Sean “Diddy” Combs, a rapper and music mogul credited with serving to launch the careers of among the greatest stars lately, is now dealing with a number of civil lawsuits accusing him of intercourse trafficking, sexual abuse and rape.
Combs, previously referred to 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 25 March as he faces a string of various accusations.
Combs, 54, has strongly denied the entire allegations in opposition to him. His attorneys have branded the lawsuits and their accusations as cash grabs, “baseless” or “sickening.”
The entertainer has not been formally charged or accused by federal prosecutors of any crime.
On 17 Could, 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 tug 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 duty for his actions within the video”.
The slew of allegations in lawsuits in opposition to Combs date way back to the Nineteen 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 associate, 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 come back ahead with civil claims whatever the statute of limitations.
Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura
R&B singer Cassie, whose full title is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit in 2023 alleging that she was trafficked, raped and crushed 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.
Ms Ventura mentioned that the sample of abuse started as quickly as their relationship began and that, as she was attempting to finish it in 2018, he compelled himself into her Los Angeles dwelling and raped her.
On Could 17, surveillance footage obtained by CNN confirmed an incident which appeared to corroborate components of Ms Ventura’s authentic criticism. 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.
In response to the criticism, which cited the altercation as occurring “round March 2016,” Combs turned “extraordinarily intoxicated and punched Ms Ventura within the face, giving her a black eye.”
The surveillance footage confirmed Combs leaving Ms 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 criticism.
![Cassie (left) and Sean “Diddy” Combs at the 2017 Met Gala. Cassie filed a lawsuit in 2023 alleging that she was trafficked, raped and beaten by Combs on many occasions over the course of 10 years](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/11/16/22/newFile.jpg)
On Sunday (19 Could), Combs launched a video apologising for his actions within the video, calling his behaviour “inexcusable” and saying he “takes full duty for his actions within the video”.
The lawsuit in opposition to Combs was settled for an undisclosed amount of cash a day after Ms Ventura filed it.
Ms Ventura advised CNN she had chosen to “resolve this matter amicably,” whereas Combs’ legal professional mentioned 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 way of the New York Grownup Survivors Act (ASA), which expired at midnight on 23 November 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 dropped at gentle.
Greater than 2,500 instances had been filed beneath the ASA earlier than its expiry at midnight on 23 November 2023, courtroom knowledge despatched to The Impartial confirmed.
Survivors introduced lawsuits in opposition to among the state’s strongest males, together with main gamers in leisure, equivalent to Invoice Cosby, Harvey Weinstein, Axl Rose, and Combs.
Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones
In the latest 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 path” and that he was compelled 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 yr.
He mentioned he has video and audio proof of Combs, his workers and others “participating in severe criminality.” The lawsuit recognized Rapper 50 Cent‘s former girlfriend and the mom of considered one of his youngsters, Daphne Pleasure, as one of many alleged intercourse staff.
The lawsuit additionally alleges that Combs usually 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 shouldn’t be accused of any wrongdoing or of attending events himself.
Combs’s legal professional advised The Los Angeles Occasions that the lawsuit accommodates “reckless name-dropping about occasions which can be pure fiction and easily didn’t” happen.
Ryan Mendelsohn, 20, who used to stay within the space the place Combs’ Los Angeles property was searched, advised reporters he would see events on the dwelling and girls exterior till 6am, which was not regular.
“I drive by rather a lot, and I see that — a number of women, possibly 5 or 6 women exterior, some leaving, some not, some entering into,” he mentioned, 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 university scholar 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 individuals.
She later filed police reviews in New York and New Jersey, spoke to prosecutors, however was advised 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 a press release in assist of” her, NBC Information reported, citing the lawsuit.
Extra girls come ahead
Since November, three extra girls have come ahead with lawsuits within the Southern District of New York alleging that they had been sexually assaulted by Combs, based on NBC Information.
Two of the ladies mentioned 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 good friend 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 residence 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 good friend, the plaintiff allegedly came upon she had additionally “been compelled to have intercourse with Combs and Corridor in one other room,” based on the swimsuit.
Just a few days later, Combs allegedly visited the plaintiff and her good friend at a house the place they had been staying, the place he turned “irate and commenced 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,” wherein Jane Doe was flown by personal jet from her dwelling in Michigan to New York.
![Diddy has denied all of the allegations against him](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/05/22/07/newFile-1.jpg)
In Could, after the stunning 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 mentioned 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 criticism filed in New York Metropolis.
The lawsuit alleged that McKinney arrived to search 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 mentioned.
She alleged that Combs led her to the toilet the place she was compelled to carry out oral intercourse on him.
Days after McKinney’s lawsuit was filed, April Lampros – who met Diddy whereas she was a scholar – claimed Diddy had sexually assaulted a number of instances between 1995 and the early 2000s.
Lampros mentioned she met the rapper in 1994 whereas she was a university scholar on the Style Institue of Expertise in New York and interning at Arista, then the mum or dad firm of Diddy’s label Unhealthy Boy Leisure.
After assembly her at a bar in New York, she “succumbed to strain” to drink alcohol after “delusional and violent outbursts”, based on the federal criticism 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 compelled himself on Lampros regardless of her protests. “Ms Lampros was being raped by Mr Combs, and she or he quickly handed out,” it mentioned.
The rapper allegedly then “love-bombed her” and his advances later “manifested into an aggressive, coercive and abusive relationship primarily based 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 residence in Manhattan. When the coed tried to distance herself from the rapper following the assault he allegedly gave her “presents 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 compelled 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. Nevertheless, when she noticed him at an occasion on the Rockefeller Middle within the early 2000s he begged to see her once more and she or he allowed him to come back to her residence the place he kissed and touched her in opposition to her will, the lawsuit alleged.
In 2023, Lampros alleges an unidentified man approached her associate on the time and mentioned 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 understanding and confirmed it to a number of individuals,” the submitting claimed.
![Diddy issued an apology to Cassie](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/05/20/07/fdb0ILDi-720.jpg)
Combs’s response to allegations
Sean Combs has strongly denied all of the accusations in opposition to him and vowed to “struggle for my title, my household and for the reality.”
In a press release in December, following the lawsuit introduced by Jane Doe, he known as the claims “sickening” and mentioned his accusers had been “in search of a fast payday”.
“Let me be completely clear: I didn’t do any of the terrible issues being alleged,” he mentioned in a press release. “I’ll struggle for my title, my household and for the reality.”
Combs’ lawyer, Shawn Holley, branded the occasions described within the lawsuit as “pure fiction”.
“Now we have overwhelming, indeniable proof that his claims are full lies,” he mentioned. “We are going to deal with these outlandish allegations in courtroom and take all applicable motion in opposition to those that make them.”
Following the settlement with Ventura, Ben Brafman, one other legal professional for Combs, advised 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’ choice to settle the lawsuit doesn’t in any means undermine his flat-out denial of the claims.
“He’s glad they bought to a mutual settlement and needs Ms Ventura the perfect.”
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 instances in his life”, saying that he was “f***ed up” and is “disgusted by his actions”.