Opinion | Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ arrest is only the first step to accountability
The music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested Monday evening in New York, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York City said. The indictment, filed by the Southern District of New York and following a months-long sex trafficking investigation, is expected to be unsealed Tuesday.
In the latest in what has been a string of lawsuits filed against Combs, Dawn Richard, a former member of the groups Danity Kane and Diddy — Dirty Money, alleges that Combs, her former boss, subjected her to a litany of abuses, including sexual harassment, assault and false imprisonment. Her 55-page complaint alleges the abuse began in 2004, when she appeared on “Making the Band,” the MTV reality show that Combs produced, and continued through at least 2011.
Richard’s lawsuit not only adds to the chorus of voices describing Combs as a shockingly violent man, but it also accuses others around Combs of complicity.
Richard’s lawsuit not only adds to the chorus of voices describing Combs as a shockingly violent man, but it also accuses others around Combs of complicity and highlights the difficulties of interrupting the alleged violence described in the lawsuit even when there are reportedly many witnesses.
Richard’s complaint alleges that Combs touched her inappropriately, called the female contestants on “Making the Band” everything from “fat” and “ugly” to “b—ches” and fostered a harmful work culture in which contestants worked for up to 48 hours without eating, drinking or sleeping. She also says he left her trapped in a car for hours and that she had to call her father, who lived in a different state, for help. Combs’ attorney Erica Wolff said in response to Richard’s lawsuit that “Mr. Combs is shocked and disappointed by this lawsuit. In an attempt to rewrite history, Dawn Richard has now manufactured a series of false claims all in the hopes of trying to get a pay day — conveniently timed to coincide with her album release and press tour.”
Richards filed her lawsuit nearly 10 months after Cassie, a singer Combs signed to Bad Boy Records and was romantically partnered with, filed a lawsuit that claimed Combs was “prone to uncontrollable rage.” Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, also accused Combs of a litany of abuses, including physical violence and sexual assault. The day Cassie filed her lawsuit, an attorney for Combs said he “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” and yet, he settled with Cassie for an undisclosed amount the very next day — even as he denied any wrongdoing.
However, in May, CNN released security video from a hotel that showed him hitting and stomping Cassie in exactly the way her lawsuit said he had. In an Instagram video, Combs issued a weak, self-centered apology in which he said, “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.” That apology was later removed from his page.
Between Cassie’s initial lawsuit in November and Richard’s lawsuit last week, federal agents searched Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles, and a source familiar with the matter told NBC News that federal officials interviewed multiple witnesses about allegations of sex trafficking, sexual assault and the solicitation and distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms.
Two other women also filed suit in November. One said she was a college student in 1991 when Combs drugged her and recorded himself assaulting her. Combs has denied the allegation. Another woman alleges that when she was 16 in 1990 or 1991, Combs and R&B singer Aaron Hall offered her multiple drinks before Combs coerced her into sex and Hall followed by sexually assaulting her. Combs has denied the allegation. Hall did not respond to a request for a comment from NBC News.
In December, a woman who says she was 17 in 2003 claimed in a lawsuit that she was sex-trafficked and gang-raped by Combs and Harve Pierre, a former longtime president of Combs’ record label. Combs denied the allegations, and Pierre called the lawsuit “a tale of fiction.” Pierre is also named as a defendant in Richard’s lawsuit. She says he and Combs kept her locked inside a corporate vehicle for hours. Pierre did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Richards alleges in her lawsuit that after she was selected as a member of Danity Kane, Combs groped her without her consent and touched her breasts and butt. She also claims Combs would conduct meetings in his underwear and that he routinely asked her to strip down to her underwear during rehearsals and offered her breast augmentation as a Christmas gift.
She alleges that when she confronted Combs about his behavior, he retaliated by removing her from songs and performances and threatening to ruin her career. She also says he controlled when and what she ate and that she had to be hospitalized when she reached a dangerously low weight. Even when she was facing several medical diagnoses, she says, Combs still required her to work. It was in the evening during winter, she said, that Combs, upset that she was late, her locked in a car with blacked-out windows and without exit handles or heat for more than two hours and that he was angry when she called her father in Baltimore, who came to her rescue. She says he told her, “You don’t call your dad unless you’re in the hospital.”
She also claims Combs would conduct meetings in his underwear and that he routinely asked her to strip down to her underwear during rehearsals and offered her breast augmentation as a gift.
Equally disturbing, her lawsuit describes an environment in which there were multiple witnesses to Combs’ alleged abuse — including other celebrities and police officers who she says were on Combs’ payroll — who she says did nothing.
One of the most disturbing allegations in Cassie’s lawsuit was her claim that, in 2012, Combs became so enraged that she was dating the rapper Kid Cudi that he promised to blow up Kid Cudi’s car. “Around that time,” she wrote in her lawsuit, “Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway.” Through a spokesperson, Kid Cudi confirmed to The New York Times that his car had exploded, saying, “This is all true.”
His corroboration gives us even more reason to believe Richard when she says Combs told her she could go missing if she continued trying to encourage Cassie to leave him.
Though Combs disputes all of Richard’s allegations, her attorney, Lisa Bloom, said in a statement, “We will not rest until we achieve full and complete justice for Dawn in this case.”
As should already be clear, the complaint alleges that those in his inner circle enabled Combs, allowing what’s described as his violence against women to go unchecked or addressed. “Over the decades following his rise to fame, Mr. Combs’ star-studded, larger-than-life persona overshadowed his vicious temper and pervasive acts of violence directed towards those in his inner circle — specifically, women,” the complaint states.
That’s how intimate-partner violence persists: When the people who should attempt to interrupt that violence are intimidated, subjected to uneven power dynamics or backed down by enablers, the violence is allowed to continue and eventually escalate.
With her claims that Combs abused Cassie in the presence of other celebrities and industry executives, Richard is alleging that the entire music industry enabled Combs, allowing him to abuse women with impunity while continuing to amass fame, power and wealth. I would love to offer an expression of surprise at the allegation here, but in an industry that still treats hip-hop figures accused of abuse as icons — instead of walking caution signs in need of help — there’s no surprise to be found.
