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Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs loses $100m default judgment over sexual assault allegations

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs loses $100m default judgment over sexual assault allegation

https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/sep/10/sean-diddy-combs-sexual-assault-default-judgment

Hip-hop mogul failed to respond to lawsuit over alleged sexual assault in Detroit in 1997 but denies knowing accuser

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs loses $100m default judgment over sexual assault allegation

The hip-hop mogul failed to respond to lawsuit against him over alleged sexual assault in Detroit in 1997

A man who accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexually assaulting him has won a $100m judgment after the rapper, music producer and businessman failed to contest the allegations in a civil courthouse in Michigan.

Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, 51, secured the remarkably large judgment after filing a lawsuit that described how he encountered Combs while working in the restaurant and hospitality industry near Detroit.

According to the Detroit Metro Times, Cardello-Smith alleged that he was both drugged and sexually assaulted by Combs at a party in Detroit in 1997, just one claim amid a broader pattern of alleged sexual abuse and other misconduct by the three-time Grammy winner once also known as P Diddy, Puff Daddy and Love.

10 comments

FlyingSquid

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He apparently thought regularly changing his name would shield him from the law.

FlashZordon

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JesusSon

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Sir, believe you me, that's one hell of a commissary.

TheDarksteel94

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I wonder how much of that the guy actually gets to pocket in the end

SapphironZA

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Not as much as the lawyers, I am sure.

shoulderoforion

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"Court records show that Cardello-Smith is incarcerated at the Earnest C Brooks correctional facility after multiple previous convictions of criminal sexual misconduct. The Metro Times reported that he taught himself criminal and civil law during his incarceration while also developing “a long history of challenging the judicial system” with lawsuits.

Combs is not the only prominent defendant named in one of those lawsuits. Another is the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Detroit, in a lawsuit alleging that two of the organization’s priests as well as one of its lay employees sexually abused Cardello-Smith between 1979 – when he was about seven years old – and 1993."

I don't see how Combs doesn't appeal this, and get this stayed, now that there's a judgement. Dudes not going to start simply paying this may $10 million a month.

TimLovesTech

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Nice victim shaming attempt, when his own record since his alleged Combs assault plays no part in this (his first offense was 1998 - which is a year after the alleged assault). An assault like this can mess people up, although that doesn't excuse his wrongs, but they may help explain his mindset.

You also left out 2 of the more key parts of your cherry picking -

The award was issued Monday by Lenawee County Circuit Court Judge Anna Marie Anzalone following a temporary restraining order granted to Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, 51, against Combs in August.

A judges don't usually hand out restraining orders like candy on Halloween, and I assume when the person asking is currently incarcerated even less so?

Cardello-Smith produced prison facility information revealing Combs’s name logged into the visitation record, and says the founder of Bad Boy Records offered him $2.3 million dollars to dismiss the lawsuit, but Cardello-Smith rejected the offer.

So Combs went to the jail himself to talk with this guy instead of sending a lawyer on his behalf, interesting that.

atzanteol

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He didn't even contest it in court though - wouldn't that make an appeal difficult?

cybersandwich

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I mean it's the law so lawyers can try whatever appeals they like but from my incredibly limited understanding, default judgements aren't usually appealable unless there was a structural/procedural mess up.

So if combs wasn't notified (we all know that's not true), or if there was a reasonable reason he didn't respond (got into a car accident on the way to the courthouse/deployed to Iraq), or some local procedural misstep by the plaintiff.

But failing that courts are pretty strict about enforcing default judgements as final. God knows they don't want people just not showing up as a tactic.

On the surface, the order seems like it couldn't be appealed for most of the usual reasons. I wonder if they could play the "my client couldn't respond because it may violate his 5th amendment rights in a related criminal case" or something like that. That seems like the type of thing a lawyer might try.

atzanteol

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It's a civil trial - IIRC you can't plead the 5th in civil trial in the same way you can a criminal trial. The only thing I think they have a chance with is the amount.