Sean “Diddy” Combs, a rapper and music mogul credited with serving to launch the careers of a few of the greatest stars in recent times, may very well be dealing with greater than 100 new lawsuits simply two weeks after he was arrested by federal brokers in New York.
The most recent wave of authorized filings was introduced on October 1, The Los Angeles Instances reported, as greater than 100 folks have deliberate to file lawsuits in opposition to Combs, alleging that he sexually abused and exploited them.
It got here simply weeks after Combs was arrested in September on intercourse trafficking and racketeering prices with federal prosecutors alleging that Combs and his associates threatened, abused and coerced girls and others round him “to satisfy his sexual wishes” – which allegedly contains forcing victims into participating in recorded sexual exercise which he known as “Freak Offs.”
A lawyer for the hip-hop artist referred to as Combs “an harmless man with nothing to cover.”
“We’re dissatisfied with the choice to pursue what we consider is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace,” his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, instructed The Impartial through e-mail within the wake of his arrest.
A brand new federal choose was later assigned to Combs’ case, based on court docket paperwork obtained by Enterprise Insider. US District Decide Arun Subramanian is identical choose at present overseeing the Division of Justice antitrust case in opposition to Ticketmaster. A cause for the brand new choose was not offered.
Since his arrest, Combs has twice been denied bail on the fees regardless of providing his Miami mansion as collateral for a $50 million bond. The judges cited what federal prosecutors described as a critical danger that Combs might intimidate witnesses.
Combs is already interesting these bail denials. With the brand new choose seated, his attorneys might be argue for bail a 3rd time.
Nonetheless, on November 15, in a submission arguing for a 3rd denial of bail for the mogul, prosecutors alleged that Combs had spent his time behind bars making an attempt to blackmail victims and witnesses, utilizing fellow inmates’ telephones to name relations and engineer “narratives” to assist him within the case.
Combs, previously often known as Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and a bunch of different names, has undergone a myriad of reinventions because the begin of his profession – however has since entered a brand new and unwelcome “period”.
Federal brokers with US Homeland Safety raided two of the rapper’s homes in Los Angeles and Miami on March 25 as a part of an investigation into the allegations introduced in opposition to him.
The music mogul was additionally lately hit with a $100 million default judgment on September 9 over an alleged sexual assault from a 1997 occasion in opposition to Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith.
Lenawee County Circuit Courtroom Decide granted the award to Cardello-Smith, an inmate who filed the lawsuit in opposition to Combs, accusing him of drugging and sexually assaulting him at a celebration 30 years in the past.
Combs, 54, has strongly denied all the allegations in opposition to him. His attorneys have branded the lawsuits and their accusations as cash grabs, “baseless” or “sickening.”
On Could 17, surveillence footage captured at a lodge in Los Angeles in March 2016 confirmed Diddy chasing his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura down the hallway earlier than attacking her by the elevators. He then makes an attempt to pull her again to his lodge room.
The next day, he shared an apology video to Instagram saying his behaviour was “inexcusable” and that he took “full accountability for his actions within the video”.
The slew of allegations in lawsuits in opposition to Combs date way back to the Nineties, when he based his personal file label, Unhealthy Boy Data.
All of the allegations in opposition to Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs:
Lawsuits in opposition to the rapper started on 16 November 2023 when he was sued by singer and dancer Cassie, his former accomplice, who alleged years of abuse.
It was filed beneath the New York Grownup Survivors Act, simply earlier than it expired. This act provided a one-year window for grownup victims of sexual assault to return ahead with civil claims whatever the statute of limitations.
Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura
R&B singer Cassie, whose full identify is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit in 2023 alleging that she was trafficked, raped and overwhelmed by Combs on many events over 10 years.
Her lawsuit claimed that Combs introduced the singer into his “ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fueled life-style” not lengthy after she met him, and signed her to his label in 2005 when she was simply 19 and he was 37.
Ventura stated that the sample of abuse started as quickly as their relationship began and that, as she was attempting to finish it in 2018, he pressured himself into her Los Angeles residence and raped her.
On Could 17, surveillance footage obtained by CNN confirmed an incident which appeared to corroborate components of Ventura’s unique grievance. The video from March 2016 confirmed Combs chasing her down the hall of a Los Angeles lodge and continuing to punch and kick her exterior a set of elevators.
Based on the grievance, which cited the altercation as occurring “round March 2016,” Combs grew to become “extraordinarily intoxicated and punched Ventura within the face, giving her a black eye.”
The surveillance footage confirmed Combs leaving Ventura then returning and shoving her right into a nook. He’s then seen hurling an object at her, which was additionally cited in her grievance.
