Sean Combs, lengthy identified by rap aliases as Diddy and Puffy, is dealing with an avalanche of lawsuits and authorized bother. The listing of lawsuits in opposition to Combs has solely gotten longer because the deadline for the Gender-Motivated Violence Act approaches on March 1.
A $60 million lawsuit filed Friday by Sara Rivers, a former member of Da Band (signed to Combs’ Dangerous Boy Information between 2002-2004), accuses the music mogul of verbal abuse and sexual harassment. It additionally lists Common Music, MTV, and quite a few Dangerous Boy executives as defendants.
Rivers, previously generally known as Sara Stokes, claims that throughout the filming of Combs’ 2002 competitors collection, “Making the Band 2,” Combs poked at her consuming dysfunction and hurled many “inhumane” feedback at her, amongst different claims.
Representatives for Common Music, the mum or dad firm of Dangerous Boy Information between 2003 and 2005, didn’t instantly return Selection’s request for remark.
The lawsuit, helmed by Rivers’ legal professional Ariel E. Mitchell, cites an episode of the collection through which Combs made Rivers and the remainder of her bandmates stroll from Manhattan to Brooklyn and again to carry him a cheesecake. She additionally remembers a non-consensual encounter through which she claims Combs approached her, and pressured her right into a nook the place he touched her breasts.
Rivers just lately appeared on Peacock’s 90-minute documentary, “Diddy: The Making of a Dangerous Boy,” which has since change into the middle of a lawsuit filed by Combs in opposition to NBCUniversal, Peacock TV and Ample Leisure for “falsely, recklessly, and maliciously” accusing Combs of serial homicide and intercourse trafficking, amongst different claims.
Within the documentary, Rivers describes Combs’ conduct on the time of the “Making the Band” collection as explosive – “When he acquired indignant with one in all my band members, he mentioned, ‘You make me so mad I need to eat your flesh.’ After which he mentioned to a different one in all my band members, he mentioned, ‘You’re rolling your eyes, I might go get a crackhead and pay them $20 to smack the shit out of you.’ Who says that? That’s loopy.”
Within the lawsuit filed Friday, Rivers additionally accuses Combs of foiling her profession within the music trade. She claims she was by no means paid for her time on the present and was solely paid $5,000 in money for tour performances.
Combs’ mom, Janice Combs, can also be accused by Rivers of allegedly coordinating along with her son to get her to signal a publishing settlement with an organization owned by Janice Combs (Rivers claims she acquired a one-time cost of $25,000 in alternate for signing). Rivers says Combs “interfered” with the file label that provided to signal her, lengthy after Combs made the choice to terminate the band. She claims a kind of offers was offered to her by Capitol Information.
An legal professional for Combs mentioned in a press release, “That is one more instance of false claims being filed in opposition to Mr. Combs. Irrespective of what number of lawsuits are filed, it received’t change the truth that Mr. Combs has by no means sexually assaulted or intercourse trafficked anybody—man or lady, grownup or minor. We reside in a world the place anybody can file a lawsuit for any motive. With the deadline for New York’s Gender-Motivated Violence Act expiring tomorrow, it’s clear that opportunists are speeding to file last-minute, meritless claims. Mr. Combs stays assured he’ll prevail in court docket.”
Beneath is an summary of the accusations which were leveled in opposition to Combs, in addition to the solutions to ceaselessly requested questions on his circumstances.
Why is Combs in jail?
Combs is at the moment incarcerated on the Metropolitan Detention Heart in Brooklyn, New York. He was arrested on Sept. 16, 2024 in Manhattan by Homeland Safety on expenses of racketeering and intercourse trafficking. He pleaded not responsible to a grand jury indictment. He was denied bail by two separate judges, and is ready to stay behind bars till his Might 5, 2025 trial. Combs might face life in jail if discovered responsible of the racketeering cost.
Proof of the costs was sought on March 25, when the Division of Homeland Safety raided the rapper’s houses in Miami, New York and Los Angeles. Electronics together with computer systems have been seized because of containing potential proof.
What are “freak-offs?”
The federal legal indictment describes Diddy’s wild intercourse events full of criminality, generally known as “freak-offs,” in nice element. They’d ceaselessly contain group intercourse, exhibitionism, intercourse staff, copious quantities of medicine and child oil, and may very well be filmed and final for days.
How did Cassie Ventura’s allegations begin a wave of investigation into Combs’ conduct?
Combs’ high-profile ex-girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, filed a prolonged lawsuit in opposition to Combs on Nov. 16, 2023, accusing him of bodily abuse, rape and intercourse trafficking. This included Ventura’s accusation that she participated in quite a few “freak-offs,” the place, as detailed in her lawsuit, Combs “handled the pressured encounter as a private artwork mission, adjusting the candles he used for lighting to border the movies he took.”
The lawsuit was settled privately the subsequent day with undisclosed phrases. On Might 17, 2024, CNN launched lodge surveillance footage of Combs beating Ventura in Los Angeles in 2016, which led to Combs issuing a public apology — the only time he acknowledged wrongdoing since this saga started.
What lawsuits and allegations got here after Cassie filed?
