Jay-Z, Sean Combs Accuser Drops Sexual Assault Lawsuit
A woman who alleged that she was sexually assaulted as a 13-year-old by Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs during a VMAs afterparty in 2000, has voluntarily withdrawn her lawsuit, according to court records obtained by Rolling Stone.
The Jane Doe accuser filed papers on Friday evening, informing the court that she was withdrawing her complaint with prejudice — meaning that she can’t file it again. Attorneys for Combs told Rolling Stone there was no settlement between the parties. Tony Buzbee, the lawyer representing Doe, declined to comment.
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The Roc Nation founder, born Shawn Carter, has adamantly denied the “heinous” accusation after Doe named him in an amended complaint in December. In a statement provided to Rolling Stone, Carter celebrated the news as a “victory.”
“The frivolous, fictitious and appalling allegations have been dismissed,” Carter said. “This civil suit was without merit and never going anywhere. The fictional tale they created was laughable, if not for the seriousness of the claims. I would not wish this experience on anyone.”
“The trauma that my wife, my children, my loved ones and I have endured can never be dismissed,” the statement continued. “This 1-800 lawyer gets to file a suit hiding behind Jane Doe, and when they quickly realize that the money grab is going to fail, they get to walk away with no repercussions. The system has failed. The court must protect victims, OF COURSE, while with the same ethical responsibility, the courts must protect the innocent from being accused without a shred of evidence. May the truth prevail for all victims and those falsely accused equally.”
Combs’ attorneys also welcomed the news, repeating Combs’ innocence against all accusations of sexual assault. “Today’s complete dismissal without a settlement by the 1-800 attorney is yet another confirmation that these lawsuits are built on falsehoods, not facts,” his legal team said in a statement. “For months, we have seen case after case filed by individuals hiding behind anonymity, pushed forward by an attorney more focused on media headlines than legal merit. Just like this claim, the others will fall apart because there is no truth to them.”
The Jane Doe accuser first filed her lawsuit against Combs in October, later adding Carter as a defendant. In her complaint, Doe alleged she had traveled to New York City in the hopes of attending the MTV Video Music Awards in 2000. Instead, she claimed to have met a driver for Combs, who allegedly took her to the Bad Boy Entertainment founder’s afterparty a few hours later.
At the party, the woman claimed she began mingling with other guests, including musician Benji Madden, before she began feeling lightheaded from her drink and snuck into a bedroom to rest. Combs, Carter, and an unnamed female celebrity allegedly entered the room soon after, according to the woman’s complaint. Doe claimed the men took turns assaulting her while the female celebrity watched. The alleged encounter ended when the woman claimed to have punched Combs in the neck and escaped the home. The woman claimed that she ran to a nearby gas station and called her father to come pick her up.
The woman’s story began to be quickly called into question after she gave an interview to NBC, where she admitted to making “some mistakes.” Her father also told the outlet that he did not recall ever picking her up, saying he would remember making a 10-hour round trip to retrieve his teenage daughter. A representative for Madden also said he was on tour with his band Good Charlotte in Chicago at the time. “I may have made a mistake in identifying,” the woman told NBC in a follow-up interview, but said she stood by her account of the night.
Carter’s lawyer Alex Spiro seized on the alleged inconsistencies in the woman’s story in court filings, urging a judge to dismiss Doe’s complaint against his client. “By standing up in the face of heinous and false allegations, Jay has done what few can – he pushed back, he never settled, he never paid 1 red penny, he triumphed and cleared his name,” Spiro said in a statement provided to Rolling Stone on Friday.
While Doe dismissed her case, Buzbee may still be locked in a legal battle with Carter, who has directed his furor at the Houston-based lawyer. In December, Carter sued Buzbee for extortion and defamation over his statements and practices used while pursuing Doe’s case. Buzbee fired back in his own lawsuit against the rapper’s company, Roc Nation, and law firm Quinn Emanuel, claiming they were using “shadowy operatives” to illegally entice Buzbee’s former clients into filing “frivolous” claims against him.
Meanwhile Combs has largely stayed out of the Doe case, apart from denying all accusations of sexual assault. The 55-year-old still faces more than 45 other civil suits from men and women claiming assault against the embattled music executive. Combs is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn as he awaits criminal trial on racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges. He has pleaded not guilty.
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