Matt Riddle Requests Voluntary Dismissal of Restraining Order Against Sexual Assault Accuser

Matt Riddle’s attempt to get a restraining order against the woman who accused him of sexual assault has ended with a voluntary dismissal request on Riddle’s behalf. As previously reported, Riddle was accused in June by Candy Cartwright of sexually assaulting her in 2018 when the two were engaged in a consensual affair. Riddle has denied the allegations and his lawyer initially said that “We have been aware for the last two years of this performer stalking the Riddle family.” After Cartwright posted a picture of herself and Riddle together that was allegedly from 2019, Riddle acknowledged in a new statement that he had been engaged in an affair with Cartwright but broke it off and she began stalking him afterward.

According to Babyface vs. Heel’s David Bixenspan, the website for Orange County Court in Florida began returning search results for Riddle’s attempt t get a restraining order against Cartwright through his lawyer Daniel J. Rose. However, the request was requested to be dismissed by Rose and Riddle 36 hours before a hearing was set to take place.

Bixenspan noted that Riddle alleged in his initial petition that Cartwright had “Committed stalking,” “Previously threatened, harassed, stalked, cyberstalked, or physically abused the Petitioner,” “Threatened to harm Petitioner or family members or individuals closely associated with Petitioner,” “Used, or threatened to use, against Petitioner any weapons such as guns or knives,” and “Destroyed personal property, including, but not limited to, telephones or other communication equipment, clothing, or other items belonging to Petitioner.” He claimed to have met her in 2016 and their affair began on November 6th, 2017. He states that he tried to end the affair in June of 2018 but it continued going, with Riddle alleging he finally tries to break it off for good in July of 2019. Riddle then claims that Cartwright had “systematically stalked, cyberstalked, and harassed myself and my wife” since July 9 of that year. He states that he blocked her on social media and changed his phone number, after which she texted him from a burner phone saying “that if I did not leave my wife for her that I would be sorry and she would ruin my career.” Riddle then alleges that he and his lawyer considered filing a restraining order then but instead contacted WWE and told them of the situation.

The petition then alleges that on an unnamed day in February of this year, Cartwright showed up at Full Sail University where he was working “and made a scene and had to be escorted out of the building.” There is no mention of which day this is, and Bixenspan notes that there were four days of NXT shooting at Full Sail that month, one of which Riddle didn’t appear at. Full Sail has yet to return requests to confirm whether such an incident went down. There are no other incidents listed before Cartwright’s public accusation of sexual assault in June, which Riddle claims is part of Cartwright’s pattern of harassment.

Riddle claims that in Cartwright’s allegation, she “posted my home address and my wife’s phone number” on Twitter and that his wife received “numerous crank calls and death threats (which are recorded and can be brought to trial).” The tweet in question is attached as an exhibit with a piece of paper covering the space that would list the phone number with Lisa Riddle Cell Phone #” written by hand. The still-posted tweet has the number redacted as you can see below. Riddle’s home address was posted by a fan who appears to be unconnected to Cartwright in response to the tweet.

Reposting these.
1. This is a message from matt to me telling me he can’t wait to see me from just about a year ago, if I’ve been harrassing him for years, I’m not really sure how that’s possible.
2. This is a screenshot from Lisa riddle to me proving she knew of the affair pic.twitter.com/CMYPNpeIYO

— Candy Cartwright (@CandyCartwright) June 19, 2020

Cartwright’s lawyer pointed out the false claim that her client doxxed the Riddles, to which Riddle’s lawyer claimed that Cartwright initially posted the phone number unredacted and deleted the tweet, then posting the redacted one. The response claims:

“8. The Respondent then falsely claims the exhibits are fabricated. This is frivolous, the Respondent did post the Petitioner’s wife’s phone number on twitter through a message she received on one of her numerous burner phones and then a couple of hours later deleted the tweet and reposted it with a redacted copy.

9. Respondent’s counsel then affirms under oath that the tweet in question did not have the phone number of the petitioner’s wife. What he did not research is his client posted the unredacted number prior to her deletion and resending of the message which he should know anything posted on social media is permanent and deletion does nothing.

10. The phone number tweet while deleted was copied by many social media websites and as a result Petitioner’s wife received numerous death threats and hate messages from people.”

The report notes that the fan’s tweet with the Riddle’s address is attached to the screenshot of the tweet that Riddle and his lawyer say was the unredacted one, but that address-showing tweet is still online and attached to the redacted tweet. In addition, while the response claims that the unredacted tweet was copied and shared by “many social media websites,” there is no evidence online that the unredacted tweet exists.

Riddle’s lawyer also makes mention of the stalker who broke into Sonya Deville’s home in the response as a reason for Riddle to need the restraining order, noting that it “shows the extent people will go to harm others.”

The final document in the search records is the notice of voluntary dismissal, which was filed on September 4th. You can read the full set of filings in the case here.