Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Asks Judge To Dismiss ‘False’ Claim That He, Others Raped 17-Year-Old Girl

Sean “Diddy” Combs asked a federal judge on Friday to dismiss a lawsuit accusing him and two co-defendants of raping a 17-year-old girl at a New York recording studio in 2003, calling it a “false and hideous claim” filed too late under the law.

The legal action is the latest counterattack from the 54-year-old hip-hop entrepreneur and his legal team following many similar cases and a related criminal sex-trafficking investigation.

“Mr. Combs and his companies categorically deny Plaintiff’s decades-old tale against them, which has caused incalculable damage to their reputations and business standing before any evidence has been presented,” the complaint said, naming Combs-owned corporations as defendants. “Plaintiff cannot allege what day or time of year the alleged incident occurred, but miraculously remembers other salacious details, despite her alleged incapacitated condition.”

AP – VOR News Image

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Asks Judge To Dismiss ‘False’ Claim That He, Others Raped 17-Year-Old Girl

The case was launched in December and amended in March by a lady who now lives in Canada but whose name was not revealed in the court filing. She claimed she was in 11th grade at a high school in a Detroit suburb in 2003 when Harve Pierre, then-president of Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment record label, flew her to New York on a private jet and took her to a recording studio, where she was given drugs and alcohol until she was unable to consent to sexual activity. Then, according to the lawsuit, Pierre, Combs, and an unknown male raped her one after the other.

The lawsuit contained images of the woman sitting on Combs’ lap, which she claimed were shot on the night in question.

The defense brief requests that the action be “dismissed now, with prejudice”—which means it cannot be refiled—”to protect the Combs Defendants from further reputational injury and before more party and judicial resources are squandered.”

Michael J. Willemin, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, stated in a statement in reaction to the filing: “At this point, no one should take anything ‘Diddy’ or his lawyers say seriously. Today’s motion is Combs’ desperate attempt to dodge accountability for Ms. Doe’s allegations of gang rape and sexual abuse. “It will not work.”

The arguments are procedural rather than factual at this early stage of the action.

Page 6 – VOR News Image

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Asks Judge To Dismiss ‘False’ Claim That He, Others Raped 17-Year-Old Girl

Some of the lawsuits filed against Combs involve decades-old allegations, and they are among the more than 3,700 legal claims filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which temporarily suspends certain legal deadlines to give sexual assault victims one last chance to sue for abuse that occurred years or even decades ago.

The new deadlines imposed by that statute have expired, but the suit against which Combs filed the petition on Friday was filed under a separate law, New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection statute. That local legislation also allows accusers to file civil lawsuits alleging sexual assault after the statute of limitations has expired.

However, Combs’ motion claims that the action was filed too late since the city law is preempted by state law, which requires the lawsuit to be submitted by August 2021 to be timely.

“New York State law trumps New York City law, without exception,” the lawsuit states.

The updated version of the complaint filed in March attempted to resolve some of these flaws, but Combs’ lawyers claim it did not go far enough.

The judge has ordered that if the action proceeds following this challenge, the woman must give her name.

The Associated Press does not normally name anyone who claims to have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as several of Combs’ accusers have.

Friday’s defense filing also faults the suit for containing “a bolded, legally irrelevant ‘trigger warning’ calculated to focus attention on its salacious and depraved allegations.”

The singer Cassie, who was once Combs’ protege and lover, filed a lawsuit in November alleging beatings, rape, and other forms of abuse from 2005 to 2018. The complaint, submitted by the same attorneys who brought the challenged suit on Friday, was settled the following day. Combs rejected the charges through his lawyer before the settlement.

VOR News Image

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Asks Judge To Dismiss ‘False’ Claim That He, Others Raped 17-Year-Old Girl

Combs faced further lawsuits in the months that followed. Then, on March 25, Homeland Security Investigations served search warrants on his Los Angeles and Miami houses as part of a sex trafficking probe. His lawyer described it as “a gross use of military-level force.” The investigation is continuing. Combs hasn’t been charged.

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

SOURCE – (AP)