A singer who achieved success in bands put collectively by Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has sued the music producer, describing years of psychological and bodily abuse, together with groping, that she says she suffered as he helped launch her profession.
Along with her lawsuit filed on Tuesday in Manhattan federal court docket, Daybreak Richard added her voice to these now saying the music mogul subjected the individuals round him to an explosive mood, violent threats, and sexually charged and drug-fuelled environments as they tried to comply with his orders.
Richard, who grew to become extra broadly identified after showing on the MTV actuality present Making the Band, is suing for unspecified damages in addition to thousands and thousands of {dollars} in revenue that she says she was denied. She argues that damages, together with punitive, are warranted as a result of she suffered financial hurt, bodily damage, ache and struggling, and severe psychological and emotional misery.
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Combs’ representatives mentioned in a press release that Combs was “shocked and disillusioned” by the lawsuit. They mentioned Richard was making “an try to rewrite historical past” by manufacturing “a collection of false claims all within the hopes of making an attempt to get a pay day – conveniently timed to coincide together with her album launch and press tour.”
They added that if her expertise was so unfavourable, Richard wouldn’t have continued working straight with Combs for therefore lengthy, together with returning in 2020 for a Making the Band reboot and agreeing to be featured on The Love Album final yr.
“It is unlucky that Ms. Richard has forged their 20-year friendship apart to attempt to get cash from him, however Mr. Combs is confidently standing on reality and appears ahead to proving that in court docket,” they mentioned.
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In line with the lawsuit, Richard witnessed Combs repeatedly abuse his girlfriend and endured threats that prompted her to worry for her life as Richard labored on songs, typically with no meals or sleep for a day or two at a time, whereas changing into identified in music circles as a member of the woman group Danity Kane and later as a member of Combs’ band Diddy – Soiled Cash.
She says within the lawsuit that Combs usually exploded in rage, hurling mobile telephones, laptops, meals and studio gear throughout the room or at individuals. At different occasions, the lawsuit alleges, Richard witnessed him choking and strangling his protege and longtime girlfriend, Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura. The occasions occurred from 2004 by 2011, in line with the swimsuit.
In Could, CNN aired 2016 resort safety video that confirmed Combs punching, kicking and dragging the R& B singer Cassie. The incident intently matched an outline in a lawsuit that Cassie, whose authorized identify is Casandra Ventura, filed in November and that was settled the next day however drew intense scrutiny towards Combs, together with a federal prison investigation.
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A couple of days after the video’s airing, Combs posted an apology video on social media saying he was “actually sorry” and that his actions had been “inexcusable.”
In her lawsuit, Richard says she “now provides her voice to the rising refrain of victims bravely sharing their harrowing tales. Collectively, they search justice and stand in solidarity, as the most recent victims of the #MeToo motion within the music business.”
In court docket papers, she accuses Combs of asking: “You wish to die at present?” And he or she alleges that he bragged that “I finish individuals” as he withheld her earnings, stole her copyrighted works and subjected her to groping, assault and false imprisonment by locking her in a automobile for hours at one level.
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Richard says within the lawsuit that between 2009 and 2011 whereas she did recordings, rehearsals and performances, Combs repeatedly demanded that she strip right down to her underwear and made demeaning remarks about her physique, typically calling her “lazy, fats, ugly and thin,” even in entrance of his pals, producers and bodyguards.
On quite a few events, the lawsuit says, Combs would enter Richard’s altering room whereas she was undressed and grope her naked buttocks and chest space close to her breasts. Throughout an October 2010 journey to carry out in Glasgow, Scotland, Combs made overt sexual advances in direction of Richard, it contends.
She included these round Combs and music firms which supported him as defendants, alleging that Combs carried out a lot of his abuse in public settings and with report firm workers round that they may very well be discovered liable.
The Related Press doesn’t usually identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused until they arrive ahead publicly as Richard and Cassie have achieved.
Assist is out there from the Nationwide Sexual Assault, Home Household Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).
