The Miami-Dade Circuit Court clerk released on Tuesday a copy of the latest petition for divorce from the estranged wife of Miami Dolphins receiver Tyreek Hill. In the document, Lakeeta Vaccaro described in detail how, over the course of their marriage, Hill would violently threaten her and shove her to the ground; once kicked her out of a car and drove away; another time locked her out of their guest house; and once tried to punch her stomach while she was pregnant with their child. According to the document, filed by Vaccaro, he also spat in her face the day before she gave birth to their child. In another fight, in an Orlando hotel room, he threw her to the ground and twisted "her intimate body parts, ripping her hair out and grabbing anything on her person he could get hold of."
The document previously had been labeled confidential by the court clerk following a request from Hill's legal team, which said the document contained information regarding "dependency matters, termination of parental rights, guardians ad litem, child abuse, neglect, and abandonment." Though the news outlet TMZ did view a copy of the record, the clerk of the court refused to release a copy of it to anyone else.
After a group of six media outlets, including Defector Media, all asked for permission to intervene in the case so they could argue that the documents needed to be made public under Florida's rigorous open-records laws, Hill's lawyers changed their approach. On Friday, one of Hill's lawyers, Seth Schneiderman, filed a notice with the court saying they supported unsealing the Vaccaro document.
What caused the change? Defector Media reached out to Schneiderman for comment on Tuesday, and in response he said, "We believed that the filing should be sealed to protect the minor child of the parties from such false and vexatious allegations." But that is not what Schneiderman previously said in open court. At a hearing held last month, he said "There is no need to place these type of allegations in the court file as it will bring media attention to the case and perhaps an NFL investigation."
Similar language from Schneiderman is in the court records themselves, which are now public. Along with the new petition for a divorce, the records also include a letter Schneiderman sent to Vaccaro's attorney:
You and your client are undoubtedly aware that any filing of this nature will be scrutinized by the media and become part of the public record. Should these baseless allegations trigger an NFL investigation, suspension or loss of income for Mr. Hill, the reputational and financial damage will be substantial and may be actionable. Such harm would not only affect Mr. Hill but also Mrs. Hill and the parties’ child.
I urge you to reconsider proceeding with this amendment. It is not in your client’s best interests and may expose all involved to significant liability. Should Mr. Hill suffer any reputational or financial harm as a result of this abuse of process filing and should the falsity of these claims be proven at trial, my client will pursue all available civil remedies against your client, your firm and you personally.
Please govern yourself accordingly.
Vaccaro's attorney, Evan R. Marks, told Defector: "I believe that the release of the documents filed was appropriate under Florida Law."
Now that it has been unsealed, the document is a public record. Here is what it describes:
The couple started dating in 2018, and got engaged in 2021. But the engagement was "on and off" until Hill flew to Vaccaro's hometown of Austin, Texas, in 2023 and told her that she was the love of his life, made him a better person, and he wanted to settle down and start a family with her, the document said. He also told Vaccaro he did not want her to sign a prenuptial agreement. They married on Nov. 8, 2023.
Within a month of their marriage, Hill told Vaccaro that he had changed his mind. He wanted her to sign a postnuptial agreement. In her new petition, Vaccaro said Hill would bring it up about every two weeks, often after getting a call from his lawyer. Over time, Hill became "increasingly aggressive, violent, and demanding," according to the document, and threatened to divorce Vaccaro if she didn't sign a postnup.
On Jan. 11, 2024, the couple were at their guest house in Southwest Ranches, Fla., when they started fighting about the postnup. Hill got increasingly angry, the document said, throwing Vaccaro's stuff around the room, then violently pushing and shoving her. She fell to the floor, the document said, where he stood over her and ripped a necklace off her neck. About 10 days later, in Orlando at the Hotel Paramour, Hill came back to their hotel room after a night out and found Vaccaro packing. He "violently attacked her, throwing her to the floor, twisting her intimate body parts, ripping her hair out and grabbing anything on her person he could get hold of," the document said.
Sometime in January of 2024, Hill asked his legal team to draft a postnuptial agreement. On Jan. 23, Hill filed for divorce. Three days later, a lawyer for Hill sent Vaccaro a proposed postnup. It asked her to "give up all rights in exchange for a one-time payment of $100,000," the document said.
Vaccaro didn't believe this was fair, so she hired her own attorney to negotiate. Hill wouldn't provide Vaccaro with money to pay for a lawyer, her petition said. Hill dismissed the divorce petition and told Vaccaro he wanted to stay married.
