The disgraced entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was hit with six new lawsuits on Monday that accused the rap impresario of raping women, sexually assaulting men and molesting a 16-year-old boy.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuits, filed anonymously in federal court under New York’s Gender Motivated Violence Act, were identified only as two women – Jane Does – and four men, John Does.
The accusers are part of what their attorney says is a group of more than 100 alleged victims who are in the process of suing Combs in the wake of his arrest last month on racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking charges.
Combs, who has pleaded not guilty and was denied bail, is currently awaiting trial in May.
One of the plaintiffs in the current wave of lawsuits is a man living in North Carolina who alleges Combs sexually assaulted him when he was 16 at one of the Bad Boy entrepreneur’s “white parties” in Long Island’s Hamptons in 1998.
The John Doe alleges that during a conversation about making it in the record business Combs abruptly ordered the teen to drop his pants. Combs explained to him that it was a rite of passage to becoming a music star, at one point asking: “Don’t you want to break into the business?” the lawsuit states.
The plaintiffs said he complied with Comb out of fear, anxiety and power imbalance he felt. He released only later what had happened was a sexual assault.
Another man alleges he was assaulted by Combs in the stockroom at Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square. In that incident, the plaintiff alleges, he was hit on the head, possibly with a pistol and then sexually attacked. Afterwards, Combs allegedly threatened the man: “Shut up, or I’ll kill you,” the filing claims.
One of the Jane Does said she was a 19-year-old college freshman in Brooklyn when she was invited to a photo shoot in 2004 promoting Da Band, a group that Combs’s label had signed. She claims Combs invited her and a friend to his hotel “for a more exclusive party” where they were locked in a room.
“You know what you are here for,” the security guard said, according to the lawsuit. Combs allegedly pushed drinks and cocaine on the women before the sexual attacks took place. At one point Combs allegedly told them to comply “or else he would have them both killed”.
Another man alleges he was hired to work as a guard at Combs’s East Hampton home during another of the rapper’s white parties in 2006. He alleges Combs spiked his drinks with the date rape drug GHB and sexually assaulted him.
In a statement late on Monday, attorneys for Combs said “the press conference and 1-800 number that preceded today’s barrage of filings were clear attempts to garner publicity. Mr Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone – adult or minor, man or woman.”
Source: theguardian.com
