Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs accused of sexual misconduct by two more women

NEW YORK — Two more women have come forward to accuse Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexual harassment, a week after the music mogul settled a separate lawsuit with singer Cassie involving allegations of rape and physical abuse.

Both of the new lawsuits were filed Thursday on the eve of the expiration of the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law that gives victims of sexual abuse a one-year period to file civil lawsuits regardless of the statute of limitations.

The filings detail acts of sexual assault, beating and forcible drugging allegedly committed by Combs, who was then a talent director, party promoter and rising figure in New York City’s hip-hop scene, in the early 1990s.

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 appointment, Combs “intentionally drugged” her and then brought her to his home. and sexually assaulted her, according to the file.

According to the lawsuit, Combs videotaped the attack without his knowledge and later shared it with several friends in the music industry. The public exposure threw Dickerson into a “turmoil” and contributed to severe depression, resulting in him being hospitalized and forced to drop out of college.

In a separate lawsuit filed Thursday, an unnamed woman accused Combs and R&B singer Aaron Hall of sexually assaulting her and a friend and beating her a few days later.

The woman, identified only as Jane Doe, said she and her roommate returned to Hall’s home with him and Combs after an incident in the music industry in 1990 or 1991. The accuser said she was forced to have sex with Combs. Later, as she was getting dressed, “Hall burst into the room, pinned her down, and forced Jane Doe to have sex with him,” the lawsuit says.

When the victim later spoke to her unnamed friend, she learned that the friend “had been forced to have sex with Combs and Hall in another room,” according to the lawsuit. “Upon information and belief, when Combs was done with Jane Doe, he and Hall switched places and began assaulting Jane Doe’s friend,” the lawsuit states.

A few days later, an “angry” Combs allegedly showed up at the home of two women and tried to stop them from talking about the abuse. According to the lawsuit, he strangled the woman, later identified as Jane Doe, until she passed out.

A spokesman for Combs denied the allegations in an emailed statement and accused the two women of exploiting a New York law that temporarily extends the statute of limitations.

An email query sent to Hall was not returned.

The anonymous accuser’s attorney, Tyrone Blackburn, said his client was in the process of securing medical documents and witness statements to support the lawsuit he filed late Thursday “in order to preserve the statute of limitations.”

In the lawsuit filed by Dickerson, it is stated that the victim filed a report with the police in New York and New Jersey following the abuse. Inquiries to the New York City Police Department were not immediately responded to. It’s unclear what other jurisdictions the reports were filed with.

Following the filmed attack, Dickerson said he approached friends in the music industry and asked them to confirm the existence of the “revenge porn” tape, but was rebuffed by those “who feared Combs would retaliate against them and they would lose future jobs.” and music opportunities.

The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they were sexually abused unless they go public, as Dickerson did.

Years after the alleged attacks, Combs, now 54, started his own record label, Bad Boys Records, and went on to become one of the world’s most influential hip-hop producers and managers, helping produce Mary J. Blige and Biggie Smalls. history of the genre.

The pair of lawsuits follow a series of explosive allegations made last week by Cassie Ventura, who said Combs subjected her to abuse during their long-term relationship, which began in 2005 when she was 19 and he was 37.

Among the allegations, Ventura said Combs drugged him, subjected him to “savage” beatings and forced him to have sex with male prostitutes while he masturbated and filmed them. She claimed that Combs raped her when she tried to end their relationship in 2018.

The lawsuit was settled a day after it was filed for an undisclosed sum.

In a statement shared by his lawyers, Ventura said he wanted to resolve this matter “on the condition that he retains some control.”

Combs said: “We have decided to resolve this matter amicably. I wish Cassie and her family the best. Love.”