More than 100 people, including some who were minors at the time, are planning to file lawsuits against Sean “Diddy” Combs alleging that the founder of Bad Boy Entertainment and others sexually abused and exploited them.
The impending lawsuits, announced Tuesday in Houston, would be the latest in a wave of legal filings against the disgraced 54-year-old hip-hop mogul since federal prosecutors in New York unsealed an indictment in September that charged Combs with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
“This is the beginning of what I hope to be a national dialogue,” attorney Tony Buzbee said at a news conference Tuesday. “This type of sexual assault, sexual abuse and sexual exploitation should never happen in the United States or anywhere else. This should have never been allowed to go on for so long. This conduct has created a mass of individuals who are injured, scared and scarred.”
Buzbee said his firm expects to file cases on behalf of 120 people, an equal number of men and women, who allege they were exploited. Buzbee said other alleged perpetrators who will eventually be named in the suits “will shock you.”
“They already know who they are,” he said. “And I’m talking here about not just the cowardly but complicit bystanders … that we know watched this behavior occur and did nothing. I’m talking about the people that participated, encouraged it.”
Most of the cases are expected to be filed in New York and California, and some will be filed within the next month. Twenty-five of the 120 individuals who have come forward were minors seeking a career in the music or television industry when the abuse allegedly occurred, Buzbee said.
