A trial date has been set for May 2025 for the music mogul who faces charges of sex trafficking and racketeering
The entertainment industry has been outraged by this incident.
According to a federal indictment released in September that reads like a laundry list of illegal behavior including kidnapping, forced labor, bribery, and other crimes, Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing accusations of racketeering and sex trafficking. More accusations of sexual misconduct have been made against him after it was disclosed by a Texas-based lawyer that he is defending 120 plaintiffs who have accused Combs of wrongdoing over a 20-year period.
Combs has made headlines in a number of ways over the last two years, which has severely damaged the aura of one of the most well-known figures in American music and popular culture.
This is a chronology of the events:
November 16, 2023
Casandra Ventura sues, citing horrifying assaults and mistreatment.
Combs is sued by Casandra Ventura, a singer and model better known by her stage name Cassie, who dated him for almost ten years and claims she was physically assaulted and raped between 2007 and 2018. After being drawn into a “ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fueled lifestyle” that was supposedly intended to keep her obedient, including having sex with people against her will, she recalls “a cycle of abuse, violence, and sex trafficking.” In addition, the lawsuit claimed that he wrecked Kid Cudi’s (real name Scott Mescudi), another well-known rapper in the US, in order to stop him from meeting Ventura. Combs refuted the claims.
The accusations made by Ventura are the most serious that Combs has ever encountered. In 1998, he was accused of assault and given a lesson in anger management. After a nightclub shooting in 1999, he was cleared of all gun-related charges. Although no formal complaint was made, ex-girlfriend Gina Huynh told a blogger in 2019 that she had been subjected to both emotional and physical violence while dating Combs.
November 17, 2023
Ventura resolves legal action
Ventura and Combs declare that the specifics of their lawsuit settlement have not been publicized. “I have decided to resolve this matter amicably on terms that I have some level of control,” Ventura said in a statement.
November 24, 2023
Two more lawsuits regarding alleged sexual assaults
In two new lawsuits, Combs is accused of sexual assault from 1991 onward. In the first, a woman went anonymous and claimed Combs and another man forced her into having sex. In the second, Joi Dickerson-Neal claimed Combs drugged her, sexually assaulted her, and then recorded and shared the incident with others. Afterwards, on April 26, 2024, Combs’s attorneys submit a move to dismiss some parts of Dickerson-Neal’s claim.
These lawsuits, along with a few more that were later brought against Combs, were made possible by state statutes in New York like the Adult Survivors Act and the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Act, which permitted the filing of lawsuits alleging sexual assault even after the statute of limitations—that is, the period of time within which the allegations could have been made—had passed.
November 29, 2023
Combs resigns as Revolt’s chair
Combs resigns from his position as chair of Revolt, the TV network he created. The following week, Fulwell 73, a production of James Corden, abandons a reality series that was supposed to center on Combs and his family on Hulu.
December 6, 2023
Combs refutes every accusation.
Combs disputes all of the accusations leveled against him in the previous few weeks, including one made in a recent lawsuit by an unidentified second woman who claimed Combs had sexually assaulted and trafficked her when she was just 17 years old. “I didn’t do any of the horrible things that are being said. Combs declared, “I will fight for the truth, my family, and my name.”
Rodney Jones sued Combs on February 26, 2024.
The music producer Rodney Jones has filed a lawsuit against Combs, claiming that during the recording of his 2023 album The Love Album: Off the Grid, Combs touched him inappropriately and tried to “groom him into accepting a homosexual relationship.” Combs’ attorney characterizes the accusation as “pure fiction,” and on August 26, Combs requests that the judge dismiss the case.
March 25, 2024
raids at Combs’s Miami and Los Angeles residences
Unnamed law enforcement sources claim that as part of an investigation into sex trafficking, US federal officials raid Combs’s houses in Miami and Los Angeles. Combs is not being charged at this time.
May 17, 2024
CNN releases graphic video of Combs hitting Ventura.
CNN releases security video showing Combs beating Ventura at a hotel in Los Angeles in 2016. Combs issues an apology the next day, stating, “I accept full responsibility for my actions in that video.” When I did it back then, I was disgusted. Now I’m repulsed.
