Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs battling to dismiss claims in sexual assault lawsuit
As his legal scandals continue, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is battling to dismiss claims made against him in a November sexual assault lawsuit.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is battling to dismiss claims made against him in a November sexual assault lawsuit.
The scandal-hit ‘I’ll Be Missing You’ rapper, 54, is facing a string of accusations of sexual assault and similar allegations by five people in separate lawsuits filed over the last few months – all of which he has denied, with one of the lawsuits settled.
It has now emerged his lawyers have asked a New York court to dismiss certain claims made against him in a November sexual assault filing, in which a woman accused him of drugging and raping her when she was a student at Syracuse University in 1991.
Legal documents obtained by People and filed by Combs’ attorneys on Friday (26.04.24) say some of the allegations “were brought under statutes that did not exist at the time the alleged misconduct occurred”.
Diddy’s legal team’s filing argues “revenge porn” and human trafficking are among the claims that should be dismissed with prejudice, as the laws surrounding them that were named in the filing did not exist when Joi Dickerson-Neal alleged the rapper sexually assaulted her in 1991.
Combs previously denied the claims and said Joi, 54, fabricated the story.
Her attorneys claimed she was a victim of revenge porn after the music mogul allegedly recorded the incident and shared it with other people in the music business.
Her lawsuit claimed Combs took a then-19-year-old Joi to dinner at a Harlem restaurant in January 1991 and drove her to a recording studio, where she claims she was unable to exit the vehicle because she had been intentionally drugged by Combs.
She added it resulted in her “being in a physical state where she could not independently stand or walk”.
Combs allegedly then took her to where he was staying and sexually assaulted her.
According to the lawsuit, Combs filmed it and her male friend had “viewed the ‘sex tape’ along with other men”.
Bad Boy Entertainment, Bad Boy Records and Combs Enterprises were also listed as defendants in the suit, which came one day before the expiration of the New York Adult Survivors Act.
The law allowed adult sexual assault survivors to file a lawsuit a year after the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Combs’ lawyers claim in the filing that because the New York State Revenge Porn Law was not codified until 2019 and the New York Services for Victims of Human Trafficking Law became effective in 2007 the claims “cannot survive” the motion to dismiss.
The filing also branded Joi’s allegations “false, offensive, and salacious”.
It adds Joi’s claims against Bad Boy Entertainment and Combs Enterprises – founded by Diddy in 1993 and 2013 respectively – “fail as a matter of law” as neither were “in existence at the time of the alleged conduct”.
