physician who treated McMahon, also treated Grant by McMahon’s request when she was still employed with World Wrestling Entertainment. Grant has claimed Colker often gave her prescriptions and other treatments without telling her what those treatments and prescriptions were. In her civil complaint against McMahon, Grant claims she was assaulted by McMahon and a Peak Wellness employee while at the building that included McMahon performing a bodily function on her.
Colker and Peak Wellness attorney Frank Silvestri said the doctor and his company had handed over all of its medical and financial records regarding Grant after “the beginning of proceedings.”
“We didn’t have a chance to discuss all the records that are being sought,” Silvestri said. “But there are certainly a number of them that seem to be totally unrelated to what they need to bring a lawsuit against these defendants.”
Bothwell said he would allow objections from Colker and Peak Wellness on what documents they were handing over, but ordered all medical records in the case to be made available to Grant.
Grant attorney Julie Pinette said many of the medical records and financial records that Colker and Peak Wellness handed over appeared to be inaccurate or incomplete. She said some of the financial records and receipts didn’t line up with receipts and some asserted Grant had paid for treatments that had been paid for by McMahon. Silvestri maintained that they had already handled over all of her documents.
Silvestri said he believed the issues with the billing records were due to a misunderstanding.
“I’m a new judge so maybe I’m coming in here with some fantasy thoughts, but I’m hoping we can work this out as amicably as we can,” Bothwell said.
Bothwell denied Grant’s request for depositions ahead of the trial. He said unless someone wasn’t potentially available due to illness or potential death, that would make the matter different but there was no reason to conduct depositions at this point.
“You have concerns, but those haven’t been spelled out to me,” Bothwell said. “Is your concern that this evidence may not be available during the ordinary course of litigation? What’s the concern that those people wouldn’t be available?”
Silvestri said the records turned over to Grant’s attorneys included PDFs with metadata that included who was reading the documents and when they were read. Pinette said this wasn’t the case with the information she received.
“As far as the suggestion that we have metadata, I don’t know how we are supposed to prove that unless you want to look at my computer,” Pinette said. “There are numerous inconsistencies including there were some things listed as paid for by Miss Grant when it clearly wasn’t according to the defendants. This is information that concerns the treatment of Miss Grant by the defendants so I would like to stress to the court the importance of her own treatment and the medical records.”
