Six new lawsuits were filed against music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. In the suits, the plaintiffs allege that he raped women, sexually assaulted men and molested a 16-year-old boy.
The lawsuits were filed in federal court in Manhattan and all were filed anonymously by two women and four men, The Associated Press reported.
The half-dozen lawsuits are among more than 100 people who said they were planning on suing Combs after he was charged with sex trafficking and other alleged crimes last month, USA Today reported.
One man who lives in North Carolina said Combs touched him inappropriately in 1998 when the man was 16 years old. He had attended one of Combs’ “white parties” in the Hamptons, the AP reported. The man said he was speaking to Combs about getting started in the music industry and that Combs said the alleged assault was part of getting into music, asking him “Don’t you want to break into the business? ” The man said he went along with it because of fear, anxiety and the power imbalance, only realizing later that it was sexual assault.
Another case involved an alleged sexual assault of another man in a Macy’s in 2008. The department store was also listed as a defendant, USA Today reported.
A third case was filed by a woman who said Combs raped her in a hotel room when she was 19 in 2004, USA Today reported. She said they met at a photoshoot and that he invited her and a friend to his hotel for a party where the alleged rape took place.
Combs did not respond to the AP’s or USA Today’s requests for a comment on the filings but his lawyer did say when the plans to file were announced earlier this month that Combs “cannot address every meritless allegation in what has become a reckless media circus.”
“No matter how many lawsuits are filed it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone. We live in a world where anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason and without any proof. Fortunately, a fair and impartial judicial process exists to find the truth and Mr. Combs is confident he will prevail against these and other baseless claims in court,” the entertainer’s attorney said in the past, according to USA Today.
These are the first civil lawsuits filed, but Combs faces federal criminal charges including racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, to which he pleaded not guilty.
Combs is currently in the federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest on Sept. 16.
A trial date for the federal case was set for May 5.
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