Jay-Z’s Lawyer Says Jane Doe Rape Claim Too Old to Pursue
Jay-Z is opening yet another new front in his all-out attack on the Jane Doe accuser who alleges he sexually assaulted her with Sean Combs when she was a minor in September 2000.
After suing the woman’s lawyer for extortion, vehemently denying the woman’s claims in a lengthy X post, and asking for expedited orders unmasking the woman and striking her complaint, Jay-Z’s lawyer filed new court paperwork today saying he also plans to challenge the lawsuit on the grounds that Doe’s decades-old rape claim simply doesn’t qualify for revival under the “lookback” window linked to New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act (GMVA). In his filing, lawyer Alex Spiro said the GMVA wasn’t enacted until Dec. 19, 2000, a full three months after the alleged rape.
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“[The GMVA] cannot apply retroactively to create a cause of action unavailable to plaintiff at the time in question,” Spiro wrote in his letter to the court, which was obtained by Rolling Stone. “A contrary conclusion would violate both state and federal due process protections.”
The letter cites a prior ruling in which a fellow federal judge in the Southern District of New York tossed a sexual assault lawsuit filed by former child model Jeanne Bellino against Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. The judge dismissed that claim because it sought to use the GMVA revival window for an alleged attack that purportedly took place in Manhattan in 1975, when Bellino was 17 and Tyler was about 27 years old. Both Bellino and the Jane Doe suing Jay-Z cited the still-open GMVA window after missing the August 2021 deadline to file otherwise time-barred claims under New York’s Child Victims Act.
In her complaint, Jane Doe alleges that both Combs and Jay-Z, born Shawn Carter, raped her at a private afterparty following the MTV Video Music Awards held in Manhattan on Sept. 7, 2000. She claims she was 13 years old at the time and gained access to the party by showing up to Radio City Music Hall without a ticket, chatting to Combs’ limo driver, and scoring an invitation because she allegedly “fit what Diddy was looking for.”
On Dec. 13, the woman spoke with NBC News and acknowledged inconsistencies in her story. After first telling the outlet she mingled with musician Benji Madden at the party, she later admitted she may have misidentified people. The concession came after a representative for Madden said he was on tour in a different state and did not attend the VMAs that year. The woman’s father also said he did not recall picking her up at a gas station after the alleged rape, as she alleged. “So I have made some mistakes,” the woman said in a follow-up interview. “I may have made a mistake in identifying [Madden.]” The woman said she still stands by her claims.
In his Monday filing, Spiro further argued that Doe’s claim wouldn’t qualify for revival under the GMVA for the added reason that the statute was enacted by the New York City Council and only applies to conduct within city limits. He said the alleged afterparty venue described in Doe’s lawsuit as a “large white residence with a gated U-shaped driveway” located about 20 minutes away from Radio City Music Hall by car “would have been located outside the territorial boundaries of New York City.” (Doe’s lawsuit does not give an address or borough.)
Last week, the judge overseeing the case ruled that the woman could continue to proceed anonymously, at least during “this exceedingly early stage in this case.” The judge also denied Spiro’s requests to obtain rulings on an expedited basis. “The Court will not fast-track the judicial process merely because counsel demands it,” U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres wrote.
In a second letter to Torres filed today, Spiro signaled that he received the court’s message. He withdrew his request for an “order for the preservation of evidence,” saying he had served a document preservation notice directly on Jane Doe’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, so there was no need for the court to intervene.
“Mr. Spiro likes to send a lot of letters. I don’t think any of them merit comment,” Buzbee said in an email to Rolling Stone.
The Jane Doe lawsuit naming both Combs and Carter is one of more than 30 sexual assault lawsuits filed against Combs since his former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura first sued him for rape and trafficking in November 2023. That lawsuit was settled within 24 hours, but it opened the floodgates to other allegations and a criminal investigation.
Combs, 55, was indicted in September and has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution. The media mogul was arrested in New York City on Sept. 16 and has been detained since. His trial is set for May. “Mr. Combs has full confidence in the facts and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone — man or woman, adult or minor,” Combs’ lawyers said in a statement.
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