NEW YORK — Two more women have come forward to accuse Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexual abuse, a week after the music mogul settled a separate lawsuit with singer Cassie that included allegations of rape and physical abuse.
Both new lawsuits were filed Thursday on the eve of the expiration of the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law that gives victims of sexual abuse a year to bring civil action, regardless of the statute of limitations.
The files detail sexual assault, beatings and forcible drugging allegedly committed in the early 1990s by Combs, then a talent director, party promoter and rising figure in New York City’s hip-hop community.
One of the accusers, Joi Dickerson, said she was a 19-year-old student at Syracuse University when she agreed to meet Combs at a Harlem restaurant in 1991. After their date, Combs “intentionally drugged” her and then brought home. and sexually assaulted her, according to the complaint.
Without her knowledge, Combs videotaped the attack and later shared it with several friends in the music industry, the complaint alleges. The public exposure sent Dickerson into a downward spiral, contributing to a severe depression that landed her in the hospital and forced her to drop out of college.
In a separate lawsuit filed Thursday, an unnamed woman accused Combs and an R&B singer Aaron Hall, sexually assaulting her and a friend and beating her a few days later.
The woman – identified only as Jane Doe – said she and her roommate returned to Hall’s house with him and Combs after a music industry event in 1990 or 1991. The accuser said she was forced to have sex with Combs. Then, while she was getting dressed, Hall “barged into the room, held her down and forced Jane Doe to have sex with him,” according to the complaint.
When the victim later spoke to her friend, who also remains unnamed, she learned that her friend “had been forced to have sex with Combs and Hall in another room,” according to the complaint. “Once Combs was finished with Jane Doe, he and Hall exchanged information and belief and began assaulting Jane Doe’s friend,” the complaint said.
A few days later, an “enraged” Combs reportedly showed up at the two women’s home in an attempt to stop them from speaking out about the abuse. He then strangled the woman identified as Jane Doe until she passed out, the complaint said.
An attorney for Combs did not respond to email and phone messages left by The Associated Press. Hall also did not respond to an email.
Tyrone Blackburn, an attorney for the unnamed plaintiff, said his client was working to secure medical documents and witness statements in support of her lawsuit, which was filed late Thursday “in an effort to enforce the statute of limitations.”
Dickerson’s complaint notes that the victim filed police reports in New York and New Jersey after the abuse. Inquiries to the New York City Police Department were not immediately returned. It was not clear in which other jurisdictions the reports may have been filed.
After the filmed attack, Dickerson said she reached out to friends in the music industry asking them to confirm the existence of the “revenge porn” tape, but was rebuffed by those who were “terrified that Combs would take revenge on them and that they would lose future business’. and music opportunities.”
The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Dickerson has done.
Years after the alleged attacks, Combs, now 54, would found his own label Bad Boys Records, helping produce Mary J. Blige and Biggie Smalls on his way to becoming one of the most influential hip-hop producers and managers in the world. the history of the genre.
The two lawsuits follow a separate set of explosive allegations made last week by Cassie Ventura, who said Combs subjected her to a pattern of abuse during their yearslong relationship, which began in 2005, when she was 19 and he was 37.
Among the allegations, Ventura said Combs plied her with drugs, subjected her to “savage” beatings and forced her to have sex with male prostitutes while he masturbated and filmed them. When she tried to end the relationship in 2018, Combs raped her, she alleged.
The lawsuit was settled a day after it was filed for an undisclosed amount.
In a statement shared by her lawyers, Ventura said she wanted to resolve the matter “on conditions that I have some degree of control.”
Combs said: “We have decided to resolve this matter amicably. I wish Cassie and her family all the best. Love.”