Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala – Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art of the In-Between – Arrivals – New York City, U.S. – 01/05/17 – Sean “Diddy” Combs. Image: Reuters/Lucas Jackson
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been accused of drugging and sexually assaulting a university student in 1991 in a lawsuit filed in a New York court on Thursday, Nov. 23, the second suit of its kind filed against the hip-hop mogul in the past week.
The complaint against Combs was among a flurry of lawsuits filed this week against public figures under New York state’s Adult Survivors Act, ahead of the expiry of a special one-year window for such complaints. The law allows such lawsuits to be filed in court even if the statute of limitations have run out.
The lawsuit alleges Combs intentionally drugged and sexually assaulted Joi Dickerson-Neal, who was a Syracuse University student visiting New York City at the time of the alleged incident in January 1991.
Combs is also accused of videotaping the alleged crime and distributing the tape to others in the music industry.
“The sexual assault, and public exposure of it, caused her to suffer overwhelming feelings of humiliation, embarrassment, violation, and constant apprehension about who all viewed it,” lawyers for Dickerson-Neal wrote in the complaint.
Dickerson-Neal is seeking unspecified compensatory damages for mental and emotional injury, distress, pain, and suffering and injury to her reputation, according to the lawsuit.
A spokesperson for Combs said Dickerson-Neal’s story is “made up and not credible,” and that the rapper never assaulted her.
“This is purely a money grab and nothing more,” the spokesperson said in an email.
The complaint against Combs comes a week after he settled a lawsuit by his former girlfriend, R&B vocalist Cassandra Ventura, accusing the rapper of serial physical abuse, sexual slavery and rape. Combs had strongly denied all the allegations.
Combs, 54, founder of Bad Boy Records, is one of the most influential producers and executives in hip-hop, as well as the impresario of his own Sean John clothing line. AP/ra