Sean “Diddy” Combs told a federal judge Friday that he made “false and abhorrent allegations” in a lawsuit alleging that he and two co-defendants raped a 17-year-old girl at a New York recording studio in 2003. I asked that it be dismissed as such. It was too late according to the law.
The legal action comes after the 54-year-old hip-hop mogul was the subject of multiple similar lawsuits and subsequent criminal sex trafficking investigations. It is a repulsion.
“Mr. Combs and his company categorically deny the plaintiff’s decades-long story that caused untold damage to the company’s reputation and business standing before any evidence was produced.” ,” the complaint states, and also names companies owned by Combs as defendants. “Plaintiff cannot claim the date or time when the incident allegedly occurred, but miraculously remembers other sordid details despite his alleged incapacity.”
The lawsuit, filed in December and amended in March by a woman who now lives in Canada, was not named in the court filing. In 2003, when she was in the 11th grade at a high school in suburban Detroit, Harv Pierre, then president of Combs’ record label Bad Boy Entertainment, flew her to New York on a private jet and set her up in a recording studio. He said he was taken away. , where she was given drugs and alcohol until she could no longer consent to sex. Pierre, Combs and a man she did not know then took turns raping her, her complaint states.
The complaint also included a photo of a woman sitting on Combs’ lap that was allegedly taken on the night in question.
The defense’s filing states that the case should be “dismissed now with prejudice,” meaning it cannot be refiled, “to protect Combs from further reputational damage and before further party and judicial resources are wasted.” I’m looking for it.
Michael J. Willemyn, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said in a statement responding to the allegations: “At this point, no one should take anything ‘funny’ or what a lawyer says seriously. Today’s motion is an attempt by Mr. Combs to avoid accountability for Mr. Doe’s gang rape and sexual assault allegations. It’s just a desperate attempt. It won’t work.”
At this early stage of litigation, arguments are procedural rather than based on the facts of the case.
Some of the lawsuits filed against Combs include decades-old allegations and specific legal deadlines to give sexual assault victims one last chance to sue years of abuse. It is one of more than 3,700 legal claims brought under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily suspends. Or even decades ago.
Although a new deadline established by the law has expired, Combs’ lawsuit filed Friday was filed under a separate law, New York City’s Gender-Motivated Violence Victim Protection Act. The city’s law also allows accusers to file civil lawsuits involving sexual assault allegations after the statute of limitations has expired.
But Mr. Combs’ motion is slow in filing the lawsuit because the city law preempts the state law, meaning that in order to file a lawsuit in a timely manner, the lawsuit must be filed by August 2021. He claims that it was too much.
“Without exception, the laws of the State of New York supersede the laws of the City of New York,” the filing states.
An amended version of the lawsuit filed in March attempts to address some of those issues, but Combs’ lawyers argue it doesn’t go far enough.
The judge ruled that if the case were to proceed after this challenge, the woman would have to reveal her name.
The Associated Press typically does not publish the names of people who allege sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as some of Combs’ accusers did.
Friday’s defense filing also criticized the suit for containing “bold and legally irrelevant ‘trigger warnings’ calculated to draw attention to vile and vile allegations.”
Public disclosure of the accusations against Combs began with a lawsuit filed in November by his former protégé and girlfriend, singer Kathy, which includes allegations of assault, rape and other abuse from 2005 to 2018. The complaint was filed by the same attorney who filed the lawsuit. The appeal was filed on Friday, and the settlement was reached the day after the filing. Combs denied his charges through his lawyer before the settlement.
Additional lawsuits against Combs were filed in the months that followed. And on March 25, the Department of Homeland Security issued search warrants for his homes in Los Angeles and Miami in a sex trafficking investigation. His lawyer called it a “terrible military-level use of force.” The investigation continues. Combs has not been charged.
Last month, Combs filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Joy Dickerson. Dickerson claimed she was a 19-year-old college student when Combs drugged her and sexually assaulted her.
___
Associated Press Entertainment Writer Jonathan Landrum contributed to this report.