On Could 19, Combs launched a video apologising for his actions within the video, calling his behaviour “inexcusable” and saying he “takes full accountability for his actions within the video”.
The lawsuit in opposition to Combs was settled for an undisclosed amount of cash a day after Ventura filed it.
Ventura instructed CNN she had chosen to “resolve this matter amicably,” whereas Combs’ lawyer stated the settlement was “on no account an admission of wrongdoing” and didn’t change his denial of the allegations.
Her accusations in opposition to Combs had been introduced by means of the New York Grownup Survivors Act (ASA), which expired at midnight on November 23, 2023.
The act offered survivors a one-year window to pursue civil litigation no matter when the abuse occurred, that means incidents from many years had been lastly delivered to gentle.
Greater than 2,500 circumstances had been filed beneath the ASA earlier than its expiry at midnight on November 23, 2023, court docket information despatched to The Impartial confirmed.
Survivors introduced lawsuits in opposition to a few of the state’s strongest males, together with main gamers in leisure, similar to Invoice Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Axl Rose, and Combs.
Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith
A lawsuit was filed by Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, 51, an inmate who claims Combs drugged and sexually assaulted him at a celebration 30 years in the past, ccording to court docket paperwork obtained by Detroit’s Metro Instances.
On September 9, Cardello-Smith was awarded a $100 million default judgment after Combs failed to seem for a digital listening to.
A Lenawee County Circuit Courtroom choose arrange a cost schedule of $10 million per thirty days for Combs, slated to begin on October 1.
The lawsuit claims that Cardello-Smith and Combs met whereas he was working at a Detroit-area restaurant in 1997. Throughout an evening of ingesting and weed-smoking, they reportedly had intercourse with a gaggle of girls, based on the swimsuit. Cardello-Smith stated he felt a person’s hand, which he claims was Combs, touching him.
The swimsuit additionally alleges that Combs served him a spiked drink that prompted him to go out. When he awakened, Combs was having intercourse with a lady and allegedly stated to him, “I did this to you too.”
Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, disputed the judgment and Cardello-Smith’s account.
“This man is a convicted felon and sexual predator, who has been sentenced on 14 counts of sexual assault and kidnapping over the past 26 years,” he stated.
Combs has moved to dimiss the swimsuit.
Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones
In the newest lawsuit in opposition to Combs, filed on 26 February 2024 in New York, producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, alleged he was “subjected to undesirable advances by associates of Diddy at his route” and that he was pressured to have interaction in relations with the intercourse staff Combs had employed.
The producer, who labored for Combs between September 2022 and November 2023 claimed Combs sexually harassed, drugged and threatened him for greater than a 12 months.
He stated he has video and audio proof of Combs, his workers and others “participating in critical criminal activity.” The lawsuit recognized Rapper 50 Cent‘s former girlfriend and the mom of one in all his kids, Daphne Pleasure, as one of many alleged intercourse staff.
The lawsuit additionally alleges that Combs commonly hosted “sex-trafficking events” with underage girls and unlawful medicine, and implies file label executives who regarded the opposite means financially benefited from entry to celebrities and dignitaries, together with the British royal Prince Harry.
Prince Harry is just not accused of any wrongdoing or of attending events himself.
Combs’s lawyer instructed The Los Angeles Instances that the lawsuit accommodates “reckless name-dropping about occasions which are pure fiction and easily didn’t” happen.
Ryan Mendelsohn, 20, who used to dwell within the space the place Combs’ Los Angeles property was searched, instructed reporters he would see events on the residence and ladies exterior till 6am, which was not normal.
“I drive by quite a bit, and I see that — a whole lot of women, possibly 5 or 6 women exterior, some leaving, some not, some getting into,” he stated, based on NBC Information.
“I by no means thought something of it,” Mr Mendelsohn, who added that he didn’t know Combs lived there till Monday’s information broke. “However now, it’s loopy.”
Joie Dickerson-Neal
In November 2023, Joie Dickerson-Neal filed a lawsuit alleging that Combs drugged her, sexually assaulted her and secretly recorded the assault whereas she was a school pupil in 1991, NBC Information reported, citing the submitting.
She claimed that Combs pushed her to go to dinner with him and she or he agreed “reluctantly” on 3 January 1991, which is when she alleges she was drugged, “leading to her being in a bodily state the place she couldn’t independently stand or stroll,” the BBC reported.
The swimsuit additionally claims he recorded the assault and confirmed it to different folks.
