Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs is being sued by a woman who claims he drugged and sexually assaulted her when she was a college student in 1991 and filmed the attack.
The fresh legal action against the music mogul was brought in the New York Supreme Court on Thursday, one day before the state’s Adult Survivors Act was due to expire.
The law allowed adult sexual assault survivors one year to sue regardless of when the original statute of limitations ran out.
Combs recently settled a case brought by R&B singer and former partner Casandra “Cassie” Ventura who alleged she was abused and raped by the star.
The influential producer, who also goes by the stage name Puff Daddy and P Diddy, strongly denied the allegations.
The latest accusations date back to 3 January 1991 when Joie Dickerson-Neal was a psychology student at Syracuse University.
But rejecting the claims as “made up and not credible”, a spokesperson for the 54-year-old has branded them “purely a money grab and nothing more”.
In the complaint, Ms Dickerson-Neal said she went to dinner “reluctantly” with Combs at a restaurant in Harlem in New York City.
It is alleged the rapper then “intentionally drugged” her, leaving her unable to stand or walk.
He later took her to a place he was staying and sexually assaulted her, according to the lawsuit.
The filing said Ms Dickerson-Neal recalled feeling “humiliated and hurt, yet she could not escape the assault”.
The complaint also accuses Combs of recording the alleged sexual assault and then showing it to other people.
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It describes how after Ms Dickerson-Neal’s life was thrown into a “tailspin” after the encounter with Combs and struggled with mental health problems and eventually dropped out of college.
She said the lawsuit brought by Cassie against Combs was the trigger that “forced her to face his assault again”, according to the filing.
Dickerson-Neal is seeking damages for mental and emotional injury, distress, pain and suffering and injury.
One of her lawyer’s Michelle Caiola said: “Everyone deserves to be heard and Combs should not be immune from liability because of his wealth and public stature.”
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Another member of her legal team, Jonathan Goldhirsch, added: “Our client has not been able to escape the continuing impact of the harm Combs caused her many years ago. Through the Adult Survivors Act, she can avail herself to the courts to finally seek justice.”
But a representative for Combs said: “This last-minute lawsuit is an example of how a well-intentioned law can be turned on its head.
“Ms Dickerson’s 32-year-old story is made up and not credible.
“Mr Combs never assaulted her, and she implicates companies that did not exist. This is purely a money grab and nothing more.”
