Diddy files emergency appeal against $100m ruling in sexual assault lawsuit
This is the latest development in one of several sexual assault lawsuits filed against the mogul
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Sean "Diddy" Combs is battling the $100 million default judgement he was slapped with on Monday, claiming he never even received the lawsuit.
The troubled rapper, 54, made the claim in an emergency motion filed Thursday after he failed to turn up to court three days before, according to court documents obtained by USA Today.
This meant the claimant won the case by default, and that Diddy must now pay $10 million every month to them under the judgement, per reports from Variety.
In the civil suit, filed in June, Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith claimed Diddy sexually assaulted him in 1997 after he joined the musician and two women in a private Detroit Holiday Inn hotel room following an after party – where the two men had just met.
Cardello-Smith – who is currently in jail – alleged that when he started having sex with one of the women, he felt Diddy touch his buttocks, prompting him to cease sexual interactions.
He went on to claim that Diddy noticed his disengagement and offered him a drink, writing in his complaint, "I stayed sitting there and began getting drowsy and started to pass out."
He continued, "then Sean Combs said to me 'I added a little something to it for you. I will get that from you anyway, one way or another.'"
Cardello-Smith, who is reportedly serving up to 75 years for first-degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping charges, alleged that he awoke bleeding and in pain.
"I ran out and left and never went back," he wrote, adding a claim that he filed a police report, even alleging the producer "paid Detroit and Monroe Police Officers to keep it hidden."
“This man is a convicted felon and sexual predator, who has been sentenced on 14 counts of sexual assault and kidnapping over the last 26 years,” Diddy's lawyer Marc Agnifilo told the Detroit Metro Times.
“His resume now includes committing a fraud on the court from prison, as Mr. Combs has never heard of him let alone been served with any lawsuit. Mr. Combs looks forward to having this judgment swiftly dismissed.”
This is just one of a number of lawsuits filed against the mogul, several of which, including Cardello-Smith's allegations, accuse him of sexual assault. Most are ongoing.
His ex-girlfriend, R&B singer Casandra "Cassie" Ventura filed a lawsuit against him in 2023, alleging that she was trafficked, raped and beaten by him a number of times over the course of their 11-year relationship.
The case was settled for an undisclosed sum of money just one day after she filed it, with the singer asking the court to dismiss her case “with prejudice", meaning her claims cannot be filed again, according to Vulture.
CCTV footage surfaced in May this year showing Diddy kicking and punching Cassie in a hotel hallway in 2016, seemingly corroborating her allegations.
He posted an Instagram video less than one week after the clips came out, calling his behavior “inexcusable.”