Photo Credit: Live Nation
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs asks a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging he and two other men raped a 17-year-old girl in 2003, saying the ‘decades-old tale’ was filed too late.
On Friday, May 10, Sean “Diddy” Combs filed a request that a federal judge dismiss a lawsuit alleging that he and two co-defendants raped a 17-year-old in 2003. The music mogul and his legal team denied the “false and hideous claim,” adding that the “decades-old tale” was filed outside the statute of limitations.
The filing is just the latest piece of legal pushback from Diddy amid the bevy of similar sexual assault lawsuits, not to mention the federal investigation into sex-trafficking allegations that resulted in raids on his Los Angeles and Miami homes.
“Mr. Combs and his companies categorically deny Plaintiff’s decades-old tale against them, which has caused incalculable damage to their reputations and business standing before any evidence has been presented,” reads the filing. “Plaintiff cannot allege what day or time of year the alleged incident occurred, yet purports to miraculously recall the most prurient details with specificity.”
The filing asks that the case be dismissed with prejudice, which would make it unable to be refiled, “to protect the Combs Defendants from further reputational injury and before more party and judicial resources are squandered.”
Michael J. Willemin, an attorney for the Jane Doe plaintiff, issued a statement in response to the filing. “At this point, no one should take anything ‘Diddy’ or his lawyers say seriously. Today’s motion is just a desperate attempt by Combs to avoid accountability for Ms. Doe’s allegations of gang rape and sexual assault. It won’t work.”
Jane Doe’s lawsuit was filed in December, then amended in March, stating that she was in eleventh grade in high school in 2003. Then, she asserted that Harve Pierre, then-president of Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment imprint, flew her to New York City on a private jet, where she was taken to a recording studio. It was there, the lawsuit alleges, that she was given drugs and alcohol until she was unable to consent, then was raped by Combs, Pierre, and a third man she did not know.
Despite Combs and his team’s assertion that the case should be dismissed altogether, the biggest hurdle for the lawsuit moving forward hinges on the woman revealing her name. Regardless of the plaintiff’s wishes to remain anonymous, the judge has ruled that she will need to reveal her name for the case to continue.
Many of the lawsuits filed against Combs — and other celebrities dealing with similar allegations — have been filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which has temporarily extended certain legal deadlines to give sexual assault victims another opportunity to seek justice for abuse that happened several years ago.