She later filed police studies in New York and New Jersey, spoke to prosecutors, however was instructed by colleagues they had been “terrified that Combs would retaliate in opposition to them and that they might lose future enterprise and music alternatives in the event that they made an announcement in assist of” her, NBC Information reported, citing the lawsuit.
Extra girls come ahead
Since November, a number of extra girls have come ahead with lawsuits within the Southern District of New York alleging that they had been sexually assaulted by Combs.
Two of the ladies stated they had been youngsters on the time of the alleged assaults.
Nameless Plaintiff
In November, an nameless plaintiff accused Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Corridor of raping her and a pal in 1990 or 1991 after assembly at an MCA Data occasion in New York, the place the singers “had been very flirtatious and handsy” and provided them drinks, Rolling Stone reported.
The swimsuit alleges that Combs and Corridor invited the ladies to Corridor’s condominium for an afterparty the place the plaintiff “was provided extra drinks and was coerced into having intercourse with Combs,” and was “shocked and traumatized” afterwards, earlier than “Corridor barged into the room, pinned her down and compelled Jane Doe to have intercourse with him,” based on Rolling Stone.
After she spoke to her pal, the plaintiff allegedly discovered she had additionally “been pressured to have intercourse with Combs and Corridor in one other room,” based on the swimsuit.
A number of days later, Combs allegedly visited the plaintiff and her pal at a house the place they had been staying, the place he grew to become “irate and started assaulting and choking Jane Doe to the purpose that she handed out,” the lawsuit alleges.
Unnamed Accuser ‘Jane Doe’
In December, Combs was hit with one other lawsuit which claimed he had drugged and gang-raped a 17-year-old woman in 2003.
The plaintiff, recognized as Jane Doe, accused Combs of plying her with medicine and alcohol at his New York studio after which raping her together with two associates.
The swimsuit accused Combs of a “intercourse trafficking scheme,” during which Jane Doe was flown by personal jet from her residence in Michigan to New York.
In Could, after the surprising CCTV footage of Combs attacking Enterprise was revealed, former mannequin Crystal McKinney filed a brand new lawsuit claiming the rapper sexually assaulted her at his recording studio in New York Metropolis in 2003.
McKinney stated she was a profitable 22-year-old mannequin when she met Combs at a restaurant throughout Males’s Style Week in Manhattan. Combs invited her to his recording studio later that evening, based on the federal grievance filed in New York Metropolis.
The lawsuit alleged that McKinney arrived to seek out Combs ingesting and smoking marijuana with a number of different males. She smoked some marijuana, which she “later got here to grasp” was laced with a narcotic or intoxicating substance, the lawsuit stated.
She alleged that Combs led her to the lavatory the place she was pressured to carry out oral intercourse on him.
Days after McKinney’s lawsuit was filed, April Lampros – who met Diddy whereas she was a pupil – claimed Diddy had sexually assaulted a number of occasions between 1995 and the early 2000s.
Lampros stated she met the rapper in 1994 whereas she was a school pupil on the Style Institue of Know-how in New York and interning at Arista, then the dad or mum firm of Diddy’s label Unhealthy Boy Leisure.
After assembly her at a bar in New York, she “succumbed to stress” to drink alcohol after “delusional and violent outbursts”, based on the federal grievance filed in New York Metropolis.
Lampros claimed she started to really feel just like the “partitions had been closing in on her” after sipping her drink and Combs escorted her again to a lodge. The lawsuit alleged Combs pressured himself on Lampros regardless of her protests. “Ms Lampros was being raped by Mr Combs, and she or he quickly handed out,” it stated.
The rapper allegedly then “love-bombed her” and his advances later “manifested into an aggressive, coercive and abusive relationship based mostly on intercourse”.
The lawsuit claimed Combs assaulted Lampros a second time by bodily forcing her to carry out oral intercourse in a storage close to his condominium in Manhattan. When the scholar tried to distance herself from the rapper following the assault he allegedly gave her “items and empty guarantees” earlier than turning “indignant, threatening and forceful” and claiming he would destroy her profession.
In 1996, Combs sexually assaulted Lampros for a 3rd time when he pressured her and his ex-girlfriend Kim Porter to take ecstasy and have intercourse collectively, the lawsuit alleged. Combs masturbated whereas he watched the ladies collectively earlier than assaulting Lampros, the submitting claimed.
Lampros says she ended her relationship with Combs two years later. Nonetheless, when she noticed him at an occasion on the Rockefeller Heart within the early 2000s he begged to see her once more and she or he allowed him to return to her condominium the place he kissed and touched her in opposition to her will, the lawsuit alleged.