Ventura’s headline-making lawsuit motion was just the start of a wave of authorized motion in opposition to Combs from men and women he allegedly assaulted. His legal professional, Erica Wolff, issued a press release on Oct. 1 denying his culpability within the upcoming wave of fits. “Mr. Combs emphatically and categorically denies as false and defamatory any declare that he sexually abused anybody, together with minors,” mentioned Wolff. “He seems to be ahead to proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court docket, the place the reality might be established based mostly on proof, not hypothesis.”
Nov. 23, 2023: Joi Dickerson-Neal accused Combs of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1991. In a separate lawsuit filed that day, Liza Gardner sued Combs and R&B singer Aaron Corridor for sexually assaulting her and a buddy in 1990.
Dec. 6, 2023: A Jane Doe claimed that Combs, then-Dangerous Boy Information’ president Harve Pierre and one other man raped her in New York Metropolis whereas she was an adolescent.
Feb. 26, 2024: Producer Rodney Jones alleges Combs sexually assaulted him whereas he was an worker from Sept. 2022 to Nov. 2023.
Apr. 4, 2024: Combs is called as a co-defendant in a swimsuit that claims his son Christian “King” Combs sexually assaulted a girl on a yacht. The swimsuit, filed in Los Angeles, alleges that Combs paid to cowl up the assault.
Might 21, 2024: Crystal McKinney, a mannequin, accused Combs of sexual assault in 2003.
Might 24, 2024: April Lampros sued Combs for sexual assault and battery for a collection of incidents from 1994 into the 2000s.
June 10, 2024: Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith filed a lawsuit saying he was sexually assaulted by Combs at a 1997 celebration.
Sept. 10, 2024: “Making the Band” star Daybreak Richard sued Combs, alleging sexual battery, intercourse trafficking, sexual assault and extra.
Sept. 24, 2024: Thalia Graves sued Combs, saying he drugged and raped her in 2001.
September 27, 2024: Jane Doe, a Florida mannequin, sued Combs, alleging she was drugged and sexually assaulted.
October 14, 2024: Six lawsuits, two from ladies and 4 from males, have been filed in opposition to Combs in Manhattan. One man claimed that Combs assaulted him when he was 16 years previous in 1998.
October 20, 2024: Combs was hit with an extra six lawsuits, with one claiming that he sexually assaulted a 13-year-old woman in 2000.
October 28, 2024: A John Doe filed a lawsuit in opposition to Combs alleging that the mogul drugged and raped him when he was 10 years previous. One other filed an analogous swimsuit claiming that he was sexually assaulted when he was 17 years previous whereas auditioning for “Making the Band” in 2008.
November 19, 2024: 5 extra fits have been filed in opposition to Combs by three males and two ladies who make related allegations of being drugged and assaulted. One of many ladies was 17 on the time described within the incident.
December 8, 2024: Jay-Z was added as a defendant in a refiled case, which prompted the rapper to difficulty a swift, fiery rebuttal claiming that the allegations have been unfaithful.
December 12, 2024: Three males filed fits in opposition to Combs, alleging related accusations of sexual assault. One claimed that he was provided $2,500 after an encounter the place he claimed that Combs raped him whereas others filmed the incident.
December 20, 2024: Two ladies filed lawsuits stating that they have been drugged and sexually assaulted throughout separate incidents in 1991 and 2006.
January 13, 2025: A Jane Doe claimed that Combs and two of his male staff drugged and raped her when she was 16 years previous.
February 3, 2025: An aspiring male musician acknowledged that Combs drugged and groped him throughout an afterparty in New York Metropolis.
February 4, 2025: Three new lawsuits have been filed, two by Jane Does alleging drugging and assault within the Nineteen Nineties and one other by a John Doe who was employed by Combs as an grownup entertainer in 2007.
February 6, 2025: A person accused Combs of drugging and raping him at a New York nightclub in 2012 when he was 17 years previous.
February 10, 2025: A musician claimed that Combs orally and anally assaulted him after he was drugged at a celebration in 2022.
February 14, 2025: A Jane Doe accused Combs of drugging her and forcing himself upon her throughout an incident in 1999.
February 27, 2025: Because the deadline for the Gender-Motivated Violence Act approaches, a number of new lawsuits in opposition to Combs are filed within the span of two days. Amongst them is a criticism from an nameless male escort that claims Combs sexually assaulted him after which threatened him to maintain quiet by allegedly saying, “If I can get Pac [Tupac] hit, what the fuck do you suppose can occur to you?”
What additional lawsuits is Combs anticipated to face?
On Oct. 1, 2024, legal professional Tony Buzbee mentioned 120 extra lawsuits are anticipated from alleged victims he’s working with, which embody assaults that occurred within the 2000s and 2010s.
In a press release shared with Selection, Combs’ attorneys mentioned, “The press convention and 1-800 quantity that preceded in the present day’s barrage of filings have been clear makes an attempt to garner publicity. Mr. Combs and his authorized group have full confidence within the info, their authorized defenses, and the integrity of the judicial course of. In court docket, the reality will prevail: that Mr. Combs has by no means sexually assaulted anybody—grownup or minor, man or lady.”
The first batch of six lawsuits, filed on Oct. 14, lays out allegations from a number of women and men, together with a then-16-year-old boy.
What lawsuits has Combs confronted prior to now?
Previous to Ventura’s allegations, Combs was sued by Cindy Rueda in 2017 for sexual harassment and retaliation. The lawsuit was settled in February 2019.
