Diplo attends Spotify Beach At Cannes Lions 2024 on June 19, 2024 in Cannes, France. Photo / Getty Images
Diplo attends Spotify Beach At Cannes Lions 2024 on June 19, 2024 in Cannes, France. Photo / Getty Images
Warning: mention of sexual assault
American DJ Diplo is facing a fresh wave of allegations, this time accusing the hitmaker of sharing pornographic footage without consent, which he denies.
DJ Diplo has been accused of distributing revenge porn.
The musician, 45, born Thomas Wesley Pentz, is facing the accusation in a lawsuit filed in California on Thursday, June 27, that has now come to light.
A woman known only as Jane Doe is suing the Grammy-winning producer for recording and distributing sexual images and videos of her without her consent to third parties, according to court documents.
Papers seen by Page Six show the woman, based in New York, claims to have been involved in a physical relationship with Diplo.
They state it started in June 2016 after they originally began messaging each other sexually explicit content on Snapchat in April of that year, and allegedly their relationship ended in 2023.
Diplo’s accuser says she “made it known that she did not want (him) recording them engaging in sexual activities without her explicit consent, nor did she want him to distribute images and/or videos to third parties and never gave him consent to do so”.
But in November 2023, the woman claimed she was contacted by a third party who said she received material showing her and the DJ having sex.
Jane Doe was allegedly told the person received the pornographic content, which showed her “genitals, buttocks, and face” on October 14, 2018, with the material allegedly sent over Snapchat.
After their discussion, the unnamed individual who contacted Jane Doe reportedly filed a police report, and the accuser claimed the New York Police Department “issued a warrant for Defendant Diplo’s arrest for dissemination of intimate images and/or videos depicting” her.
Jane Doe is seeking up to US$150,000 ($246,000) in damages.
Diplo with fellow DJ Mau P at Coachella 2024. Photo / @diplo
Diplo’s lawyer Bryan Freedman dismissed the suit in a statement to Page Six, saying: “In every case where there has been an allegation of improper conduct made against Wes, the result has been either an immediate dismissal of a bogus lawsuit coupled with an apology, a court-ordered award for Wes in excess of $1.2m, or the slow demise of an obvious shakedown attempt that has gone absolutely nowhere.
“Time and again, Wes has been targeted by a group of untrustworthy individuals and their unscrupulous lawyers, cobbling together falsehoods in search of a meritless payday.
“This suit seems to be just more of the same, which is why we have no reason to believe that this will end any differently than all the others.”
But Jane Doe’s attorney Micha Liberty from Liberty Law told Page Six: “Diplo’s actions represent a severe abuse of power and a blatant disregard for human dignity. It is imperative that we, as a society, condemn such actions and hold perpetrators accountable.”
Diplo was previously accused of recording and distributing sexually explicit videos without the other party’s knowledge or permission.
Before that, he was accused of sexually assaulting Marchel Auguste in 2020 as well as recording their sexual encounters without her consent and she was successful in getting a temporary restraining order against him.
She is still currently pursuing legal action against him for sexual battery, gender violence, battery, assault, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and more.
In 2020, rapper Azealia Banks, 33, claimed Diplo groomed her and had sex with her while she was 17 and he was in his 30s.
