Combs wants parts of assault suit dismissed
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal team is pushing back against his accusers in their civil suits as a federal sextrafficking probe continues.
His lawyers are asking a New York court to throw out portions of a sexual assault lawsuit filed by attorneys for Joi Dickerson-Neal accusing the rapper of drugging and sexually assaulting her in 1991, when she was 19. The lawyers are seeking to undermine the basis for the suit and asking that certain claims, including allegations of revenge porn and human trafficking, be dismissed with prejudice, meaning they could not be refiled.
Combs, they argued, cannot be sued in this instance because the relevant New York laws regarding revenge porn and human trafficking did not go into effect until decades after the alleged incident. The revenge porn law was enacted in 2019, the trafficking law in 2007.
The filing comes on the heels of Department of Homeland Security agents bursting into Combs’ Holmby Hills and Miami mansions on March 25 with search warrants and seizing paperwork and electronics as part of a sex trafficking investigation directed by prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, according to law enforcement sources.
In a motion submitted Friday seeking to dismiss large chunks of the Dickerson-Neal suit, Combs’ attorneys labeled its accusations as “false, offensive, and salacious” and said they “vehemently deny, substantially all of the claims purportedly alleged.” Lawyers also sought to strike portions of the suit targeting Combs’ corporations because “the Company Defendants were not in existence at the time of the alleged conduct.”
According to the lawsuit, Dickerson-Neal met Combs and “reluctantly agreed” to have dinner with him, saying he “pushed” her to keep him company after their meal.
The suit, filed in November, alleges Combs gave the woman drugs that put her in a “physical state where she could not independently stand or walk.” When the two arrived at a music studio, she was unable to get out of the vehicle, according to the lawsuit. He then “proceeded to a place he was staying to sexually assault her,” the filing states.
Dickerson-Neal is one of several women, including Combs’ longtime girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, who have filed lawsuits accusing the artist of sexually and physically abusing them. Combs has since settled the Ventura suit.
All the lawsuits were filed under the Adult Survivors Act, a law that went into effect in November 2022 in New York that allows individuals who believe they were sexually assaulted a one-year window during which they can sue their abusers, even if the statute of limitations for prosecuting the underlying alleged crimes had expired.
In February, producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a lawsuit alleging that Combs sexually assaulted and harassed him and that several people in his circle engaged in illicit behavior.
In response to the litigation, Combs wrote on Instagram: “Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
“Mr. Combs is innocent and will continue to fight every single day to clear his name,” his lead attorney, Aaron Dyer, said after the search warrants were served.