Sean “Diddy” Combs has been accused of sexual assault by a former male colleague. The new lawsuit is the newest in a string of disturbing allegations of an analogous nature in opposition to the music mogul, all of which he denies. Yahoo Entertainment has reached out to Combs’s lawyer for remark.
Here’s what is going on on.
Music producer claims Diddy would grope him, parade round bare. He’s looking for $30 million.
Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, a producer on Diddy’s 2023 album, filed the lawsuit in federal courtroom in New York on Monday in opposition to the rapper and a number of other associates. Jones alleges to have witnessed Combs and others “engaging in serious illegal activity” whereas he lived and traveled with the celebrity from September 2022 to November 2023.
In paperwork obtained by NBC News, Jones claims Combs pressured him to solicit intercourse staff, some underage. The producer alleges he was pressured into having intercourse with them at Combs’s route. Images of the alleged gatherings that seem to point out intercourse staff at events at Combs’s properties are included in the submitting. Jones claims that some of the intercourse staff got drinks laced with medicine at Combs’s route. On not less than one event, in keeping with the swimsuit, Jones says he believes he was drugged as he wakened bare and disoriented in mattress with Combs and two intercourse staff.
Jones alleges he was pressured to work in Combs’s toilet as the entrepreneur showered bare. When he voiced concern to Combs’s chief of employees, it was dismissed as “friendly horseplay, stating that those acts were Mr. Combs way of ‘showing that he likes you,'” per the lawsuit. Jones alleges there was “constant unsolicited and unauthorized groping and touching of his anus” by Combs.
Jones alleges Combs was “grooming him to pass him off to his friends,” in keeping with the criticism seen by The Hollywood Reporter. He’s suing for harassment and assault, looking for $30 million in damages.
Combs calls newest allegations “pure fiction”
Combs’s legal professional, Shawn Holley, slams Jones and says his “reckless name-dropping about events that are pure fiction and simply did not happen is nothing more than a transparent attempt to garner headlines.”
“We have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies. Our attempts to share this proof with Mr. Jones’s attorney, Tyrone Blackburn, have been ignored, as Mr. Blackburn refuses to return our calls,” Combs’s lawyer says in an announcement to The Hollywood Reporter. “We will address these outlandish allegations in court and take all appropriate action against those who make them.”
Combs has been sued for sexual assault, harassment and/or misconduct by 4 different individuals since November 2023. Here’s a rundown of the accusations.
Casandra Ventura: The singer generally known as Cassie filed a federal lawsuit accusing her longtime ex-boyfriend of rape, intercourse trafficking and different disturbing allegations. In a shocking transfer, the two introduced the case was settled days later earlier than any proceedings might start.
Joi Dickerson-Neal: The girl alleges in a civil swimsuit that Combs drugged and raped her in New York City in 1991, when she was a school scholar. She claims he filmed the assault and shared it with different individuals in the music trade.
Jane Doe 1: A girl alleges Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall took turns raping her and a pal at Hall’s New York condo in 1990 or 1991.
Jane Doe 2: A girl claims Combs was amongst three males who gang-raped her in 2003 when she was 17 years outdated. She additionally accused the music mogul of intercourse trafficking in the civil swimsuit.
Various legal guidelines allowed these individuals to file complaints in opposition to Combs. The New York state Adult Survivors Act (ASA), which expired in November, offered alleged sexual abuse survivors in the state a “one-year look back window” to file civil claims regardless of any standing statute of limitations. This utilized in the case of Cassie, Dickerson-Neal and Jane Doe 1.
As for the second Jane Doe, who introduced her lawsuit in December, it was filed below the New York City Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act. The regulation additionally extends the statute of limitations for gender-based crimes like sexual assault.
Do these lawsuits impression Jones’s case?
New York-based legal professional Judie Saunders, a associate with ASK LLP who’s an knowledgeable in circumstances involving sexual abuse and misconduct, tells Yahoo Entertainment these lawsuits are necessary for a number of causes.
“Past lawsuits naming the same defendant or the workplace impact future litigation for two reasons. First, on a granular level, past lawsuits could be instrumental in establishing an individual and organization’s practice of engaging in sexually abusive behaviors,” the litigator says. “Second, prior lawsuits have the impression of alerting the public to doable risks.”
Saunders adds: “Fear and violence are the handiest instruments used to silence survivors. Those instruments will solely lose their efficacy when managers, artists, producers, composers, set designers, dancers, stylists and others inside the music trade function witnesses, litigants and advocates.”
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