Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala – Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garcons: Art of the In-Between – Arrivals – New York City, USA – 05/01/17 – Sean “Diddy” Combs. Portal/Lucas Jackson/File Photo Acquire License Rights
Nov 23 (Portal) – Sean “Diddy” Combs was accused of drugging and sexually abusing a university student in 1991 in a lawsuit filed in a New York court on Thursday last week.
The complaint against Combs was among a series of lawsuits filed this week against public figures under New York State’s Adult Survivors Act, ahead of the expiration of a special one-year deadline for such complaints. The law allows such lawsuits to be filed in court even after the statute of limitations has expired.
The lawsuit accuses Combs of intentionally drugging and sexually abusing Joi Dickerson-Neal, who was a Syracuse University student visiting New York City at the time of the alleged incident in January 1991.
Combs is also accused of videotaping the alleged crime and distributing the tape to others in the music industry.
“The sexual assault and the public exposure of it left her with an overwhelming sense of humiliation, embarrassment, hurt, and constant concern about who saw it all,” Dickerson-Neal’s attorneys wrote in the complaint.
Dickerson-Neal is seeking unspecified damages for psychological and emotional injuries, suffering, pain and suffering, and defamation of reputation, according to the lawsuit.
A spokesman for Combs said Dickerson-Neal’s story was “fictional and not credible” and that the rapper never attacked her.
“This is a pure money grab and nothing more,” the spokesman said in an email.
The lawsuit against Combs comes a week after he settled a lawsuit filed by his former girlfriend, R&B singer Cassandra Ventura, accusing the rapper of multiple counts of physical abuse, sexual slavery and rape. Combs had firmly denied all allegations.
Combs, 54, founder of Bad Boy Records, is one of hip-hop’s most influential producers and managers as well as the impresario of his own Sean John clothing line.
Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Bill Berkrot
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