Sean “Diddy” Combs asks judge to dismiss ‘false’ rape lawsuit

Sean “Diddy” Combs on Friday asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging he and two co-defendants raped a 17-year-old girl in a New York recording studio in 2003, saying it was “false and a vile claim.” it was submitted too late, in accordance with the law.

The legal move is one more show of opposition from the 54-year-old hip-hop mogul and his legal team after he faced several similar lawsuits and a subsequent sex trafficking investigation.

“Mr. Combs and his companies categorically deny plaintiffs’ decades-long narrative against them, which caused incalculable damage to their reputation and business standing before any evidence was presented,” reads the lawsuit, which also names corporations owned by Combs as defendants “Plaintiff cannot state what day or time of year the alleged event occurred, but she miraculously remembers other salacious details despite her alleged incapacitated condition.”

The lawsuit was filed in December and amended in March by a girl now living in Canada, whose name was not disclosed within the court filing. She said she was within the eleventh grade at a suburban Detroit highschool in 2003 when Harve Pierre, then president of Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment record label, took her to New York on a personal jet and took her to a recording studio, where she was given drugs and alcohol until she was unable to consent to sex. Then, the lawsuit states, Pierre, Combs and a person she didn’t know took turns raping her.

The lawsuit included photos of the girl sitting on Combs’ lap that she said were taken that evening.

The defense filing asked that the case be “dismissed with prejudice at this time” – meaning it can’t be refiled – “in order to protect Defendants Combs from further reputational harm and before more of the parties’ and judicial resources are wasted.”

One of the plaintiff’s lawyers, Michael J. Willemin, said in a press release filed in response to the lawsuit: “At this point, no one should take anything that ‘Diddy’ or his lawyers say seriously.” Today’s motion is merely a desperate attempt by Combs to avoid responsibility for Ms. Doe’s allegations of gang rape and sexual assault. It won’t work.”

At this early stage within the lawsuit, the arguments are procedural, not factual.

Some of the lawsuits filed against Combs involve decades-old allegations and are amongst greater than 3,700 legal claims filed under New York’s Adult Defenders Act, which temporarily suspended certain legal deadlines to give survivors of sexual assault one last likelihood to file harassment lawsuits , which took place a few years ago. and even several dozen years ago.

The law’s latest deadlines have expired, but Combs’ lawsuit filed Friday was brought under a distinct law, New York’s Gender-Based Violence Victims Protection Act. This city law also allows accusers to file civil complaints for sexual assault claims after the statute of limitations has passed.

Combs’ motion, nonetheless, argued that the lawsuit was filed too late because town law is preempted by state law, which implies the lawsuit have to be filed by August 2021 to be timely.

“New York law is superior to New York law without exception,” the filing reads.

An amended version of the lawsuit filed in March sought to address a few of these issues, but Combs’ attorneys say it didn’t go far enough.

A judge ruled that the girl would have to reveal her name if the lawsuit continued after the challenge.

The Associated Press doesn’t typically name individuals who say they’ve been victims of sexual abuse unless they arrive forward publicly, as a few of Combs’ accusers did.

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In Friday’s filing, the defense also criticizes the lawsuit for including “a bold, legally irrelevant ‘trigger warning’ calculated to focus attention on the salacious and depraved allegations.”

The public exposure of the allegations against Combs began with a November lawsuit filed by singer Cassie, his former protégé and girlfriend, alleging battery, rape and other harassment from 2005 to 2018. The grievance, filed by the identical lawyers who filed the lawsuit filed on Friday, was resolved the day after it was filed. Combs denied the allegations through his lawyer before the settlement.

In the next months, additional lawsuits were filed against Combs. Then, on March 25, Homeland Security issued search warrants at his homes in Los Angeles and Miami as a part of a sex trafficking investigation. His lawyer called it “an egregious use of force at the military level.” The investigation continues. Combs was not charged.

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