Both of the new lawsuits were filed on Thursday on the eve of the expiration of the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law permitting victims of sexual abuse a one-year window to file civil action regardless of the statute of limitations.
The filings detail acts of sexual assault, beatings and forced drugging allegedly committed in the early 1990s by Combs, then a talent director, party promoter and rising figure in New York City’s hip-hop community.
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 date, Combs “intentionally drugged” her, then brought her home and sexually assaulted her, according to the filing.
Without her knowledge, Combs videotaped the assault and later shared it with several friends in the music industry, the suit alleges. The public exposure sent Dickerson into a “tailspin”, contributing to severe depression that landed her in hospital and forced her to drop out of college.
Sean "Diddy" Combs, pictured here in 1995, became one of the most influential hip-hop producers and executives in the genre’s history. Photo / Getty Images
In a separate lawsuit filed on Thursday, an unnamed woman accused Combs and an R&B singer, Aaron Hall, of sexually assaulting her and a friend, then beating her several days later.
The woman — identified only as Jane Doe — said she and her roommate returned to Hall’s home with him and Combs after a music industry event in 1990 or 1991. The accuser said she was coerced into having sex with Combs. Afterwards, as she was getting dressed, “Hall barged into the room, pinned her down and forced Jane Doe to have sex with him”, the suit states.
When the victim later spoke to her friend, who is also not named, she learned her friend “had been forced to have sex with Combs and Hall in another room”, according to the suit. “Upon information and belief, when Combs finished with Jane Doe, he and Hall switched, and they commenced assaulting Jane Doe’s friend,” the suit states.
A few days later, an “irate” Combs allegedly showed up at the home of the two women in an attempt to stop them from speaking out about the abuse. He then choked the woman identified as Jane Doe until she passed out, the suit states.
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for Combs denied the allegations, accusing the two women of seeking to exploit the New York law that temporarily extended the statute of limitations.
An email inquiry to Hall was not returned.
Sean "Diddy" Combs performs during the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards in September. Photo / AP
Tyrone Blackburn, a lawyer for the unnamed accuser, said his client was securing medical documents and witness statements to support her suit, which was filed on Thursday “in an effort to preserve the statute of limitations”.
The suit brought by Dickerson notes the victim filed police reports in New York and New Jersey after the abuse. Inquiries to the New York City Police Department were not immediately returned. It was not clear in which other jurisdictions the reports may have been filed.
After the filmed assault, Dickerson said she approached friends in the music industry asking them to confirm the existence of the “revenge porn” tape, but was rebuffed by those who were “terrified that Combs would retaliate against them and that they would lose future business and music opportunities”.
Singer Cassie Ventura and Sean "Diddy" Combs. Photo / AP
Associated Pressdoes not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Dickerson has done.
In years after the alleged assaults, Combs, now 54, would found his own label, Bad Boys Records, helping to produce Mary J. Blige and Biggie Smalls on his way to becoming one of the most influential hip-hop producers and executives in the genre’s history.
The pair of lawsuits follow a separate set of explosive allegations made last week by Cassie Ventura, who said Combs subjected her to a pattern of abuse during their years-long relationship, which began in 2005, when she was 19 and he was 37.
Among the allegations, Ventura said Combs plied her with drugs, subjected her to “savage” beatings, and forced her to have sex with male prostitutes while he masturbated and filmed them. When she tried to end the relationship in 2018, Combs raped her, she alleged.