At the end of January, back at their Southwest Ranches guest house, the couple got in another fight about the postnup. Hill told Vaccaro, per the document, that if she didn't sign the postnup he would go to the Pro Bowl without her. Hill left, then came back and attacked Vaccaro, the document said, shoving a marijuana cigarette in her face and telling her to get her suitcase and leave. "Defendant then threw Plaintiff's suitcase out the door and threw Plaintiff out the door, locking it behind her."
Vaccaro returned later on that day and, with the help of a locksmith, got back inside the guest house. When she heard Hill outside, she hid in the bathroom, where he found her. Inside the bathroom, according to the document, he pushed her, shoved her, restrained her, and tried to pull off her wedding ring.
That spring, Vaccaro became pregnant with their daughter. The pregnancy left Vaccaro feeling more vulnerable and afraid of Hill, she said in the court document, and, during this time, he tried to isolate her from her family. He also kept demanding that she sign the postnuptial agreement, this time "accompanied by physical violence, verbal humiliation, threats of divorce and demands that she leave the house," the record said.
On May 1, 2024, Hill and Vaccaro were in their Bentley on North
Bay Road in Miami Beach, with Hill driving, per the document. Hill started yelling and screaming at Vaccaro, at one point throwing her shoe out the window and telling her to get out of the car, the document said. He then pulled over the Bentley and tried to push her out while yelling. Vaccaro did open the door and get out because she was scared, she said in the document, and Hill drove away. In another instance two weeks later, Hill called Vaccaro's mother while he was driving and told her to tell her daughter to get out of the car "before she gets hurt," the document said. He also said, per the court record, that he had friends who would hurt Vaccaro and her daughter was "not safe."
Two months later, on July 12, the couple were in the area of Bristol, Conn., staying at a hotel. Hill had been yelling at Vaccaro all day because "she was not doing what he wanted her to do," the document said. Inside their hotel room, with some of Hill's other children and family waiting in the lobby, Vaccaro told Hill that she didn't want to go out because she was pregnant and didn't feel well. Hill responded by picking up Vaccaro's phone and throwing it at her face. He then "threw a punch and tried to hit her pregnant stomach, but she deflected it," the document said. Hill also "ripped at her hair and pulled some hair out, then grabbed her purse and flung it across the room," the record said.
Vaccaro was very far along in her pregnancy in November of 2024, when the couple along with some family were at their Sunny Isles Beach, Fla., condominium getting ready to leave for a Dolphins game. Hill got angry with Vaccaro while they were in the bedroom, with the rest of their family in the living area, and spat in her face, the document said. She gave birth to their daughter the next day.
Five months later, at the same condo, Hill would become violent again, the document said. In April, Vaccaro, her mother, and their baby daughter were all at the condo. Hill had been out late the night before and had slept on the couch. That day, he went into Vaccaro's office and "after starting a calm conversation began to lose control of himself." He grabbed Vaccaro, shoved her, and threw her computer. Police were called to the condo, per reporting from Local 10 at the time, but no criminal charges were filed. Vaccaro filed for divorce soon afterward.
The court filing also included a copy of a letter sent from Hill's lawyer, Seth Schneiderman, to Vaccaro's attorney, Evan R. Marks. In the letter, Schneiderman called the divorce petition a "calculated and malicious attempt to weaponize the judicial process for improper financial gain." It called the events described in the petition "demonstrably false, exaggerated, and distort prior events in a manner that suggests bad faith litigation."
Schneiderman made similar comments to Defector on Tuesday, telling us, "The allegations are vexatious and patently false. There is no objective corroborating evidence. These allegations have not been reported to law enforcement nor been investigated. We adamantly deny them and are confident that Mr. Hill be cleared of same in court."
This is not the first time that Hill has been accused of intimate-partner or family violence. While playing college football, he pleaded guilty to domestic abuse. While in Kansas City, police and child welfare officials investigated how Hill's son suffered a broken arm. The law enforcement investigation closed with no charges filed, and the local district attorney saying he believed a crime had occurred, but he couldn't establish who had committed the crime. (Kansas City radio station WHB 810 later reported that anonymous sources "close to the investigation" told them that the broken arm appeared to be an accident.) The results of the Kansas Department for Children and Families investigation are not public.
More recently, when Hill's Southwest Ranches home caught fire last year, local firefighters said their investigation showed the cause was a child playing with a cigarette lighter.
It's unlikely that Hill will play any more football this year after he dislocated his knee while playing the New York Jets. Before the injury, NFL analysts speculated that the Dolphins might trade the receiver, due to his hefty contract on a team unlikely to make the playoffs. Since the knee injury, that chatter has stopped. As for the NFL investigation Hill's attorney talked about wanting to avoid, that is already underway.
A copy of the document in full is below, or you can click here to read it.
