Sean “Diddy” Combs filed his first legal response to allegations that he “sexually trafficked” and “gang-raped” a 17-year-old girl in 2003, telling a federal court that the allegations are “fictitious” and violate his constitutional right to due process.
The lawsuit, filed in December, was one of several abuse cases filed against the hip-hop mogul late last year. In it, an anonymous Jane Doe accuser alleged that Combs and the former president of Bad Boy Records Harvey Pierre He “loaded” her with drugs and alcohol before raping her in a Manhattan recording studio when she was still in high school.
But in his first formal response to the lawsuit, Combs' lawyers tell a federal court on Tuesday that the events simply did not happen: “He never participated in, witnessed, or knew or is currently aware of any inappropriate conduct, sexual or otherwise, relating to a claimant in any circumstances'.
Led by the eminent entertainment judge Shawn Holley, Combs' attorneys not only argue that the allegations are false, but that they are unconstitutional. They say the statute cited in the suit — the Gender-Based Violence Victims Protection Act — is itself unconstitutional “on its face” and that his accuser's “decision to wait more than two decades” cost Combs “the ability to defend himself fully and fairly'.
“For example, some or all of the evidence that would otherwise be available if the action had begun immediately may be unavailable, lost, or compromised,” Holley writes. “The absence of evidence materially affects the defendant's ability to defend against material aspects of the plaintiff's claims. The identity, availability and recollections of witnesses are likely to be compromised due to the significant amount of time that has passed since the alleged incident.”
Combs' lawyers also say the case violates the so-called unclean hands doctrine — meaning the accuser filed the suit in bad faith. In making that argument, they said the lawsuit “supports a completely fictional account that never happened.” They also argue that the photos the accuser cites in her complaint could be fake, challenging the “context, authenticity and/or accuracy” of the images.
Combs was hit by a deluge of abuse claims late last year, first in the form of explosive rape allegations from R&B singer and longtime romantic partner Cassie. That case was quickly settled, but Combs subsequently sued two other women who said they were sexually assaulted and then beaten in the current case for the alleged rape of Jane Doe in 2003.
Combs has already strongly denied all the allegations. In a statement in December, he said: “I didn't do any of the awful things they claim. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
In her complaint, Jane Doe claimed she met Pierre at a Detroit club in 2003 when she was just a junior in high school. After “smoking crack” and “sexually assaulting Ms. Doe forcing her to give him oral sex,” she says she flew to New York on Combs' private jet to visit him at his Manhattan recording studio.
While at the studio, the lawsuit alleges, Combs, Pierre and an unnamed third man “drugged and drank Ms. Doe” until she was so intoxicated that she “could not possibly have consented to having sex with anyone, how probably with someone twice her age.”
“While in the studio, Ms. Doe was gang-raped by Mr. Combs, the Third Assailant, and Mr. Pierre, in that order,” Wigdor writes in the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that the unnamed man “raped Ms. Doe as she told him to stop” and that Pierre “violently forced her to perform oral sex on him, during which Ms. Doe was choking and struggling to breathe.”
After the attack, the lawsuit says the accuser “could barely stand up” and “had to be helped out of the building and back to a car.” He says he was then flown back to Michigan.
Also on Tuesday, Pierre filed his own official response to the lawsuit, saying he “never participated in the sexual assault of the plaintiff nor did he ever see anyone else sexually assault the plaintiff.” Two corporate entities named in the lawsuit – Daddy's House Recordings, Inc. and Bad Boy Entertainment Holdings, Inc. – also asked to be dismissed from the case, arguing that they could not be held liable for any alleged wrongdoing by Pierre and Combs.
In a statement to Advertising sign On Wednesday, Jane Doe's attorneys vehemently rejected Combs' attorneys' arguments: “The deeply disturbing allegations against the defendants by multiple women speak for themselves. The ludicrous claim that the photos are somehow fake and that the law at issue is unconstitutional is nothing more than desperate attempts to invent a defense where none exists.”
Read Diddy's full legal filing here:
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