Sean “Diddy” Combs is going through a sequence of latest lawsuits filed in federal court docket Monday.
The six complaints, first obtained by NBC News, had been filed within the Southern District of New York on behalf of 4 males and two females, none of whom are named within the filings. The incidents alleged within the complaints span from 1995 to 2021 and embrace allegations of sexual assault and rape.
Among the accusers is a person who was 16 on the time of the alleged incident and a lady who was a 19-year-old school scholar when she alleges Combs raped her in a Manhattan resort room in 2004. All of the incidents occurred in both New York City or the Hamptons, in keeping with the fits. Two of the lawsuits embrace incidents alleged to have occurred at Combs’ lavish Labor Day “White Parties” at his Hamptons property.
The lawsuits had been filed by Texas-based legal professional Tony Buzbee — who introduced at a information convention on Oct. 1 that he was representing accusers with allegations in opposition to Combs — beneath the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act. Under this legislation, victims have a two-year window ending in March 2025 to file older claims.
“We’re going to simply attempt to file instances that we really feel are credible and bonafide,” Buzbee instructed NBC News.
The lawsuits title Combs and his varied companies as defendants, and the accusers are in search of unspecified damages.
NBC News has not independently corroborated any of the allegations within the complaints.
“There’s an overarching theme right here, as you in all probability can see, which is mainly Sean Combs looks like he can do no matter he needs, at any time when he needs to do it,” Buzbee stated in an interview earlier than submitting the lawsuits.
NBC News has reached out to Combs’ authorized workforce for remark. Combs has denied all civil and felony claims through his attorneys, saying the accusations leveled in opposition to him are “sickening” and the results of folks on the lookout for a “fast payday.”
The oldest of the allegations comes from a lady who alleges she was assaulted and raped by Combs in a toilet in 1995 when she attended a music video launch social gathering, court docket paperwork allege. At least two of the lawsuits include allegations that accusers’ drinks had been spiked with medicine making it laborious to battle again throughout alleged sexual assaults.
In one lawsuit, a person alleges he was sexually assaulted in 1998 when he was 16 years previous at one in all Combs’ “White Parties” within the Hamptons. In the lawsuit, he alleges he spoke with Combs about his aspirations to interrupt into the music business and that the interplay took a flip when Combs requested the accuser to show himself. He claims he did so out of concern and that Combs sexually assaulted him, in keeping with the lawsuit.
In 2006, one accuser alleges, Combs sexually assaulted him within the Hamptons at one in all his “White Parties.” The man who labored for a safety firm on the time stated he alerted a supervisor after the incident, in keeping with court docket paperwork.
Then in 2008, one other lawsuit alleges that Combs bodily and sexually assaulted an worker of a preferred clothes model at a Manhattan division retailer, in keeping with the lawsuit. That man, who says he misplaced his job a short-time after the incident, stated he reported the incident to the shop’s safety, in keeping with the lawsuit.
The most up-to-date allegation described in one of many lawsuits was an incident that occurred in 2021. The accuser alleges he felt disoriented after one drink at a celebration and was sexually assaulted by Combs and different unknown males, in keeping with court docket paperwork.
The new filings come because the embattled music mogul is preventing his pre-trial detention on federal racketeering and intercourse trafficking prices. While the particular allegations within the lawsuits are new, the court docket paperwork lay out a disturbing image of drug-fueled events mixed with violence that mirror a number of the particulars in his felony indictment filed by prosecutors within the Southern District of New York final month.
These newest lawsuits come after a New York choose set a May 5 trial date for Combs’ felony case. He is presently awaiting trial on the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Federal prosecutors acknowledged in a listening to final week that they’re going by means of knowledge on over 90 gadgets belonging to Combs that had been seized at his properties in raids this yr and when he was arrested in New York.
Combs, who was denied bail twice by two separate judges, is in search of to have these choices overturned. In a submitting forward of final week’s listening to, attorneys for Combs filed a bail attraction in New York’s federal appeals court docket.
Buzbee’s newest civil fits are amongst a number of filed since Combs’ ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura filed a federal lawsuit in New York practically a yr in the past, accusing Combs of bodily and sexual abuse over a interval of years. Combs and Ventura settled for an undisclosed quantity the next day. In an announcement on the time of the settlement, Combs denied the entire allegations.
But in May, CNN printed a surveillance video of Combs beating Ventura within the hallway of a Los Angeles resort in 2016. Combs then apologized for the incident however stated it was a one-off occasion and that he had sought remedy and had modified.
Last week, Combs’ authorized workforce filed a petition claiming that the federal government had offered the video of the incident involving Ventura to CNN and had been accountable for leaking different info to the media.
“Between the grand jury leaks and the incendiary public statements, the brokers all however ensured that the grand jury can be tainted in addition to most of the people from which we are going to quickly choose a jury,” the submitting acknowledged.
Combs’ authorized workforce is in search of an evidentiary listening to on the matter, however prosecutors have denied the accusations. The choose overseeing the case stated throughout final week’s listening to that he’ll probably impose a reciprocal gag order stopping each side from participating with the media.
In the months since Ventura’s lawsuit, a number of people have sued Combs together with Dawn Richard, a former member of the woman group Danity Kane, who alleged that Combs groped, assaulted and imprisoned her and threatened her life.
CORRECTION (Oct. 15, 2024, 3:25 p.m. ET): A earlier model of this text misspelled the title of the previous girlfriend who filed a federal lawsuit in New York practically a yr in the past in opposition to Combs. She is Casandra Ventura (generally known as Cassie), not Cassandra Venture.