A week after Sean “Diddy” Combs swiftly settled a sexual assault lawsuit brought against him by R&B singer and former partner Cassie, alleging rape and years of abuse, another accuser has filed a suit against the music mogul.
The woman, who filed her complaint Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court ahead of the expiration of the Adult Survivors Act, alleges that Combs drugged and raped her in 1991 when she was a college student.
Combs’ attorney, Benjamin Brafman, did not respond to The Times’ request for comment by late Thursday afternoon.
The court complaint, which The Times has reviewed, alleges that while on holiday break from Syracuse University, the plaintiff “reluctantly agreed” to have dinner with Combs at a restaurant in Harlem and that he “pushed” for her to keep him company afterward. “They had many friends and acquaintances in common and she had appeared with Combs in a few clips of a music video,” the lawsuit states.
The suit goes on to say that Combs fed the woman drugs that put her in a “physical state where she could not independently stand or walk.” When Combs and the woman arrived at a music studio, she was unable to get out of the vehicle; he then “proceeded to a place he was staying to sexually assault her,” according to the filing.
The lawsuit also alleges that Combs filmed the attack and distributed the footage throughout New York state without her consent.
Bad Boy Records and Combs Enterprises are also listed as defendants in the suit. At the time of the assault, the legal filing points out, Combs was working at Uptown Records as a talent director.
“It was the filing of the lawsuit about his abuse of Cassie Venture [sic] on Nov. 16, 2023, that forced her to face his assault again,” the new lawsuit alleges.
Cassie, who sued under her legal name, Casandra Ventura, dated the famed hip-hop producer for about 11 years before they split in 2018. The bombshell lawsuit, which accused Combs of rape, sexual assault and sex trafficking, was settled less than a day after its filing. Through his attorney, Combs has denied Ventura’s allegations.
There was been a wave of legal filings against powerful men in the entertainment industry — rock star Axl Rose, actor Cuba Gooding Jr. and ex-Grammys CEO Neil Portnow, among them — as the Adult Survivors Act is set to expire at midnight Thursday.
The special law, which went into effect in late November 2022, allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their abusers in New York, regardless of the criminal statute of limitations on their claims.
Times staff writer Kevin Rector contributed to this report.
