Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs asks judge to dismiss ‘false’ claim that he, others raped 17-year-old girl

Sean “Diddy” Combs asked a federal judge on Friday to dismiss a lawsuit alleging he and two co-defendants raped a 17-year-old girl at a New York recording studio in 2003. He said it was a “false and appalling claim”. which was submitted too late according to the law.

The legal action is the latest pushback from the 54-year-old hip-hop mogul and his legal team after he was subjected to several similar lawsuits and a subsequent criminal investigation into sex trafficking.

“Mr. Combs and his companies categorically deny the plaintiff’s decades-old narrative against them, which has caused incalculable damage to their reputation and business standing before any evidence was presented,” said the filing, which also includes companies owned by Combs are named as defendants. “Plaintiff cannot claim what day or time of year the alleged incident occurred, but miraculously remembers other salacious details despite her alleged incapacity.”

The lawsuit was filed in December and amended in March by the woman who now lives in Canada and whose name was not included in the lawsuit. She said she was in 11th grade at a suburban Detroit high school in 2003 when Harve Pierre, then the president of Combs’ record label Bad Boy Entertainment, flew her to New York on a private jet and took her to a recording studio brought. , where she was given drugs and alcohol until she was no longer able to consent to sex. Then, the lawsuit says, Pierre, Combs and a man she did not know took turns raping her.

The lawsuit included photos of the woman sitting on Combs’ lap that she said were taken on the night in question.

The defense is asking that the case be “dismissed now, with prejudice” – meaning it cannot be refiled – “to protect the Combs defendants from further reputational damage and before further party and judicial resources are wasted .”

At this early stage in the lawsuit, arguments are procedural rather than based on the facts of the case.

Some of the lawsuits filed against Combs involve decades-old allegations and are among more than 3,700 legal claims filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily suspended certain legal deadlines to give sexual assault victims a final opportunity to file a lawsuit alleging abuse that occurred for years. or even decades ago.

The new deadlines set by that law expired, but the lawsuit Combs filed against Friday was filed under a different law, New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law. That city law also allows plaintiffs to file civil complaints related to sexual assault claims after the statute of limitations has expired.

But Combs’ motion argues the lawsuit was filed too late because the city law is undermined by state law, whose provisions mean the lawsuit had to be filed before August 2021 to be timely.

“New York state law trumps New York City law without exception,” the filing said.

The amended version of the lawsuit filed in March attempted to address some of these issues, but Combs’ attorneys argue it did not go far enough.

The judge has ruled that the woman must reveal her name if the trial continues after this challenge.

The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as some of Combs’ accusers have done.

Friday’s defense also criticized the lawsuit for including “a risqué, legally irrelevant ‘trigger warning’ intended to draw attention to the salacious and depraved allegations.”

The public airing of allegations against Combs began with a November lawsuit by singer Cassie, his former protégé and girlfriend, alleging assault, rape and other abuse between 2005 and 2018. The lawsuit, filed by Douglas Wigdor, the same attorney who brought the charges filed the lawsuit that was challenged on Friday and was settled the day after it was filed. Combs denied the allegations through his attorney before the settlement.

More lawsuits were filed against Combs in the following months. Then on March 25, Homeland Security Investigations served search warrants at his homes in Los Angeles and Miami in a sex trafficking investigation. His lawyer called it “a gross use of force at a military level.” The investigation continues. Combs has not been charged.

Last month, Combs filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Joi Dickerson, who said she was a 19-year-old college student when Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her.

Wigdor did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new filing. He said in a statement in December that the “depravity of these abhorrent acts has, unsurprisingly, scarred our client for life.”

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Associated Press Entertainment writer Jonathan Landrum contributed to this report.