Three males sued Sean “Diddy” Combs in New York on Thursday, claiming the hip-hop mogul drugged and raped them.
The lawsuits, which had been filed anonymously in a state court docket, add to a wave of sexual assault litigation in opposition to the rapper, producer and file govt as he additionally faces federal intercourse trafficking costs in New York.
Thomas Giuffra, a New York legal professional who filed Thursday’s lawsuits on the lads’s behalf, mentioned Combs used his energy and wealth to make the most of the accusers after which ensured their silence by means of threats and concern.
“This can be a lengthy overdue alternative for the victims to take the ability again after carrying the burden of the assaults in silence for a number of years,” he mentioned in a press release. “Whereas a lawsuit won’t undo the wrongs accomplished to them, it allows the survivors to regain the ability and dignity that was stripped from them by Sean Combs.”
On this courtroom sketch, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo, left, addresses the decide whereas Combs, seated second from proper, in a jail uniform, watches throughout a listening to in federal court docket in New York on Oct. 10, 2024.
Elizabeth Williams through AP
Legal professionals for Combs, 55-year-old founding father of Dangerous Boy Information, mentioned the claims are baseless.
Get every day Nationwide information
Get the day’s prime information, political, financial, and present affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox as soon as a day.
“These complaints are stuffed with lies,” the legal professionals wrote in a press release, declining to elaborate. “We’ll show them false and search sanctions in opposition to each unethical lawyer who filed fictional claims in opposition to him.”
The lawsuits contain incidents happening from 2019 to 2022. The boys, all recognized as John Doe, say they had been unwittingly served drugged drinks after which sexually assaulted by Combs and others.
They every search a jury trial and to be awarded unspecified damages from Combs.
One of many males claims Combs drugged and raped him in 2020 when the 2 met at Combs’ suite on the InterContinental lodge in Occasions Sq. to debate funds the person was owed as a longtime worker of the entrepreneur.
One other claims he met Combs in 2019 at a Manhattan nightclub and was invited to an afterparty at Combs’ suite on the Park Hyatt lodge, the place he was additionally drugged and raped.
The person mentioned he tried to withstand earlier than the drugged drink left him unconscious. He additionally mentioned he was given $2,500 after the assault by a person who had been recording the bed room assault.
The third man claims he was drugged and raped by Combs and associates from his file label throughout a summertime social gathering in 2020 at Combs’ mansion in East Hampton, New York.
Combs has pleaded not responsible to federal costs that he coerced and abused ladies for years, utilizing a community of associates and staff to carry drug-fuelled, elaborately produced sexual performances generally known as “Freak Offs” involving male intercourse staff.
Prosecutors say he then silenced his victims by means of blackmail and violence, together with kidnapping, arson and bodily beatings.
Combs has been searching for to be launched till his trial in Might however was denied bail a 3rd time final month and stays in a federal jail in Brooklyn.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
