7-12-2023 (NEW YORK) Sean “Diddy” Combs, the well-known hip-hop star and founder of Bad Boy Records, has found himself in legal trouble once again as he was accused in federal court on Wednesday of participating in the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl. This marks the fourth lawsuit in recent weeks that has leveled sexual assault allegations against him.
In response to the accusations, the 54-year-old Combs issued a statement categorically proclaiming his innocence and stating that his accusers were simply “looking for a quick payday.”
The latest lawsuit involves a plaintiff identified as Jane Doe, who was described as a high school student when she encountered individuals associated with Combs at a lounge in the Detroit area 20 years ago.
According to the complaint, she was flown on a private jet from Michigan to the New York area and driven to a recording studio in New York City, where Combs and two other men allegedly provided her with drugs and alcohol.
The lawsuit further claims that the plaintiff was then raped in a studio bathroom by Combs and the two other men, one after the other, as she drifted in and out of consciousness. It alleges that Combs even watched one of the assaults after he had finished.
Afterward, she was flown back to Michigan but had little recollection of her return trip to the Detroit suburbs, according to the lawsuit.
As evidence supporting her allegations, the lawsuit includes several photos supposedly depicting the accuser inside Combs’ studio. The plaintiff’s face in these photos has intentionally been blurred. One particular photo shows her sitting on Combs’ lap, both of them facing the camera.
The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, states that the plaintiff has experienced “extreme emotional distress that has impacted nearly every aspect of her life and personal relationships.”
This lawsuit was filed under New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law, which allows accusers to sue for alleged offenses that occurred a long time ago, even if the statutes of limitations have expired.
The latest accuser of Combs stated that she chose to come forward after reading news reports about the lawsuit brought against him last month by his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura. In that case, she accused Combs of subjecting her to physical abuse, sex trafficking, and rape over a period of ten years. Combs and Ventura announced the next day that they had reached a confidential settlement.
Combs’ attorney, Ben Brafman, clarified at the time that the settlement did not imply any admission of wrongdoing and that his client maintained a “flat-out denial” of Ventura’s claims.
However, Combs faced two more lawsuits within days of the settlement. One lawsuit, filed by a plaintiff named Joi Dickerson-Neal, accused the rap mogul of drugging and sexually assaulting her while she was a student at Syracuse University in 1991. The other lawsuit, filed by another “Jane Doe,” accused him of forcing her and a friend into nonconsensual sex in the early 1990s. Combs has denied these allegations as well.
In a social media post on Wednesday, Combs expressed his frustration, stating, “For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged.”
One of the two men accused of raping the plaintiff in the latest lawsuit was identified in the complaint as Harve Pierre, a former high-ranking executive at Bad Boy Records. The third assailant was not named in the complaint.
Pierre himself faced separate allegations last month in a lawsuit that claimed he had used his position of authority at Bad Boy to groom and sexually assault a former assistant.
Attempts to reach Pierre or any representatives for comment were unsuccessful. A spokesperson for Bad Boy informed People magazine last month that the record label was “investigating the allegations.”
