NEW YORK– Three men have filed a report Sean “Diddy” Combs Thursday in New York, claiming the hip-hop mogul drugged and raped them.
The lawsuits, filed anonymously in state court, add to a wave of complaints litigating about sexual abuse against the rapper, producer and record executive he also has to deal with federal sex trafficking charges in New York.
Thomas Giuffra, a New York attorney who filed the lawsuits on behalf of the men Thursday, said Combs used his power and wealth to take advantage of prosecutors and then secured their silence through threats and fear.
“This is a long-awaited opportunity for the victims to take back power after years of silently bearing the burden of the attacks,” he said in a statement. “While a lawsuit will not undo the wrongs done to them, it will allow survivors to regain the power and dignity that Sean Combs took from them.”
Lawyers for Combs, the 55-year-old founder of Bad Boy Records, said the claims are without merit.
“These complaints are full of lies,” the lawyers wrote in a statement, without elaborating. “We will prove them false and demand sanctions against any unethical lawyer who has filed fictitious claims against him.”
The lawsuits cover incidents that occurred between 2019 and 2022. The men, all identified as John Doe, say they were unknowingly served drugged drinks and then sexually assaulted by Combs and others.
They are each seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages from Combs.
One of the men claims Combs drugged and raped him in 2020 when the two met in Combs’ suite at the InterContinental hotel in Times Square to discuss payments the man owed as the entrepreneur’s longtime employee.
Another claims he met Combs at a Manhattan nightclub in 2019 and was invited to an afterparty at Combs’ suite at the Park Hyatt hotel, where he was also drugged and raped.
The man said he tried to resist before the drugged drink knocked him out. He also said that after the attack he was given $2,500 by a man who recorded the attack in the bedroom.
The third man claims he was drugged and raped by Combs and associates of his record label during a 2020 summer party at Combs’ mansion in East Hampton, New York.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to the federal government accuses him of coercing and abusing women for years used a network of associates and collaborators to stage drug-fueled, elaborately produced sexual performances known as “Freak Offs” involving male sex workers.
Prosecutors say he then silenced his victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical abuse.
Combs tried to get out until his trial in May, but that didn’t happen bail denied a third time last month and stays indoors a federal prison in Brooklyn.
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Succeed Philip Marcelo twitter.com/philmarcelo.