Sean 'Diddy' Combs accused of gang rape and sex trafficking in new lawsuit
A fourth woman has accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexual assault, alleging in a lawsuit that when she was a teen she was gang raped and sex trafficked by the music mogul, along with Harve Pierre, a former longtime president of his record label, and an unnamed individual.
The woman, identified in the suit only as Jane Doe, alleges that the assault occurred in 2003, when she was 17 and Combs was 34.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in New York under the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law, which gives survivors of alleged gender-motivated violence, including sexual abuse that occurred in the state, until March 1, 2025, to file civil claims.
The suit names Combs, Pierre, Daddy’s House Recordings and Bad Boy Entertainment as defendants.
The accuser’s attorney is Douglas Wigdor, who represented the singer, model and actress Cassie in her federal lawsuit against Combs.
“As alleged in the complaint, Defendants preyed on a vulnerable high school teenager as part of a sex trafficking scheme that involved plying her with drugs and alcohol and transporting her by private jet to New York City where she was gang raped by the three individual defendants at Mr. Combs’ studio,” Wigdor said in a statement. “The depravity of these abhorrent acts has, not surprisingly, scarred our client for life.”
The lawsuit says that Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, and two other women who filed lawsuits against Combs last month alleging sexual abuse gave the latest accuser “the confidence to tell her story as well.”
Ventura, a former longtime romantic partner of Combs’ who was signed to his record label, sued Combs in mid-November in federal court, alleging that he raped and repeatedly abused her over nearly a decade. The case was settled a day later. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Combs’ lawyer, Ben Brafman, said the settlement was “in no way an admission of wrongdoing.”
Two other women, Liza Gardner and Joi Dickerson-Neal, have also alleged in lawsuits that Combs sexually assaulted them.
Combs denied any wrongdoing in a statement Wednesday, starting off with, "Enough is enough."
“For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy,” he said. “Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday.”
He added: “Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
In the most recent suit, Doe alleges that she met Pierre, the longtime president of Bad Boy, the record label Combs founded in the early 1990s, in 2003 at a lounge in the Detroit area when she was 17 and in 11th grade. The suit says that Pierre complimented her and then began talking about Combs, whom he described as his “best friend,” eventually calling Combs to introduce him to Doe. Pierre is no longer employed at Bad Boy.
“Mr. Combs convinced Ms. Doe, who was half his age at the time, to accompany Mr. Pierre and the Third Assailant on a private jet to come to his studio in New York City,” the suit alleges.
Before they left for the private jet, the suit alleges that Pierre smoked crack cocaine at the lounge and forced Doe to perform oral sex on him. They then traveled from Detroit to New Jersey with the third defendant who is identified in the suit as “the Third Assailant,” as well as another unnamed person, the suit alleges, where they were driven to “Daddy’s House Recording Studio, a studio famously owned and operated by Mr. Combs and Bad Boy.”
The suit includes four images that her attorney says were taken in Combs’ studio in New York City on the night of the alleged assaults. In one of the images, she appears to be sitting on Combs’ lap. The suit alleges he asked Doe to sit on his lap to take the photo. Her face is blurred in the images. Representatives for Combs declined to comment about the photos.
While at the studio, Combs, Pierre and the third defendant plied Doe with “copious amounts of drugs and alcohol,” the suit alleges.
She “became more and more inebriated, eventually to the point that she could not possibly have consented to having sex with anyone, much less someone twice her age,” according to the suit, which alleges that Combs, Pierre and the third defendant took turns raping Doe in a bathroom at the studio.
When the alleged assault concluded, she was left in the bathroom alone, the suit alleges.
“Doe fell into the fetal position and lay on the floor,” it states.
The suit states that she eventually regained her bearings but could barely stand up and had to be helped to walk out of the building and into a car.
“She was taken back to an airport and flown back to Michigan,” the suit states, adding that she has “very limited recollection of her transport home, and only remembers being in her car sometime early in the morning.” Her underwear was missing, according to the suit.
“As a result of being raped by Mr. Combs, Mr. Pierre and the Third Assailant, Ms. Doe suffered significant emotional distress” and feelings of shame “that have plagued her life and personal relationships for 20 years,” the suit states.
In a statement Friday, Pierre called the allegations “a tale of fiction.”
“I have never participated in, witnessed, nor heard of anything like this, ever. These disgusting allegations are false and a desperate attempt for financial gain,” he said in the statement. “I will vigorously protect my reputation and defend my name. Those who know me recognize that these claims are not true.”
In addition to the suits from the four women, Combs’ companies have also been named in a lawsuit filed last month in New York Supreme Court that accuses Pierre of sexually harassing and assaulting an assistant. Combs has denied the allegations. Pierre did not respond to a request for comment.
CORRECTION (April 2, 2024, 9:45 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misspelled the first name of one of Combs’ accusers. She is Joi Dickerson-Neal, not Joie.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
