Movies Interesting Facts Sean “Diddy” Combs asked a federal judge on Friday to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that he and two co-defendants raped a 17-year-old girl in a New York recording studio in 2003 , saying it was a “false and disgusting claim”. It was filed very late under the law.
The legal move is the latest blow from the 54-year-old hip-hop mogul and his legal team after he was hit with a series of similar lawsuits and a subsequent criminal sex-trafficking investigation.
“Mr. Combs and his companies blatantly deny the plaintiffs’ decades-long story against them, causing irreparable harm to his reputation and business even before any evidence has been presented, including Combs’s actions,” the filing states. The ownership corporations are also named as defendants. “Plaintiff cannot allege what day or time of year the alleged incident occurred, but despite her alleged disabled condition, she miraculously remembers other salacious details. ”
The lawsuit was filed in December and amended in March by the woman who now lives in Canada, whose name was not filed in the court filing. She said she was in the 11th grade at a high school in a Detroit suburb in 2003 when Harvey Pierre, then president of Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment record label, took her on a private jet to New York and took her to a recording studio. , where she was given drugs and alcohol until she was unable to consent to sex. Then, the lawsuit said, Pierre, Combs and a man she did not know took turns raping her.
The lawsuit included photographs of a woman sitting on Combs’ lap, which she said were taken that night.
The defense’s petition asks that the case be “now dismissed with prejudice” – meaning it cannot be refiled – “to protect the Combs defendants from further reputational injury and before That more party and judicial resources may be wasted.”
At this early stage of the trial, the arguments are procedural rather than the facts of the case.
Some of the lawsuits filed against Combs involve decades-old allegations and are among more than 3,700 legal claims filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which gives sexual assault victims one last chance to sue over years of abuse. Some legal deadlines have been temporarily suspended. Or even decades ago.
The new deadline established by that law expired, but the lawsuit Combs filed Friday was brought under a different law, New York City’s Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law. That city law also allows accusers to file civil complaints involving sexual harassment claims after the statute of limitations has expired.
But Combs’ motion argues that the lawsuit was filed too late, because the city law is preempted by state law, provisions of which mean the lawsuit would have to be filed by August 2021 to be timely. Is necessary.
“New York State law supersedes New York City law without exception,” the filing said.
An amended version of the lawsuit filed in March sought to address some of these issues, but Combs’ lawyers argue it didn’t go far enough.
The judge ruled that if the case went ahead after this challenge, the woman would have to reveal her name.
The Associated Press does not generally name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as some of Combs’ accusers have done.
Friday’s defense filing criticizes the lawsuit for including “a bold, legally irrelevant ‘trigger warning’ designed to focus attention on its disgusting and offensive allegations.”
The public airing of the allegations against Combs began with a lawsuit filed in November by singer Cassie, his former pupil and girlfriend, alleging assault, rape and other abuse between 2005 and 2018. The lawsuit, filed by Douglas Wigdor, the same attorney who filed the lawsuit challenged Friday, was settled the day after it was filed. Before the settlement, Combs denied the allegations through his attorney.
More lawsuits were filed against Combs in the following months. Then on March 25, Homeland Security Investigations served search warrants on his homes in Los Angeles and Miami in a sex-trafficking investigation. His lawyer called it a “gross use of military-level force.” Investigation is ongoing. Combs has not been charged.
Last month, Combs filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Joey Dickerson, who said she was a 19-year-old college student when Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her.
Wigdor did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new filing. He said in a statement in December that “the viciousness of these despicable acts has, not surprisingly, scarred our client for life.”
Associated Press Entertainment writer Jonathan Landrum contributed to this report.
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