Sean “Diddy” Combs faces yet another lawsuit, accusing him and two other associates of trafficking a 17-year-old across state lines, drugging with “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol,” and raping her in 2003. This is the fifth against the sing in less than four weeks.
Last month, Combs settled a lawsuit filed by his ex-partner Cassie, who accused the mogul of rape and abuse. Three more similar lawsuits followed, filed just as New York’s Adult Survivors Act was set to expire. However, this latest accusation was filed under the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Act, giving survivors of gender-motivated crimes a two-year window for claims outside the statute of limitations, per Rolling Stone. Cassie’s attorney, Douglas H. Wigdor, also represents this latest accuser, identified as Jane Doe.
As with the other suits, Combs has denied wrongdoing. “Enough is enough. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy,” he told Rolling Stone. “Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
The case claims that when Doe was 17 years old and an 11th grader in high school, she met Combs’ longtime business and creative partner, Harve Pierre, at a lounge in Detroit. Pierre allegedly called Combs, who invited her to New York via Combs’ private jet that night. She arrived at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey and was taken to Combs’ studio with Pierre and the third man.
At the studio, Doe claims she was fed “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol.” The suit accuses Combs of bringing the intoxicated teen into a bathroom, removing her clothes, and raping her over the sink. The lawsuit claims that Pierre and the third man also took turns raping the teenager. Afterward, she was left in “the fetal position” on the bathroom floor. When she “regained her bearings,” she was taken to the airport and flown back to Michigan. The suit includes pictures of the then-teenage Jane Doe in Combs’ studio and sitting on his lap. Wigdor says Doe’s claim came about due to Cassie’s suit, creating space for more accusers to come forward in solidarity.
“Within minutes of the filing, salient facts of Ms. Ventura’s claims were confirmed by various witnesses, including a rival musician whose car Mr. Combs blew up as well as various individuals who observed Mr. Combs beat Ms. Ventura.”