Sean “Diddy” Combs’ authorized staff is pushing again in opposition to his accusers in their civil satisfies as a federal sex-trafficking probe continues.
His attorneys are inquiring a New York court docket to toss out portions of a sexual assault lawsuit submitted by attorneys for Joi Dickerson-Neal accusing the rapper of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1991, when she was 19. The lawsuit alleges the assault was recorded and movie footage was shared with Combs’ mates.
The attorneys are seeking to undermine the overall foundation for the suit and inquiring that specified claims, together with allegations of revenge porn and human trafficking, be dismissed with prejudice, meaning they can not be refiled.
Combs, they argued, are unable to be sued in this occasion for the reason that the related New York guidelines about revenge porn and human trafficking did not go into effect until many years soon after the alleged incident. The revenge porn legislation was enacted in 2019, even though the trafficking law came on the publications in 2007.
The submitting comes on the heels of closely armed Section of Homeland Stability brokers bursting into Combs’ Holmby Hills and Miami mansions on March 25 with search warrants and seizing paperwork and electronics as section of a sexual intercourse trafficking investigation directed by prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s business office for the Southern District of New York, in accordance to legislation enforcement resources.
In a movement submitted Friday looking for to dismiss huge chunks of the Dickerson-Neal go well with, Combs’ attorneys labeled its accusations as “false, offensive, and salacious” and stated they “vehemently deny, considerably all of the promises purportedly alleged.” Legal professionals also sought to strike portions of the lawsuit targeting Combs’ corporations due to the fact “the Company Defendants were being not in existence at the time of the alleged perform.”
In accordance to the lawsuit, Dickerson-Neal, then a pupil at Syracuse University, met Combs throughout a split and “reluctantly agreed” to have supper with him at a Harlem cafe, stating he “pushed” her to continue to keep him company right after their food.
The suit, submitted in November, alleges Combs gave the lady prescription drugs that set her in a “physical point out the place she could not independently stand or wander.” When the two arrived at a new music studio, she was not able to get out of the motor vehicle, according to the lawsuit. He then “proceeded to a put he was keeping to sexually assault her,” the submitting states.
Dickerson-Neal is 1 of many women, which include Combs’ longtime girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who have submitted explosive lawsuits accusing the artist of sexually and physically abusing them. Combs has given that settled the Ventura go well with.
All the lawsuits had been submitted underneath the Adult Survivors Act, a law that went into influence in November 2022 in New York that allows men and women who believe they have been sexually assaulted a one particular-year window in the course of which they can sue their abusers, even if the statute of constraints for prosecuting the fundamental alleged crimes had expired.
In February, producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a lawsuit alleging that Combs sexually assaulted and harassed him and that various individuals in his circle engaged in illicit behavior.
In response to growing litigation, Combs wrote on Instagram: “Enough is sufficient. For the previous couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people attempt to assassinate my character, damage my standing and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been produced towards me by persons looking for a fast payday. Let me be certainly apparent: I did not do any of the terrible matters becoming alleged. I will fight for my title, my spouse and children and for the fact.”
His lead attorney, Aaron Dyer, called the federal raids “an unparalleled ambush,” saying, “There has been no finding of prison or civil legal responsibility with any of these allegations.”
“Mr. Combs is innocent and will proceed to struggle each individual single day to crystal clear his name,” Dyer mentioned soon after the search warrants were being served.
