Rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs has asked that some claims against him in a sexual assault lawsuit be dismissed because laws against revenge porn and human trafficking did not exist in 1991, when Syracuse University student Joi Dickerson-Neal says they took place.
Combs’ lawyers also said that accusations against him are false, offensive, and salacious,” according to PEOPLE.
Dickerson-Neal filed suit against Combs in November, claiming that Combs took the then-19-year-old student to dinner, drugged her, and later raped her, filming the assault. A friend and other men later viewed the recording, she said.
The suit was filed a day before the expiration of New York’s Adult Survivor’s Act, which allowed victims of sexual crimes to file suit after the statute of limitations had expired. Bad Boy Entertainment, Bad Boy Records, and Combs Enterprises were also named as defendants.
Combs’ lawyers say that Dickerson-Neal made the entire story up and besides, some of the allegations “we brought under statuts that did not exist at the time the alleged misconduct occurred.” Further, the filing says, some of the companies named in the suit did not exist at the time of the alleged rape.
Five people have accused Combs of sexual assault and other similar crimes in separate lawsuits in recent months. He has denied all the claims, but settled one lawsuit, against his ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Ventura, known as Cassie. She is reportedly cooperating with federal investigators looking into sex trafficking allegations against Combs, as CrimeOnline reported.
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[Featured image: FILE – Sean “Diddy” Combs in 2017. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)]