Attorneys for Sean “Diddy” Combs fought back against a lawsuit filed by a woman who accused him of sexual assault, filing a motion Friday (April 26) to dismiss some claims that were not in accordance with the law when the alleged incident occurred.
The petition, filed in a New York court, claims that Combs cannot be sued because certain laws did not exist when Joi Dickerson-Deal made the allegations against him in 1991.
The music mogul's attorneys want certain counts of Dickerson-Deal's allegations, including revenge porn and human trafficking, to be dismissed with prejudice.
In a deposition last year, she said Combs “intentionally drugged” her, then brought her home and sexually assaulted her after a date in Harlem when she was a 19-year-old college student.
Unbeknownst to her, Combs videotaped the assault and later shared it with several friends in the music industry, the lawsuit alleges. He denied the charges, accusing her of seeking to take advantage of a New York law that temporarily extended the statute of limitations.
Dickerson-Deal's claim came nearly three decades after his alleged misconduct, and New York state's revenge porn law wasn't codified until 2019, Combs' attorneys said.
His attorneys also pointed to a few others, including New York's Services for Victims of Human Trafficking Act, which went into effect in 2007.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Dickerson did.
Last month, Combs' properties in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by federal authorities as part of a sex-trafficking investigation. The criminal investigation is a major escalation in the scrutiny of Combs, who has been the defendant in several recent sexual assault lawsuits.
In a lawsuit Combs settled the day after her deposition in November, his former protégé and friend, R&B singer Cassie, sued him alleging years of sexual abuse, including rape. The lawsuit said he forced her to have sex with male prostitutes while filming them.
In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging that Combs forced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them.
Another of Combs' accusers was a woman who said he raped her two decades ago, when she was 17.
Combs and his lawyers have denied all allegations in the lawsuits.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/business/legal/sean-diddy-combs-files-motion-dismiss-some-claims-sexual-assault-lawsuit-1235668370/
