Flying Squirrels Owner and Developer Settle Defamation Lawsuit

Richmond developers and baseball owner settle defamation lawsuit

Richmond Flying Squirrels owner Lou DiBella and Thalhimer developer Jason Guillot have reached an out-of-court settlement to resolve a defamation lawsuit stemming from a verbal altercation at CarMax Park.

The two men released a joint statement expressing regret over the incident and the subsequent legal dispute, according to reporting from richmonder.org.

The settlement ends a legal battle that began in May, when DiBella sued Guillot and his company, Thalhimer Realty Partners. The lawsuit centered on allegations that the encounter fueled false claims that DiBella had threatened physical violence against Guillot and his family.

While the joint statement does not include direct apologies or disclose any financial terms of the settlement, it serves to clarify the nature of the confrontation. The statement explicitly notes that DiBella made no physical threats during the dispute.

“Mr. DiBella and Mr. Guillot regret the opening night incident and the dispute that followed. The parties want to take this opportunity to clarify that Mr. DiBella did not physically threaten Mr. Guillot or his family. To the extent Mr. Guillot perceived any threat, it was a threat of litigation.”

The dispute over the Diamond District

The tension between the two leaders is rooted in the broader, high-stakes development of Richmond’s Diamond District. The confrontation on April 7 occurred against a backdrop of intense competition over land use near the new minor-league baseball stadium.

Before the initial argument at the ballpark, DiBella and Thalhimer had been feuding over a specific parcel of land adjacent to the stadium. DiBella sought to acquire the land to expand the stadium’s footprint, but the lawsuit alleged that Thalhimer intended to develop a sports bar on the site that could compete with the stadium’s own concession operations.

Flying Squirrels Owner and Developer Settle Defamation Lawsuit

The details of the April 7 argument were contentious. According to the lawsuit, during a hallway encounter, Guillot asked if DiBella was going to hit him. DiBella’s filing claimed he responded with a quote from the 1982 film Diner, stating he would not hit Guillot, but adding, “but if I did hit you, I’d hit you so hard, I’d hurt your whole family.”

Thalhimer personnel provided a different account in a memo filed with the city. That document alleged DiBella threatened to “bitch slap” Guillot and noted that DiBella’s small dog, which was running loose in the ballpark, bit Maritza Pechin, Thalhimer’s director of development, on the hand. The memo also characterized DiBella as being “out of line” for allegedly threatening to put the developers “out of business.”

Despite these conflicting accounts, the resolution statement indicates that Guillot did not interpret the comments as literal threats of physical violence.

Stadium project litigation continues

While this specific defamation case is resolved, the legal friction surrounding the Diamond District project shows no sign of fully dissipating. A federal judge had previously expressed frustration with the legal maneuvering, with U.S. District Judge David Novak describing DiBella’s conduct as “boorish” in an earlier order.

The settlement of the defamation suit does not resolve the broader conflict between the baseball team and local government. Navigators Baseball, the parent company of the Flying Squirrels, currently has a separate lawsuit pending in Richmond Circuit Court against city officials. The suit alleges the Diamond District project has changed so much that the city failed to meet its original promises, potentially harming the team's business interests.