Breaking News: Thalhimer files response to Squirrels owner’s defamation lawsuit – Richmond BizSense

The developer leading the ballpark-anchored Diamond District is denying that its principal on the project told city officials that the owner of the Richmond Flying Squirrels threatened to kill him and his family. And one of those officials is testifying to that.

Thalhimer Realty Partners and principal Jason Guillot on Thursday filed their formal response to the federal defamation lawsuit that Squirrels owner Lou DiBella filed against them last month.

The response includes a signed declaration from Angie Rodgers, the director of the Richmond Economic Development Authority, that states she never said to DiBella that Guillot had told her that DiBella threatened to kill him during a heated exchange between the two men at CarMax Park’s opening night. Rodgers’ brief affidavit also states that Guillot never represented to her that DiBella had said the word “kill.”

DiBella’s lawsuit, filed May 28 in federal court in Richmond, alleges that Guillot told Rodgers, who leads the EDA that owns CarMax Park and leases it to the Squirrels, that DiBella threatened to kill him and his family if the development group didn’t agree to sell a roughly half-acre retail parcel beside the ballpark’s main entrance to DiBella and his business partners.

Diamond District Partners, the development group led by Guillot and Thalhimer, is planning to build a sports bar on the roughly half-acre parcel that DiBella contends would compete with CarMax Park’s concessions.

Today’s filing from Guillot and Thalhimer denies the allegations and DiBella’s account of the opening night exchange, which occurred outside the EDA’s suite as the Squirrels played their first game at the new ballpark April 7.

In her declaration, Rodgers’ states: “Following the opening game at CarMax Park (Richmond’s new baseball stadium) on April 7, 2026, Jason Guillot never represented to me that Lou DiBella ‘threatened to kill Guillot and his family if Guillot did not sell DiBella’” the parcel.

“During my conversations with Lou DiBella on April 9, 2026,” Rodgers’ declaration adds, “I did not represent that Jason had alleged DiBella ‘threatened to kill Guillot and his family if Guillot did not sell DiBella’” the parcel.

In addition to the declaration from Rodgers, the response includes a previously reported memo that Guillot wrote and sent to city officials the following day that says DiBella told him that if he didn’t agree to sell the plot of land, DiBella “would do everything in his power to put DDP out of business” and would “come after” Guillot and his family “with everything he has” if DDP tried to develop the parcel itself.

“Although the Complaint concedes that Lou DiBella threatened Guillot in various ways,” the response filing states, “Guillot never reported to anyone at the City of Richmond and/or the Economic Development Authority that DiBella ‘threatened to kill Guillot and his family.’”

The response reiterates Guillot’s account from the memo that DiBella “threatened physical violence against Guillot, including twice threatening to ‘bitch-slap’ Guillot.”

DiBella accuses Guillot in the suit of dragging his feet on the overall Diamond District mixed-use development, noting that only the ballpark that the Squirrels developed has been constructed, and said Guillot and Thalhimer had lied and made misrepresentations to the city during the bidding process for the project and in a meeting with Major League Baseball.

The suit claims DiBella said he felt obligated “to expose the truth about the bidding process and Thalhimer’s fraud” and “would hire lawyers if necessary to protect his business.” The suit says that Guillot later abruptly said to DiBella: “You know everybody hates you right? The city hates you! I hate you!”

DiBella alleges in his suit that when he turned to leave, Guillot called out to him and asked if he was going to hit him, to which DiBella said, “Of course not, I would never do that,” and then said an approximate quote from one of his favorite movies, “Diner”: “But if I did hit you, I’d hit you so hard, I’d hurt your whole family.” (The actual movie quote says: “I’ll hit you so hard, I’ll kill your whole family.”)

The suit says DiBella “intended this as a joke,” that the statement “was not meant as an actual or serious threat” and “no reasonable person could have perceived it as such.”

The suit alleges that the comment defamed DiBella and that Guillot’s motivation for reporting the confrontation to the city was to bias them against DiBella and “create leverage for Thalhimer and the EDA in their business dealings with DiBella and the Squirrels.”

Guillot and Thalhimer argue in their response that it’s DiBella’s lawsuit that is aimed to “defame Guillot and intimidate various City officials into renegotiating certain terms of the development deal to which DiBella (on behalf of Navigators Baseball LP) previously agreed.”

“Specifically, this lawsuit is DiBella’s latest effort to pressure Defendants into selling DiBella a prime parcel of property adjacent to CarMax Park that the City conveyed to Diamond District Partners, LLC in March 2025 in accordance with the parties’ development deal,” the response says.

“Defendants have no need to exert leverage against DiBella, as Defendants already own the parcel of property in question,” the response says, later adding: “It is DiBella, through this meritless lawsuit and other legal threats, who seeks to pressure the Defendants to sell the parcel.”

Thalhimer and Guillot also say in the response that former Squirrels executive and now senior advisor Todd “Parney” Parnell approached them, in mid-2024, about potentially opening a sports bar called “Parney’s Pub” on the retail parcel. DiBella’s lawsuit alleges that Thalhimer approached Parnell about naming the sports bar planned there after him.

The suit says Parnell did not want his name on a bar that would compete with the Squirrels’ concessions and relayed the proposal to DiBella, who offered to buy the parcel at or above fair market rate.

Navigators Baseball, DiBella’s ownership group, made at least two offers since late 2024, including one for $1.75 million last November. Guillot told the group that DDP would need an offer in excess of $3 million before it would consider selling the parcel, according to emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.

DiBella’s suit seeks punitive damages of “tens of millions of dollars” to be determined in a jury trial, attorney fees and other costs of bringing the suit, and an injunction prohibiting Guillot and Thalhimer from repeating or republishing the claim that DiBella threatened Guillot. Nicholas Brechbill and Carolyn Wesnousky of Alexandria-based Clare Locke are representing DiBella in the suit.

Guillot and Thalhimer are represented by Harold Johnson, Turner Broughton and Amanda Bird-Johnson with Richmond firm Williams Mullen.

Their filing includes affirmative defenses contending that Guillot’s “actual and alleged statements” to city officials are not actionable as defamation because they are protected under qualified privilege, relate to a public figure and to a matter of public interest, lack “the required defamatory sting,” and are true.

They also argue that DiBella cannot prove that Guillot acted with actual malice as required to establish defamation.

The filing asks the court to dismiss the suit with prejudice, meaning it couldn’t be filed in the same court again, award of attorneys’ fees and other costs of responding to the suit, and further relief decided by the court.

Print Article