The musician and businessman Sean Combs is in jail awaiting trial after receiving 11 lawsuits for sexual abuse, but this Tuesday one more was revealed, the most massive so far. More than 120 people accuse the rapper, also known as Puff Dady or Diddy, of sexual abuse and exploitation. They include victims who were minors, barely children, when Combs allegedly abused them.
Around 1:20 p.m. (Texas time, 8:20 p.m. in mainland Spain) on Tuesday, October 1, the legal representatives of the victims met in the Texas city of Houston to hold a press conference. Led by the local law firm Buzbee, in collaboration with AVA Law Group, based in San Diego (California), the lawyers have been very clear from the beginning: “The biggest secret of the music industry, which was no secret, has been revealed to the world. The wall of silence has been broken and the victims are taking a step forward,” explained lawyer Tony Buzbee, the main person responsible for the lawsuit. The lawyer has stated that they have been contacted, so far, by 3,285 people who claim to be victims of Combs, but that at the moment they represent 120 people who have filed civil lawsuits against him and many other of his collaborators.
Another of the lawyers, Andrew Van Arsdale—principal partner of AVA Law Group, which has already participated in a large lawsuit boy scout last year and also in another against the rapper Travis Scott for his concert at Astroworld in 2021—has explained that the fact that Combs is awaiting trial and has gone to jail has validated the feelings of many of the victims, that until now they saw themselves guilty of what happened, even three decades ago. “Many feel supported now,” Buzbee said, “they feel the support of their communities. I hope that in this process names of powerful people will come to light, that many very dirty secrets will be revealed.” Buzbee has also asked Combs’ followers not to attack the victims on social networks, and has encouraged all of them to report and join this lawsuit.
Asked about the relationship between this lawsuit and the federal investigation that has been carried out for months, Buzbee has assured that they are independent: “We welcome (the investigation by) the authorities, my suspicion is that they did not know about these cases, of these people. The FBI should investigate because they weren’t aware of it. He has also stated that they are going to “try to make these plaintiffs available to the authorities, especially the FBI.”
Buzbee has explained that he is not going to reveal the names of the victims, nor of the plaintiffs, at least for now: “The day will come when we give more names than Combs, and there are many names, the list is already long, (…) the names will impact you.” What he did want was to provide some information so that the class action lawsuit could be better understood. One of the most notable issues is that there are multiple cases of minors: he has even spoken of a nine-year-old girl who went to the Big Boy Records studio and was raped by Combs and other collaborators whose names he has not revealed either; also of another minor under 15 years of age who suffered abuse. The victims were between nine and 38 years old at the time of the abuse.
The lawyer has also anonymously described some cases, such as that of a woman sexually attacked when she was 22 years old, who had suffered the “usual behavior” of Combs’ victims: entering a party and having a drink: “In 90% of the cases, these individuals were drugged with these drinks.” She has told the case of a woman who was raped by Combs after he invited her to dinner, but who did not drink anything because she was pregnant. Also that of another 20-year-old woman to whom he promised a recording career and who claims that she left the industry because of what Combs did to her. “I can go on, it’s the same topic, it usually involves certain drugs,” Buzbee said. “I encourage you to support the victims, so we can continue to hear these voices.” “Something like this should never have been allowed in the United States, to drag on for so long.”
“The day will come when we give more names than Combs, and there are many names, the list is already long, (…) the names will shock you”
Tony Buzbee, attorney for the class action lawsuit against Sean Combs, at his press conference
In a statement prior to the press conference, Buzbee wrote: “This is an important matter that we will pursue aggressively. “We will leave no stone unturned until we find all responsible parties, including any individual or entity that participated in or benefited from this egregious behavior.” Furthermore, Van Arsdale has revealed to the newspaper Washington Post that among the defendants there are “members of Combs’ family, record labels, event venues and associates of Combs.”
Olivia Rivers, representative of the main association against sexual harassment in Texas, explained at the conference that one in three women and one in six men are victims of sexual violence throughout their lives, and only 23% reports it, and only 1% of the reports lead to a conviction.
Combs is being held in custody in Brooklyn, New York, awaiting trial. He was arrested in the city on September 16, and a day later the charges were announced: he is accused of sex trafficking, illicit association and transportation to engage in prostitution, which could result in a 15-year prison sentence, but it could reach to be for life. So far he had received 11 lawsuits for abuse, abuse and rape by two men and nine women, the first of which was his ex-girlfriend, the artist Casandra Ventura, in November 2023. Ventura, known as Cassie, spoke of beatings, rapes , constant persecutions and threats, covered up by Combs’ team and collaborators. Although he withdrew the complaint the next day after an out-of-court settlement, he opened the door to a dozen men and women who decided to tell their horror stories against the musician. Among others, in December a woman accused her of gang raping her in 2003 when she was a minor, in what was one of the most serious allegations to date. A man sued him in June, but it was not known until September, when the judge forced him to pay $100 million for not appearing at the hearing. The latest complaint is from just a week ago, on September 24, when a woman named Thalia Graves sued him for sexual abuse and rape.
