Sean “Diddy” Combs was sued Monday in federal court by a producer on his most current album, who accuses the tunes mogul of sexually harassing, drugging and threatening him about additional than a calendar year. The producer, Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, suggests in the lawsuit that he lived and traveled with Combs from September 2022 to November 2023, throughout which time he recorded hrs of video clip and audio of Combs, his employees and many others “engaging in serious unlawful action.”
NBC News reports that amongst the allegations is that Combs pressured Jones to procure sex staff and pressured him to engage in unwelcomed intercourse functions with them and other individuals and that Combs gave laced alcoholic beverages to persons who attended events at his residences.
The lawsuit consists of what it says are screenshots from gatherings hosted at Combs’ properties that included underage women and intercourse personnel, some of whom he said have been supplied beverages that had been laced with medications at Combs’ way.
The accommodate, filed in U.S District Court for the Southern District of New York, also names Combs’ grownup son, Justin his main of staff, Kristina Khorram Common Music Team CEO Sir Lucian Grainge and former Motown Records CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam as defendants. Jones states in the lawsuit that Grainge, Habtemariam, Motown Documents, Really like Information and Universal Tunes Team successfully labored jointly with Combs in a “RICO enterprise” that “failed to sufficiently watch, warn, or supervise” the actions of Combs, his son and his chief of staff members. A RICO company is any persons or groups that act with each other to violate the Racketeer Motivated and Corrupt Companies Act.
Representatives for Justin Combs, Khorram, Grainge, Motown Records and Enjoy Information also did not straight away respond to requests for remark. Habtemariam could not quickly be achieved for comment.
Combs’ legal professional Shawn Holley referred to as the allegations “pure fiction.”
“We have overwhelming, indeniable evidence that his statements are complete lies,” Holley stated in a statement. “We will address these outlandish allegations in court and just take all suitable action against individuals who make them.”
The suit is the latest in a series of damning allegations versus Combs.
According to Jones’ lawsuit, in or about August 2022, Combs called Jones and requested that he develop various tunes on the R&B album “The Adore Album: Off the Grid,” which was launched in September 2023 and is nominated for a Grammy.
“Mr. Jones agreed, and his lifetime has been detrimentally impacted at any time considering the fact that,” the lawsuit states.
Jones alleges that Combs sexually harassed and assaulted him whilst he lived with him at Combs’ homes in Florida, Los Angeles and New York, as nicely as on a yacht Combs rented in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The harassment and assault provided “constant unsolicited and unauthorized groping and touching of his anus,” according to the lawsuit.
Jones suggests he was forced to do the job in Combs’ rest room as Combs showered bare in a glass enclosure, according to the lawsuit.
When he lifted fears about the actions to Khorram, Combs’ chief of workers, the lawsuit states, she dismissed them as “friendly horseplay, stating that all those acts were Mr. Combs way of ‘showing that he likes you.’”
The lawsuit accuses Khoramm of aiding and abetting Combs’ sexual assault of Jones and of doing work with Combs “to groom him into accepting a homosexual romance.”
Jones also alleges that he was pressured to solicit sexual intercourse employees and conduct sex functions with them to you should Combs.
To assist in the alleged recruitment, Jones said, Combs supplied him with “an special Bad Boy baseball cap” and needed him to use it to a Miami establishment “as a sign to any sex employee he approached” that Combs was in city and experienced sent Jones to recruit them, the lawsuit says.
The civil lawsuit was submitted by singer Cassie, Combs’ former passionate husband or wife.
Jones alleges Combs, whom he describes in the suit as “forceful and demanding” and a person who does not get no for an response, leveraged his ability as 1 of the most influential individuals in hip-hop and small business to intimidate him, such as by threatening to inflict bodily damage if Jones did not comply with his needs.
On a person occasion, Jones alleges, Combs forced him to enjoy as he shown guns and bragged about receiving away with shooting individuals. In a different incident, Jones alleges, Combs shared that he was accountable for a shooting in a nightclub in New York City in 1999 with the rapper Shyne, born Jamal Barrow. A jury acquitted Combs of gun possession and bribery expenses in link with that incident, when Barrow was sentenced to 10 years in jail. Jones was terrified of Combs and felt he could not convey to him no, according to the go well with.
“Mr. Combs persistently made it very clear that he has immense power in the songs field and with regulation enforcement,” the lawsuit claims.
Jones says in the lawsuit that he has online video and audio evidence to guidance some of the allegations. The lawsuit claims that Combs essential Jones to “record him constantly” and that on many occasions, Combs took Jones’ cellphone to document himself. As a result, Jones alleges, he has hundreds of hours of video clip and audio records of Combs, his personnel and his visitors “engaging in severe illegal action.”
Jones suggests in the match that he thinks Combs also drugged him on Feb. 2, 2023. He alleges he woke up naked, dizzy and bewildered in mattress with Combs and two sex employees.
In reaction to a ask for for remark, Jones’ legal professional, Tyrone Blackburn, used a Latin phrase, “res ipsa loquitur,” which loosely interprets as “the factor speaks for by itself,” referring to the lawsuit.
Jones states in the match that he was “under an implied get the job done-for-seek the services of agreement” and was not compensated for the music he made on “The Like Album.” As a final result, the lawsuit claims, Combs, Adore Information, Motown Documents and Universal Tunes Team ended up all unjustly enriched at his expense. The labels did not instantly answer to requests for comment.
Combs has been sued by 4 women who have accused him of sexual assault. Cassie, whose legal identify is Casandra Ventura, stated Combs bodily abused her and compelled her to have sexual intercourse with male prostitutes though he masturbated and recorded the encounters. The lawsuit was settled the working day following it was submitted. The settlement was “in no way an admission of wrongdoing,” Combs’ attorney, Ben Brafman, has said.
Following Cassie’s lawsuit, two other females, Liza Gardner and Joie Dickerson-Neal, have alleged in lawsuits that Combs sexually assaulted them. And a girl recognized as Jane Doe in courtroom documents said Combs and two other guys gang-raped her when she was 17 and Combs was 34.
Those 3 conditions towards Combs are even now pending. In a statement in December, he denied the allegations, expressing “enough is ample,” and named the statements against him “sickening.”
“Let me be unquestionably apparent: I did not do any of the terrible issues becoming alleged. I will combat for my name, my spouse and children and for the truth,” he said in the statement.
The mounting allegations stand to damage Combs’ legacy and business empire. A working day right after Ventura submitted her accommodate, three of Combs’ previous artists expressed guidance for her. The exact thirty day period, Combs stepped down as the chairman of Revolt Television set. In December, Hulu scrapped a fact television show that was to have adopted his loved ones. And in January, Combs withdrew his lawsuit towards Diageo as section of a settlement with the London-based spirits large, which he had accused of racism.
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