Lawyers for Sean "Diddy" Combs are pushing back against a woman's lawsuit that accuses him of sexual assault, filing a motion to dismiss some claims that were not under law when the alleged incident occurred.
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The motion filed in a New York court on Friday claims Combs cannot be sued because certain laws did not exist when Joi Dickerson-Neal made the allegations against him in 1991.
The music mogul's lawyers want certain statutes from Dickerson-Neal's claims such as revenge porn and human trafficking dismissed with prejudice.
In a filing in 2023, she said Combs "intentionally drugged" her then brought her home and sexually assaulted her after a date in Harlem when she was a 19-year-old college student.
Without her knowledge, Combs videotaped the assault and later shared it with several friends in the music industry, the suit alleges.
While Friday's motion sought to dismiss the case on legal grounds, Diddy's attorneys and the mogul "vehemently deny" what they called "numerous false, offensive, and salacious accusations" in the lawsuit.
Dickerson-Neal's claim came nearly three decades after his alleged misconduct, and the New York State Revenge Porn Law was not codified until 2019, Combs' lawyers said.
His attorneys also pointed out a few others including the New York Services for Victims of Human Trafficking Law, which came into effect in 2007.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Dickerson has done.
Combs' properties in Los Angeles and Miami were raided by federal authorities in March in a sex trafficking investigation.
The criminal investigation is a major escalation in the scrutiny of Combs, who has been the defendant in several recent sexual abuse lawsuits.
In a lawsuit Combs settled the day after it was filed in November, his former protege and girlfriend, the singer Cassie, sued him alleging years of sexual abuse including rape.
The lawsuit said he forced her to have sex with male prostitutes while he filmed them.
In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them.
Another of Combs' accusers was a woman who said he raped her two decades ago when she was 17.
Combs and his lawyers have denied all of the allegations in the lawsuits.
1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)
National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028
Australian Associated Press
