Jeff Kravitz/WireImage.comWelcome to Family Feud: 50 Cent Edition.
It was a busy day for the rapper, who was slapped with a restraining order barring him from coming anywhere near his estanged baby mama but then retaliated with a petition to hold her in contempt of court and—the coup de grâce—a $20 million defamation suit.
A Long Island judge signed off on Shaniqua Tompkins' order of protection, requiring Fiddy to avoid any contact with his former paramour. Tompkins has maintained the rapper was behind a fire that forced her out of the home they once shared, a charge 50 Cent vehemently disputes.
Additionally, the order stipulates that on the days he's scheduled to see the couple's 11-year-old son, Marquise, all pickups and dropoffs must be done "at curbside." Last, Fiddy (whose real name is Curtis Jackson) must forfeit any and all firearms he owns.
"I will not let this man break me—I won't," the 32-year-old Tompkins said in court.
The rapper is in Canada on business and did not attend the hearing.
Fiddy attorney Brett Kimmel called the order "a retaliatory and vindictive move." In response, his team filed the contempt petition, alleging Tompkins is not living up to the terms of their custody agreement. (View the petition.)
"Ms. Tompkins is refusing to permit my client to have any contact with his son at all, even to the extent of not revealing his location to him. So we've asked the judge to order that access be given," Kimmel told E! News.
Per the petition, Tompkins "made it practically impossible" for the rapper to see his son. Affter the inferno destroyed Marquise's cell phone, the rap star sent a replacement, but she refused to give it to the youngster, per the court papers.
Kimmel claims Tompkins' behavior could have damaging effects on Marquise's welfare. The attorney said that she didn't need to attend the hearing, but did so anyway, bringing the boy with her and giving media interviews in his presence.
"This was all right there in front of him," he noted.
50 Cent's camp also served Tompkins with the defamation suit outside of court. (View the lawsuit.) Kimmel said the rapper opted to take the action because he could no longer stand her accusations that he was behind the suspicious fire that gutted her Long Island home on May 30.
She and Marquise were forced to flee through a second-floor window as the fire spread and were treated for minor injuries along with four other people. Not long afterward, Tompkins told the press that 50 Cent had threatened her in the week prior to the blaze.
Kimmel refuted those allegations before Suffolk County Family Court Judge David Freundlich, leading to some lively sparring with Tompkins' counsel.
"Mrs. Tompkins is promoting the idea that my client is trying to kill her and her son," Kimmel told the judge.
"Your honor, are you going to listen to these baseless allegations?" responded Tompkins' attorney, Paul Catsandonis.
Afterward, Catsandonis told E! News that the fire and legal squabbling has taken a toll on his client and Marquise, who's caught up in the middle.
"Clearly, [Tompkins] has been traumatized from what's happened with the fire and now with this defamation lawsuit. [50 Cent] has also made a motion for a visitation order from family court. That's going to make Marquise a subject of litigation now," the attorney said.
"Marquise is trying to recover from a traumatic experience—he's going to have to be interviewed, serve as a witness, and it's unfortunate. 50 and his camp, they're the ones who are initiating these things."
Fiddy has been in a bitter legal battle with Tompkins for sometime now over the $2.4 million residence, which he purchased in January 2007. He even sought to have her and Marquise evicted unless she ponied up $4,500 in rent. That subsequently led Tompkins to fire back with a breach of contract suit, alleging he promised to put the house in her name.
Investigators suspect arson in the blaze but have yet to make any arrests. At the time of the fire, the performer was in Louisiana filming the movie Microwave Park with Sharon Stone and Val Kilmer and is not considered a suspect.