Sean “Diddy” Combs has been hit with a new wave of lawsuits accusing him of raping women, sexually assaulting men and molesting a 16-year-old boy.
It's the first time he’s been sued by a person alleging they were abused as a minor.
At least six lawsuits were filed against Combs in federal court in Manhattan on Monday, adding to a growing list of legal claims against the indicted hip-hop mogul, all of which he has denied.
The lawsuits were filed anonymously to protect the identities of the accusers, two by women identified as Jane Does and four by men identified as John Does.
Some of the Does, echoing others who've accused Combs in recent months, allege he used his fame and the promise of potential stardom to entice victims to lavish parties or drug-fuelled hangouts where he then assaulted them.
Some allege he beat or drugged them. Others say he threatened to kill them if they didn’t do as he pleased or if they spoke out against him.
The lawsuits describe alleged assaults dating to the mid-1990s, including at Combs’ celebrity-studded white parties in Long Island’s Hamptons, at a party in Brooklyn celebrating Combs’ then-collaborator Biggie Smalls, and even in the storeroom at Macy’s flagship department store in midtown Manhattan.
The plaintiffs in Monday’s lawsuits are part of what their lawyers say is a group of more than 100 alleged victims who are in the process of taking legal action following Combs’ September 16 arrest on federal racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges.
The lawsuits are among more than a dozen in the last year that accuse Combs of sexual assault.
Messages seeking comment were left for Combs’ lawyers and other representatives.
When the planned lawsuits were announced on October 1, a lawyer for Combs said the rapper and producer “cannot address every meritless allegation in what has become a reckless media circus”.
Combs, 54, has pleaded not guilty in his criminal case, which involves allegations he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings.
Twice denied bail, the Bad Boy Records founder remains locked up in a Brooklyn jail while awaiting trial in May.
Two judges have concluded Combs would be a danger to the community if he is released.
On Friday, an appeals court judge denied Combs’ immediate release from jail while a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals weighs his bail request.
Before Monday’s raft of lawsuits, all the accusers suing Combs had been adults at the time of their alleged abuse, although a Chicago record producer claimed in a February suit he had "irrefutable evidence" of Combs sexually abusing minors.
In a lawsuit on Monday, a John Doe alleged Combs fondled his genitals when he was 16 at one of the rapper’s white parties in 1998.
The man alleges Combs told him he had “the look” of a star and then abruptly ordered the then-teen to drop his pants.
According to the man’s lawsuit, Combs explained to him it was a rite of passage to becoming a music star, at one point asking him: “Don’t you want to break into the business?”
The man said he complied out of fear, anxiety and power imbalance he felt with Combs, only realising later that what he says happened was sexual assault.
Other lawsuits filed on Monday include allegations of rape, forced oral sex and drugging to incapacitate victims.
One of the Jane Does alleges Combs raped her in a locked hotel room in 2004 after he invited her and a friend there for a party, gave them drinks and told them to snort cocaine.
The woman, then a college freshman, alleges Combs also forced her friend to perform oral sex on him and threatened their lives if they didn’t comply.