In 2023, Lampros alleges an unidentified man approached her accomplice on the time and stated he had seen a sexual video of Lampros and Combs years earlier. Lampros was knowledgeable “Mr Combs apparently recorded them having intercourse with out her figuring out and confirmed it to a number of folks,” the submitting claimed.
In September of this 12 months, Daybreak Richard, a former bandmate, accused the music mogul of finishing up years of bodily and sexual abuse in opposition to her and others whereas the 2 labored collectively, based on a lawsuit filed in New York federal court docket, describing allegations relationship again to 2009.
She accuses Combs of withholding cost for work on albums, groping her, making lewd coments, making an attempt to strike her, throwing home goods at her, internet hosting events the place inebriated younger women had been sexually violated, withholding meals and different fundamental requirements throughout recording, and making dying threats when Richard tried to intervene in alleged abuse in opposition to Combs’s longtime girlfriend, the singer Cassie.
“For practically a decade, Mr. Combs manipulated Ms. Richard with mantras that submission to his wicked calls for was obligatory for profession development, instilling in her the assumption that such abuse and exploitation had been required for feminine artists to achieve the music trade,” the grievance reads.
An lawyer for Combs instructedThe Impartial the swimsuit was “false” and an try and “rewrite historical past.”
On September 27, Combs was hit with a tenth lawsuit by an nameless lady who claims Combs abused her, bodily and sexually, for 4 straight years. In her swimsuit, “Jane Doe” says she greater than as soon as awakened in Combs’s mattress, badly injured, after blacking out the evening earlier than — with no reminiscence of what had occurred.
Doe says within the swimsuit that she met Combs within the fall of 2020 “at an abroad location.” He paid for her to journey there, and the 2 started seeing one another “commonly” after that, based on the swimsuit.
They met up roughly as soon as a month, and Combs would typically drug her in opposition to her will, then sexually abuse her, Doe claims, within the lawsuit.
“On one morning she awakened and her toes had been purple and bruised and she or he had a chunk mark on her heel,” it says. “Jane Doe didn’t know the way she sustained the accidents.”
Doe later realized she had been unwittingly dosed with ketamine, based on the lawsuit.
On October 14 after which once more on October 20, lawyer Tony Buzbee filed a complete of 13 lawsuits in opposition to Combs. The lawsuits signify women and men who declare Combs sexually assaulted them, with circumstances spanning from 2000 to 2022. Buzbee stated in an announcement that he would proceed to file lawsuits “weekly” as he gathers extra proof from alleged victims.
The plaintifss in these circumstances haven’t been named, however a minimum of one alleged sufferer stated she was 13-years-old when Combs allegedly raped her at an MTV VMA after-party.
One other plaintiff accused Combs of allegedly drugging him utilizing Rohypnol that had been blended into child oil.
Two new lawsuits filed on 28 October accused the rapper of drugging and sexually assaulting a 10-year-old boy in 2005 and a 17-year-old actuality present aspirant in 2008.
Combs’s response to allegations
Sean Combs has strongly denied all of the accusations in opposition to him and vowed to “combat for my identify, my household and for the reality.”
In an announcement in December, following the lawsuit introduced by Jane Doe, he referred to as the claims “sickening” and stated his accusers had been “searching for a fast payday”.
“Let me be completely clear: I didn’t do any of the terrible issues being alleged,” he stated in an announcement. “I’ll combat for my identify, my household and for the reality.”
Combs’ lawyer, Shawn Holley, branded the occasions described within the lawsuit as “pure fiction”.
“We’ve got overwhelming, indeniable proof that his claims are full lies,” he stated. “We’ll deal with these outlandish allegations in court docket and take all acceptable motion in opposition to those that make them.”
Following the settlement with Ventura, Ben Brafman, one other lawyer for Combs, instructed The Impartial: “Simply so we’re clear, a choice to settle a lawsuit, particularly in 2023, is on no account an admission of wrongdoing.
“Mr. Combs’ resolution to settle the lawsuit doesn’t in any means undermine his flat-out denial of the claims.
“He’s completely happy they obtained to a mutual settlement and needs Ms Ventura the very best.”
Shortly after the discharge of footage that reveals Combs attacking Ms Ventura in a lodge hallway, Combs condemned his personal actions and apologised in a video posted to social media.
Within the clip, Combs refers back to the incident as “one of many darkest occasions in his life”, saying that he was “f***ed up” and is “disgusted by his actions”.
Legal Fees Towards Diddy
For practically a 12 months, Combs has confronted a collection of civil lawsuits that accuse him of sexual abuse, rape and misconduct. Now, federal prosecutors have introduced felony prices in opposition to him.
