Hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is currently in federal custody awaiting trial on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. His arrest in New York came amid a series of civil suits alleging sexual assault and physical violence, some going back to the 1990s. More than two dozen people have filed lawsuits against the rapper, accusing him of using his influence in the entertainment industry to do everything from drugging, assaulting and raping people.
The latest batch of lawsuits include allegations from two men who were underage at the time of the alleged sexual assaults. Both described being hopeful that Mr Combs could help jumpstart their careers in the entertainment industry. The Harlem-born rapper has denied all the allegations, both those laid out in lawsuits and in his federal indictment.
What is the criminal case about?
Mr Combs, 54, was arrested on Monday 16 September in a New York hotel on charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force and transportation for purposes of prostitution. Federal prosecutors have accused him of “creating a criminal enterprise” in which he “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfil his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct”.
They said Mr Combs had used drugs, violence and the power of his status to “lure female victims” into extended sex acts called “Freak Offs”. They also revealed they had uncovered firearms, ammunition and more than 1,000 bottles of lubricant during raids on Mr Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles in March.
Prosecutors have reportedly been in touch with several witnesses who worked under Mr Combs and some of the accusers currently suing him, and have left open the possibility of more charges. The singer-producer has pleaded not guilty to the three felony counts against him and his attorney told reporters he was a “fighter” who was “not afraid of the charges”.
Mr Combs is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a federal jail notorious for its violence and poor inmate care. MDC includes an extra-security section with barracks-style housing reserved for special detainees, and US media report that Mr Combs is sharing the space with convicted cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried.
His legal team sought his release pending trial because of the jail’s “horrific” conditions, but prosecutors argued he posed “a serious flight risk” and Mr Combs has twice been denied bail. If convicted, he faces a sentence of anywhere from 15 years to life in prison.
Who are his accusers?
Cassie Ventura was Mr Combs’ on-and-off girlfriend for 11 years Mr Combs’ former on-and-off girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, was first to blow the whistle on the self-proclaimed “bad boy for life”. In a lawsuit filed last November, the model and musician alleged he had “trapped” her for over a decade in a “cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking”.
Mr Combs “vehemently” denied the claims. A day after the suit landed in court, both parties said they had “amicably” settled the case, though Mr Combs’ attorney said the settlement was “in no way an admission of wrongdoing”.
But in May, CNN obtained surveillance footage that showed the entertainer-turned-entrepreneur assaulting Ms Ventura in a 2016 altercation that is detailed in her suit. Mr Combs finally acknowledged the incident in an Instagram video two days later, saying he was “disgusted” by what he had done.
“My behaviour on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions,” he said. At least 27 others – including several men – have since come forward with their own claims. Here are details from some of the cases – many have included plaintiffs who filed anonymously.
Joi Dickerson-Neal, who said Ms Ventura had inspired her to speak out, alleged Mr Combs had “intentionally drugged” and raped her when she was a Syracuse University student in 1991, and had made her a victim of revenge porn by filming the assault and showing it to others. Representatives for Mr Combs blasted the lawsuit as “purely a money grab” and have asked for it to be dismissed.
Liza Gardner accused Mr Combs and R&B crooner Aaron Hall of plying her with drinks and then forcing her to have sex with them against her will when she was 16 years old. She also claimed that Mr Combs had visited her home the next day and choked her until she passed out. Mr Combs’ attorney slammed the claims as “bogus”.
The three initial lawsuits were brought under New York state’s Adult Survivors Act, which granted adult victims a one-year window to bring claims against their abusers regardless of statutes of limitation. A woman so far identified only as Jane Doe claimed that Mr Combs, former Bad Boy Records president Harve Pierre and a third person had violently gang-raped her in a New York City studio when she was a 17-year-old high school student.
A few days later, Mr Combs broke his silence on social media against “sickening allegations… by individuals looking for a quick pay day”. His attorneys are seeking to dismiss the “baseless and time-barred” case. Mr Pierre has meanwhile called the suit a “tale of fiction”.
Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, a producer and videographer who worked on Mr Combs’ most recent album, accused the mogul of running an illegal racketeering enterprise in which he was forced to procure drugs, solicit sex workers and tape sex acts. He also claimed Mr Combs and actor Cuba Gooding Jr had groped him without consent.
Grace O’Marcaigh, who worked on a yacht leased by the Combs family in 2022, accused the rapper and his son, Christian “King” Combs, of sexual assault. She blamed them for creating an “environment of debauchery” with suspected sex workers and top celebrities aboard. Crystal McKinney claimed she had been drugged and sexually assaulted by Mr Combs following a Men’s Fashion Week event in 2003 when she was 22 years old. She also said he had subsequently “blackballed” her in the modelling world.
April Lampros, who says she met Mr Combs as a student at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology in 1994, detailed “four terrifying sexual encounters” through the early 2000s. Adria English, a former adult-film actress who worked with Mr Combs in the 2000s, said he had used her as a “sexual pawn for the pleasure and financial benefit of others” during the “White Parties” he hosted at his homes in New York and Miami.
Dawn Richards, who once sang in two Combs-assembled groups including Danity Kane, said she had personally witnessed his violence against Ms Ventura and that he had threatened her life when she tried to intervene. Thalia Graves, who is backed by celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred, claimed Mr Combs and his bodyguard Joseph Sherman had sedated, overpowered and tied her up before recording themselves raping her and later distributing the sex tape.
Six anonymous accusers: Six lawsuits were filed on 14 October by four men and two women. One of the women accused Mr Combs of raping her at a hotel and another suit accused the rapper of ordering a 16-year-old boy to undress when the teen was talking to him about breaking into the music industry.
Ashley Parham filed a lawsuit on 15 October claiming that Mr Combs had raped her as “payback” for a comment she made suggesting that he was responsible for the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur. Shakur’s murder has never been solved, but a man currently on trial for his murder has previously claimed that Mr Combs had paid for him to be killed.
Mr Combs’ legal team has dismissed the flurry of lawsuits as “clear attempts to garner publicity.” “Mr Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defences, and the integrity of the judicial process,” his attorneys said in a statement, adding: “Mr Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone – adult or minor, man or woman.”
Nine more lawsuits were filed anonymously between 20 October and 28 October. Many of the lawsuits were filed by adults who said they were underage at the time of the alleged sexual assaults. Two male accusers said in lawsuits that they were sexually assaulted while meeting with the mogul about their careers in the music industry while they were minors. Several of the lawsuits included details that the incidents happened at some of Mr Combs’ notorious parties.
SOURCE: BBC
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