May 22, 2024
A lawsuit is filed by Crystal McKinney.
The prototype Crystal McKinney sues Combs, claiming that in a 2003 event, he drugged her and made her have oral sex. Later that week, April Lampros, a different woman, files a lawsuit of her own, claiming that Combs filmed one of the alleged sexual assaults and shared it with others, along with four other allegations of sexual assault between 1995 and around 2000.
Howard University cancels its honorary degree on June 7, 2024.
The Washington, DC-based Howard University declares that it is canceling a scholarship program named for Combs, returning a $1 million donation, and rescinding the honorary degree it had bestowed upon him. The ceremonial key to New York City is ordered back to Combs the following week by Mayor Eric Adams, who expressed his “deep dismay” about the video footage of Combs attacking Ventura.
4 July 2024: In the midst of his eighth lawsuit, Combs maintains his innocence.
Combs defends his innocence once more through his attorneys as he deals with the ninth lawsuit he has been accused of sexual assault. Between 2004 and 2009, Adria English claims she was “groomed into sex trafficking over time” at Combs’s renowned, celebrity-filled “white parties.” The attorney Jonathan Davis asserts, “No matter how many lawsuits are filed, it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone.”
September 10, 2024
A no-show at a hearing is combed
Combs does not show up for a virtual hearing in a case that Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith filed against him. Cardello-Smith claimed that Combs drugged and sexually abused him during a 1997 party in Detroit. A default judgment of $100 million against Combs for failing to appear results from the no-show. Cardello-Smith is presently serving a jail sentence linked to an other case. Combs’s attorneys have stated that they intend to have the case dismissed, arguing that Combs was unaware of Cardello-Smith. On September 13, Combs’s attorneys filed emergency applications in an attempt to reverse the decision.
September 11, 2024
Dawn Richard files a further lawsuit.
Another well-known musician brings her own case against Combs after Ventura. Dawn Richard, a member of the girl duo Danity Kane that Combs signed and then a trio dubbed Diddy – Dirty Money, claims that Combs repeatedly touched her body inappropriately, verbally abused her, and overworked her. She also claims to have witnessed him repeatedly violently attack Ventura.
16 September 2024: In New York, Combs is detained and faces charges.
In a federal indictment that details “a criminal enterprise whose members and associates engaged in, and attempted to engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice,” Combs is arrested in New York and charged with three counts of sex trafficking and racketeering.
17 September 2024: In a case involving sex trafficking and racketeering, Combs was denied bail.
Combs is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering; he is denied bail and placed in jail. He enters a not guilty plea when he appears in court in New York. His attorneys make fruitless attempts to keep him out of jail, asking Manhattan court to release him to home detention, place travel limitations on him, and post a $50 million bond. Combs, according to the prosecution, poses “a serious flight risk” and has “the money, manpower, and tools” necessary to elude capture.
24 September 2024: Combs is sued by Thalia Graves
In a fresh complaint filed on September 24, Thalia Graves claims that over twenty years ago, Combs and his bodyguard sexually abused her and then shared a video of the incident.
120 individuals have accused Combs of sexual misconduct as of October 1, 2024.
At a news conference, Texas-based lawyer Tony Buzbee disclosed that he is defending 120 claimants who have accused Combs of wrongdoing over a 20-year period.
One of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Andrew Van Arsdale, informed the Washington Post that in the upcoming weeks, 120 separate cases will be filed in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami. He added that more than 3,000 people had come forward to his office with Combs-related allegations.
“Violent sexual assault or rape, facilitated sex with a controlled substance, dissemination of video recordings, and sexual abuse of minors” are among the new civil claims that Buzbee stated Combs will face.
Judge determines that Combs’s sex-trafficking trial will begin on May 5, 2025; the trial is set to begin on October 10, 2024.
Prosecutors disclosed during a Manhattan hearing that 96 electronic devices were taken into custody by the authorities during searches of Combs’s houses in Miami and Los Angeles, as well as a private airfield in South Florida.
Combs may be charged with further crimes, according to the prosecution, who have raised this possibility in previous court cases.
Since his arrest on September 16, Combs’s attorneys have tried in vain to have him released on bond.
