Sean 'Diddy' Combs recordsdata movement to vacate $100M default judgment in sexual assault lawsuit filed by inmate

Sean “Diddy” Combs has requested a choose to put aside a $100 million default judgment awarded this week to a Michigan inmate who alleges he was sexually assaulted by the music mogul.

The inmate, Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, filed a lawsuit in June, during which he alleged that when he was in his 20s, he had been sexually assaulted by Combs at a resort social gathering in 1997. A Lenawee County Circuit Courtroom choose dominated in his favor as a result of Combs failed to answer Cardello-Smith’s criticism.

However in an emergency movement filed Thursday, attorneys for Combs stated the default judgment is invalid beneath Michigan state legislation as a result of he was by no means served with the lawsuit and realized of it solely after the judgment was reported by media retailers Monday. Combs’ attorneys stated that the statute of limitations led to 2007, so the go well with needs to be dismissed.

His attorneys additionally filed a movement to dissolve a brief restraining order Cardello-Smith lately obtained towards him after Combs did not contest it. Within the request for Choose Anna Marie Anzalone to vacate the default judgment, Combs’ attorneys stated that Cardello-Smith is a “convicted felon who’s presently serving time in jail for kidnapping and sexual assault” and that he has incessantly filed “frivolous” claims.

Cardello-Smith, who’s representing himself, alleged within the lawsuit that on or round June 14, 1997, whereas he was a bartender at a Detroit-area restaurant, he was invited to an afterparty hosted by Combs at a Vacation Inn. A duplicate of the lawsuit is included within the emergency movement filed Thursday.

Cardello-Smith alleges that he attended the social gathering, the place Combs groped his buttocks whereas Cardello-Smith was engaged in a sexual act with a lady. Cardello-Smith additionally alleges that he handed out after he drank a glass of alcohol that Combs had given him and that when he later awoke, he noticed Combs having intercourse with a lady. He claims Combs informed him, “I did this to you, too!”

Combs’ movement says the “allegations are objectively unbelievable.”

In an announcement, Marc Agnifilo, an lawyer for Combs stated his shopper “has by no means heard of him not to mention been served with any lawsuit. Mr. Combs appears ahead to having this judgment swiftly dismissed.”

Cardello-Smith’s prison historical past consists of convictions for prison sexual conduct and kidnapping. Combs’ attorneys talked about these convictions of their response to the judgment.

Combs has confronted a number of sexual misconduct lawsuits, one as current as this week, filed by Dawn Richard, who got here to fame as a member of the city pop group Danity Kane. Richard alleged Combs groped and threatened her when she was employed by him from 2005 to 2012, and that she witnessed him brutally beat his former girlfriend Cassie, whose lawsuit final yr has prompted others. Cassie, whose authorized title is Casandra Ventura, sued Combs in November, alleging he had repeatedly bodily abused her over the course of their yearslong relationship, and that on one event in 2018, he raped her after she tried to depart him. The 2 settled the lawsuit a day later, with out disclosing the phrases of the settlement. Combs’ lawyer stated the settlement was not an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. He beforehand denied the allegations.

In response to Richard’s lawsuit, Erica Wolff, one other lawyer for Combs, stated in an announcement that Richard had “manufactured a sequence of false claims all within the hopes of making an attempt to get a payday.”

Combs, who’s the topic of a federal investigation, admitted he had physically abused Ventura in a resort hallway in 2016, after CNN released hotel surveillance video of the assault in Might that confirmed him punching, kicking and hanging her. He has denied the opposite allegations introduced towards him within the different lawsuits.

“My habits on that video is inexcusable,” he stated in a video posted on his Instagram in Might, that was later faraway from his web page. “I take full accountability for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I used to be disgusted then once I did it. I’m disgusted now.”