The reality star plans to drop the restraining order against her former friend.
Raquel Leviss feels she no longer needs protection from Scheana Shay, because she's filing to have her temporary restraining order (TRO) against her Vanderpump Rules co-star dropped, ET has learned.
"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," Leviss exclusively tells ET.
She continues, "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."
During Thursday’s filming of the Vanderpump Rules reunion, Leviss gave host Andy Cohen a document that showed she planned to drop the restraining order against Shay.
ET has obtained photos of the document Raquel allegedly gave to Andy at the VPR reunion.
Shay’s attorney, Naema Rahmani, tells ET, "Rachel had Andy 'serve' Scheana with a document during the reunion, but 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 continues, using Leviss' legal name, "There is no way for Rachel to 'drop' the temporary restraining order before next week’s hearing. This is California law and even on the court’s website. Even if Rachel had the correct document, which she didn’t, it wasn’t filed with the court. 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."
"If she wants to make this go away, she can tell everyone that she wasn’t punched and she lied, and that she doesn’t intend to go forward with a permanent restraining order. 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."
Leviss tells ET, "The document was a dismissal form that the court asked us to submit and 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."
Behind the scenes, Leviss and Shay’s teams tried to work out an agreement that would allow them to film at the reunion together, but it fell apart, ET learned.
A source tells ET, “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. 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.”
“Had they come to a reasonable agreement Raquel was prepared to appear in court Tuesday to drop the TRO. Unfortunately, Scheana rebuked the offer, which kept the burden on production to find a solution for them to film separately," the source adds. "Scheana's team wanted Raquel to say the punch never happened, and Raquel refused."
Earlier this month, Leviss filed a restraining order against Shay, seeking court-ordered protection from her co-star following an alleged altercation between them.
After submitting her temporary restraining order request, the judge approved it, and ordered Shay to stay 100 yards away from Leviss, her home, vehicle and workplace. The judge has also set a March 29 hearing date.
Shay pushed back at claims made by Leviss in her filing for a restraining order.
At Thursday’s Vanderpump Rules reunion, Leviss and Shay were both there in person but had to stay 100 feet away from one another and filmed segments separately.
This drama comes following Tom Sandoval and Ariana Madix calling it quits on March 10, after cheating allegations between Sandoval and Leviss came to light.
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