- Plaintiffs in 14 lawsuits call Sean Combs a rapist, including eight who sued in the past two weeks.
- Credible plaintiffs can help prosecutors win the Combs criminal case, legal experts say.
- Combs’ side is already portraying plaintiffs as financial opportunists who are not to be believed.
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The sex-trafficking indictment against Sean “Diddy” Combs mentions a single cooperating accuser, a former longtime girlfriend referred to only as “Victim-1.”
Legal experts believe she won’t be alone for much longer.
Plaintiffs from Combs’ growing number of sexual abuse lawsuits may soon join her, as “Victim-2,” “Victim-3,” and beyond, in an updated indictment, veteran New York defense attorneys predict.
“You can bet the US Attorney’s Office is interviewing the attorneys, if not the clients themselves,” said attorney Michael Farkas, a former Manhattan prosecutor.
Strong civil accusers — those offering proof, corroboration, and believable testimony — can help prosecutors win a criminal trial. Their financial stake in the outcome of the case also makes them vulnerable to cross-examination.
“If they are credible, they could amount to very powerful evidence against Mr. Combs, either as additional charges or as witnesses called to the stand to show a pattern,” Farkas said.
“But the US attorneys will use caution in all these plaintiff interviews, entertaining at least the possibility that these are claims of opportunity,” he said.
Defense lawyers have already signaled that this will be a line of attack against “Victim-1.”
While she is not identified by name in court papers, her details in the indictment match those in a quickly settled $30 million lawsuit brought in November by Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, the rap mogul’s longtime girlfriend.
Ventura’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, declined to comment on this story.
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“There’s 30 million reasons” to doubt her credibility, Combs attorney Marc Agnifilo told a judge during bail arguments last month. “One for each dollar that was being sued for.”
Any dent in a witness’s credibility can damage a case, said Stacey Richman, a Bronx-based attorney who has represented rappers including Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, and Ja Rule.
“If they believe a witness has intentionally testified falsely as to any material fact, the jurors may disregard the witness’s entire testimony,” said Richman. “And if there is enough momentum with multiple witnesses, it can destabilize the whole case.”
Farkas, Richman, and other criminal defense lawyers with federal experience told BI prosecutors will be especially interested in the most serious of the two dozen civil claims brought in the year since Ventura’s lawsuit opened the Combs litigation floodgates.
So far, 11 women and three men allege they were raped by the music mogul after being beaten or drugged at parties he threw in Manhattan, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas over the past three decades. Nearly a dozen additional plaintiffs allege sexual abuse without using the word rape.
In a lawsuit filed this week, a Jane Doe from Alabama said she was 13 years old when Combs and an unnamed “Celebrity A” raped her at an after-party for the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards.
The lawsuit was one of 13 cases filed in the last two weeks by The Buzbee Law Firm in Houston. Founding attorney Tony Buzbee says he’ll file 120 in total.
“We expect to be filing cases weekly naming Mr. Combs and others as defendants as we continue to gather evidence and prepare the filings,” he told BI.
Combs remains in a federal jail in Brooklyn as he appeals his denial of bail and awaits trial. His indictment alleges he engaged in a decades-long pattern of physical and sexual violence, including during elaborate dayslong sex performances called “freak-offs.” He has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have said that the charged behavior was consensual.
In court papers relating to the criminal case, defense attorneys have used the words “false” and “outright absurd” in referring to the lawsuits’ allegations. Members of the defense team declined to comment for this story.
A spokesman for the US attorney’s office also declined comment.
The vetting will be rigorous
The vetting of these potential plaintiffs-turned-federal-witnesses will be rigorous, said Michael Bachner, a former New York prosecutor who was part of Combs’ defense team in 2001, during a Manhattan guns and bribery trial that ended in the rap mogul’s acquittal.
“They’ll want to know, is there corroboration or proof?” Bachner said of federal prosecutors. “Many of these allegations are decades old — are there hospital records? Is there an explanation for a 13-year-old going to a VMA party? Why was she alone?”
This vetting is already well underway.
Federal prosecutors have been interviewing plaintiffs for months in a less-than-secretive process, defense lawyers complained recently, in asking Combs’ Manhattan judge to gag potential witnesses and their attorneys.
Combs producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a $30 million lawsuit in February alleging sexual assault and harassment, allegations Combs has denied and is seeking to have dismissed.
Last week, Tyrone Blackburn, an attorney for Jones, told a federal judge in Manhattan that he and his client have met repeatedly with prosecutors, with Jones drawing a map of Combs’ home and sharing photos, according to Law 360.
Blackburn, who also represents Combs accuser Liza Gardner, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Blackburn dropped Jones’ claims against UMG Recordings, Motown Records, and Universal Music Group in May after the music companies’ attorneys complained of inconsistencies in the lawsuit.
Another of the Combs lawsuits, filed in July by adult film actress Adria English, similarly hit legal shoals this month when her attorneys successfully asked to withdraw from the case, citing “irreconcilable differences” with English, according to court filings. The attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Experts said Combs’ defense lawyers will try to impugn the financial motives of not only any plaintiffs who take the stand in May but also their lawyers.
In a motion seeking a gag order last week, the defense accused plaintiff attorneys of using “publicity stunt” tactics to drum up a “torrent of allegations.”
They singled out Buzbee for live-streaming a press conference last month where anyone with claims was advised to call a “1-800” number. The hotline received 12,000 calls in its first 24 hours, he told the New York Post.
“We will let the allegations in the filed complaints speak for themselves and will work to see that justice is done,” Buzbee told BI this week.