By JAKE OFFENHARTZ (Associated Press)
NEW YORK (AP) — Two more women have come forward to accuse Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexual abuse, a week after the music mogul reached a separate settlement with singer Cassie in a lawsuit that contained allegations of rape and physical abuse.
Both new lawsuits were filed Thursday on the eve of the expiration of the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law that allows victims of sexual abuse a one-year window to file a civil action regardless of the statute of limitations.
The documents detail acts of sexual assault, beatings and forcible drug use allegedly committed in the early 1990s by Combs, then a talent manager, party promoter and rising figure in the New York City hip-hop community.
One of the accusers, Joi Dickerson, said she was a 19-year-old student at Syracuse University when she agreed to meet Combs at a restaurant in Harlem in 1991. After their date, Combs “intentionally drugged” her and then took her to home. and he sexually assaulted her, according to the file.
Without their knowledge, Combs videotaped the assault and then shared it with several friends in the music industry, the lawsuit alleges. Her public exposure sent Dickerson into a tailspin, contributing to a severe depression that landed her in the hospital and forced her to drop out of college.
In a separate lawsuit filed Thursday, an unidentified woman accused Combs and R&B singer Aaron Hall of sexually assaulting her and a friend, then beating her several days later.
The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, said she and her roommate returned to Hall’s house with him and Combs after a music industry event in 1990 or 1991. The accuser said they forced her to have sex. with Combs. Then, while she was dressing, “Hall burst into the room, restrained her, and forced Jane Doe to have sexual intercourse with him,” the lawsuit states.
When the victim later spoke with her friend, who also was not named, she learned that her friend “had been forced to have sexual relations with Combs and Hall in another room,” according to the lawsuit. “Upon information and belief, when Combs broke up with Jane Doe, he and Hall switched gears and began assaulting Jane Doe’s friend,” the lawsuit states.
A few days later, a “furious” Combs allegedly showed up at the two women’s home in an attempt to stop them from talking about the abuse. He then strangled the woman identified as Jane Doe until she passed out, the lawsuit states.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Combs denied the allegations and accused the two women of trying to exploit New York’s law that temporarily extended the statute of limitations.
An email inquiry to Hall was not answered.
Tyrone Blackburn, an attorney for the unnamed accuser, said his client was in the process of obtaining medical documents and witness statements to support his lawsuit, which was filed Thursday night “in an effort to preserve the statute of limitations.”
The lawsuit filed by Dickerson notes that the victim filed police reports in New York and New Jersey after the abuse. Inquiries to the New York City Police Department were not immediately returned. It was unclear in what other jurisdictions the reports may have been filed.
After the filmed assault, Dickerson said she reached out to friends in the music industry to ask them to confirm the existence of the “revenge porn” tape, but was rebuffed by those who were “terrified that Combs would retaliate against them and they would lose.” future business.” and musical opportunities.”
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Dickerson has done.
Years after the alleged assaults, Combs, now 54, would found his own label, Bad Boys Records, helping produce Mary J. Blige and Biggie Smalls on his path to becoming one of hip-hop’s leading producers and executives. most influential in the world. the history of the genre.
The pair of lawsuits follow a separate series of explosive allegations made last week by Cassie Ventura, who said Combs subjected her to a pattern of abuse during their years-long relationship, which began in 2005, when she was 19 and he was 37. .
Among the allegations, Ventura said Combs abused her with drugs, subjected her to “savage” beatings and forced her to have sex with prostitutes while he masturbated and filmed them. When she tried to end the relationship in 2018, Combs raped her, she alleged.
The lawsuit was settled a day after it was filed for an undisclosed sum.
In a statement shared by his attorneys, Ventura said he wanted to resolve this matter “on terms where he has some level of control.”
Combs said: “We have decided to resolve this matter amicably. I wish Cassie and her family all the best. Love.”
