Sean “Diddy” Combs started out as an ambitious radio station intern at Uptown Records in New York before starting his music company Bad Boy Records in 1994. Diddy’s talent was clear from the get-go when his first major success was Notorious B.I.G.’s critically acclaimed album “Ready to Die. Within the same year, Diddy worked with Mary J. Blige on her iconic R&B album “My Life”, which earned him his first Grammy nomination.
By 1997, Diddy was releasing his own debut full-length album No Way Out. This album would go on to top “music charts worldwide for 24 non-consecutive weeks” and “would win the Grammy Award for the Best Rap Album”, according to Wikipedia.
Just two years later though, the first widely publicized allegation against Diddy would occur in 1999. The New York Times reports “Mr. Combs and his bodyguards beat [record producer Steve Stoute] with a champagne bottle, a telephone, a chair and their fists during an April incident” after a dispute over music video footage.
Had Diddy been convicted, The New York Times states he would have faced up to seven years in prison. However, after a public apology (and, according to NPR, an alleged $500,000 from Diddy), Stoute dropped the assault charge. Sean Combs was then only sentenced to one day of anger management class after pleading guilty to the lesser charge of harassment.
In December of that same year, Sean Combs would be charged with gun possession and bribery after two people were injured by gunfire in a nightclub while he was out with Jennifer Lopez. However, The New York Times disclose that “[t]he details and timeline of the interaction remained muddled throughout [the] highly publicized trial.” In the end, Diddy was found not guilty. A surprising outcome, considering NPR’s report of a 1996 incident where Sean Combs was “found guilty of criminal mischief for threatening a photographer from the New York Post with a gun.”
In March 2001, NPR reports that a local TV host Roger Mills filed a lawsuit against Diddy, accusing him of “assault, false imprisonment, destruction of property, intentional infliction of emotional distress and a civil conspiracy, in an exchange where Combs’ entourage roughed him up and destroyed his camera.” However, a jury ruled in Diddy’s favor.
NPR also reports a lawsuit that happened in March 2007 when “Gerard Rechnitzer [alleged] that Combs punched him, pushed his girlfriend, and tried to spit on another woman outside Teddy’s nightclub at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.”
Shortly after, in May of 2007, NPR reports Laurieann Gibson, a co-star on Diddy’s show Making the Band, as having filed a complaint with the police. Puff Daddy had allegedly “threatened her with a chair while New Edition’s Michael Bivins held her in place…”
No public allegations came again until 2015, when a dispute with a U.C.L.A football coach resulted in Diddy’s arrest. The rapper allegedly attacked the coach with what is described as a kettlebell. The New York Times reports that he was “charged with assault with a deadly weapon, making terrorist threats and battery.”
However, Diddy would, again, escape prosecution when the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office dropped the felony charges.
Fast forward a few commemorations and honors later, including a lifetime achievement award as well as the key to New York City, and we arrive in November of 2023. R&B singer, Cassie, filed a federal lawsuit accusing Diddy of rape, and physically abusing her since 2005.
Cassie, otherwise known as Casandra Ventura, claims that Diddy would drug her, beat her, and video record her without consent on numerous occasions as she was forced to have sex with various male prostitutes. The court documents go on to allege that Diddy broke into Cassie’s house in 2018 and raped her.
Cassie’s lawsuit also brought a 1990/1991 incident to light. NPR reports that Diddy “and the R&B singer Aaron Hall allegedly sexually [assaulted] an unnamed victim and a friend after a music industry event, then beat her several days later when confronted.”
Diddy had his lawyer vehemently deny such “offensive and outrageous allegations”. Diddy even alleges that Cassie persistently demanded $30 million “under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship…” and this was retaliation for his “unequivocal rejection of blatant blackmail”. One day later, the lawsuit would be dropped.
A week after Cassie and Diddy reach an agreement to resolve the case (though, The New York Times reports that, “they disclosed no details about the terms of the settlement”), Diddy would be accused of sexual assault again. This time, by a woman named Joi Dickerson-Neal.
In this second separate sexual assault lawsuit, Sean Combs was accused of drugging and raping Dickerson-Neal, in addition to video recording the assault, in 1991.
Within 12 days of Joi Dickerson-Neal’s lawsuit, a Jane Doe plaintiff accuses Diddy, as well as two unnamed associates of his, of raping her when she was in the 11th grade. Jane Doe was 17 years old when she says the three men pumped her with drugs and alcohol before each taking a turn raping her.
Sean “Diddy” Combs, again, denies all allegations. However, in February 2024, producer Lil Rod, also known as Rodney Jones Jr., comes forward with his own claims of assault. Diddy now has a total of five sexual assault allegations from five different people.
According to The New York Times, while collaborating with Sean Combs on The Love Album: Off the Grid in 2023, Lil Rod claims Diddy “grabbed his genitals without consent, and… tried to “groom” [him] into having sex with another man [by] telling him it was “a normal practice in the music industry.” Allegedly, Lil Rod was being groomed for actor Cuba Gooding Jr.
The 105-page complaint included excerpts of videos- videos and transcripts- of P. Diddy with underage girls. The excerpts also include videos taken by Diddy of his associates with underage girls, as well as clips depicting unwanted homosexual interactions with- you guessed- Cuba Gooding Jr. (among other celebrities).
Diddy, again, denies all allegations through his attorney. Diddy’s lawyer Shawn Holley even alleges that “[they] have overwhelming, indisputable proof that [Lil Rod’s] claims are complete lies.”
Despite all the “overwhelming” and “indisputable” proof of Diddy’s innocence though, Homeland Security raided Diddy’s homes on March 25th, 2024. The LA Times reports that “federal agents conducted the searches as part of an inquiry into sex trafficking allegations involving the hip-hop mogul and entrepreneur”.
According to The New York Times, Homeland Security’s official statement regarding the Diddy raid is as follows: “Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami and our local law enforcement partners. We will provide further information as it becomes available.”
So, will P. Diddy go to jail now? Not yet, but never say never. Homeland Security’s surprise visit to Puff Daddy’s house isn’t a good indication, and neither is the fact that he was spotted pacing around inside of a Miami airport just hours after the raid.
In fact, this sighting seems to have answered the public’s question of “is P. Diddy in trouble” altogether. The Sean Combs sighting has now prompted the public to wonder: is P. Diddy scared? Public perception already seems to have heavily swayed out of his favor after the excerpts from Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones’ lawsuit were released.
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