Combs has been charged with intercourse trafficking and transportation to have interaction in prostitution after a federal grand jury in New York selected to deliver an indictment in opposition to him.
He’s accused of working a felony enterprise that consisted of his associates, staff and the affect of his enterprise empire to coerce, management and abuse feminine victims. That features “intercourse trafficking, pressured labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice” based on the indictment.
In an indictment unsealed on Tuesday morning, federal prosecutors allege Combs and his associates threatened, abused and coerced girls and others round him “to satisfy his sexual wishes”.
That allegedly contains forcing victims into participating in recorded sexual exercise which he known as “Freak Offs.”
”Throughout Freak Offs, Combs distributed a wide range of managed substances to victims, partly to maintain the victims obedient and compliant,” prosecutors stated within the doc. “After Freak Offs, Combs and the victims sometimes obtained IV fluids to get better from the bodily exertion and drug use.”
Comic Jeff Wittek claimed on an episode of his present Jeff FM that when he was 20 years outdated, he went to one in all Combs’ alleged “Freak Off” events the place he noticed folks having intercourse at a mansion in Miami, E! Information reported.
“It was like eight tales excessive and it simply stored going up,” Wittek stated. “And the upper you went, the weirder s–t was occurring.”
In 2010, he stated he went to a “lingerie intercourse occasion” after getting an invitation by means of an acquaintance, who had filmed a music video with Combs.
“She’s like, ‘Oh, he is having a Diddy occasion,’” he stated. “These Diddy events are f—ing loopy. They’re the very best events, like, folks wished to go to them.”
Whereas Wittek wore a polo shirt, anticipating a standard occasion, one other pal wore lingerie the place “their nipples are displaying by means of.”
“And I am like, ‘You guys are going like that?’” Wittek recalled. “They’re like, ‘You do not perceive about these events.’ And I didn’t perceive ‘trigger I noticed dwell intercourse occur that evening.”
“That is the primary time I noticed that occur ever in my life. And did I partake? No, however I obtained f—ing drunk there,” he added. “It is simply loopy. I used to be actually there. I lived by means of it.”
Combs was arrested at a Manhattan lodge on September 16 about six months after federal brokers raided two of the musician’s properties in Los Angeles and Miami as a part of the investigation.
The federal investigation coincides with a collection of civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct and sexual abuse over the past 12 months.
Marc Agnifilio, a lawyer for Combs, referred to as his shopper “an harmless man with nothing to cover.”
He stated the musician has been cooperating with federal authorities and voluntarily relocated to New York final week in anticipation of the arrest. “We’re dissatisfied with the choice to pursue what we consider is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace,” Agnifilo stated in an announcement.
“Please reserve your judgment till you could have all of the info,” Agnifilo instructed reporters exterior the courthouse on September 17. “He appears ahead to clearing his identify in court docket.”
Blackmail Accusations Behind Bars
Nonetheless, regardless of being incarcerated Metropolitan Detention Heart in Brooklyn since his arrest, Combs allegedly continued to misbehave.
In mid-November the mogul was accused by prosecutors of utilizing jailmates’ telephones from inside jail to blackmail potential witnesses, and calling up relations, urging them to succeed in out to potential victims and create “narratives.”
“The defendant has proven repeatedly — even whereas in custody — that he’ll flagrantly and repeatedly flout guidelines in an effort to improperly impression the end result of his case. The defendant has proven, in different phrases, that he can’t be trusted to abide by guidelines or circumstances,” prosecutors wrote in a submission that contained redactions.
Combs’ conduct was described as “relentless efforts” to “corruptly affect witness testimony,” the court docket paperwork claimed. The allegations as a part of a movement filed urging the choose to reject Combs’ newest $50 million bail proposal.
Prosecutors stated the mogul started breaking guidelines virtually as quickly as he was detained.
On Sunday 8 December 2024, rapper and music mogul Jay-Z denied allegations that he drugged and raped a 13-year-old woman together with Combs throughout an MTV Video Music Awards after-party in 2000.
The federal lawsuit, which initially solely named Combs, was refiled by lawyer Tony Buzbee in federal court docket on Sunday (8 December). It cites the accuser, “Jane Doe”, who alleges she was assaulted on the home occasion by the 2 music moguls and that an unnamed feminine celeb was within the room on the time.
In an announcement shared to social media, Jay-Z, whose actual identify is Shawn Carter, branded the authorized motion as a “blackmail try”. Combs has denied the allegations.
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The Impartial
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Andrea Cavallier and Josh Marcus , 2024-12-09 08:20:00