Rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z, whose actual identify is Shawn Carter, was accused in a lawsuit Sunday of raping a teenage woman after an awards present greater than 20 years in the past together with Sean “Diddy” Combs, the hip-hop mogul going through federal intercourse trafficking expenses and a wave of lawsuits alleging sexual assault.
The plaintiff in Sunday’s go well with mentioned she was 13 on the time of the alleged assault, in accordance with the grievance, which was filed in federal court docket in New York’s Southern District.
Carter denied the allegations Sunday, calling them “idiotic” in a press release. Combs’ authorized crew dismissed the go well with as a “shameless publicity stunt.”
Here’s what we all know concerning the litigation.
What are the allegations in opposition to Carter?
The lawsuit was initially filed in October in opposition to Combs, and it was amended Sunday to incorporate Carter as a defendant.
The plaintiff, who’s recognized as “Jane Doe” within the go well with, mentioned she met the boys after the MTV Music Video Awards at Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan in 2000. She’d been attempting to get into the occasion — or to go to an after-party — however didn’t have a ticket, and he or she started approaching limousine drivers exterior, in accordance with the go well with.
One of the drivers mentioned he labored for Combs and informed her she “match what Diddy was searching for,” the go well with alleges. After the motive force took to her an after-party, the plaintiff says, she was informed to signal what she believed was a nondisclosure settlement and given a drink that made her “woozy,” the go well with alleges.
The plaintiff lay down in a room, the lawsuit says, and Combs and Carter entered. Carter eliminated her garments, in accordance with the go well with, and raped her whereas Combs and a feminine superstar who just isn’t named within the doc watched, it says.
Combs tried to drive the plaintiff to carry out oral intercourse, however she hit him within the neck and he stopped, the go well with alleges. She grabbed her garments, ran to a gasoline station and referred to as her father, it says.
What does Carter say concerning the go well with?
In a press release, Carter mentioned the lawyer who filed the go well with had made a “horrible error in judgement considering that each one ‘celebrities’ are the identical. I’m not out of your world. I’m a younger man who made it out of the mission of Brooklyn. We don’t play these kinds of video games. We have very strict codes and honor. We shield kids, you appear to use individuals for private achieve.”
“Only your community of conspiracy theorists, faux physics, will consider the idiotic claims you will have levied in opposition to me that, if not for the seriousness surrounding hurt to youngsters, can be laughable,” he added.
Carter described a pre-litigation demand letter from the lawyer who filed the go well with as an effort to “blackmail” him into settling. Attorney Tony Buzbee mentioned his consumer had sought solely confidential mediation and didn’t demand any cash.
In response to the letter, Buzbee mentioned within the amended grievance that Carter orchestrated a “conspiracy of harassment, bullying and intimidation in opposition to Plaintiff’s legal professionals, their households, staff and former associates in an try and silence Plaintiff from naming Jay-Z.”
On Monday, a lawyer for Carter requested a choose to both deny a request to permit the plaintiff to stay nameless or dismiss the case.
Carter’s lawyer requested for an expedited listening to, which has not but been scheduled.
The lawyer, Alex Spiro, mentioned the plaintiff’s resolution to sue anonymously was “inconsistent with a real effort to find out the reality or falsity of those allegations versus an effort to acquire a fast, extortionate settlement.”
How are Carter and Combs linked?
Both males rose to fame within the Nineteen Nineties hip-hop scene in New York, with Combs founding Bad Boy Records and serving to launch the profession of the Notorious B.I.G., and Carter serving to discovered Roc-A-Fella Records and releasing his debut album in 1996.
They appeared on one another’s music and went on to grow to be well-known — and rich — entrepreneurs whose enterprise ventures went far past hip-hop.
Carter based the leisure firm Roc Nation in 2008. Forbes has estimated his wealth at $2.5 billion. Much of Diddy’s wealth lately got here from a partnership with a vodka model, in accordance with Forbes.
What are the allegations in opposition to Combs?
Combs, 55, was arrested in September in reference to what federal authorities described as a yearslong scheme to sexually abuse and exploit ladies. He was charged with a racketeering conspiracy, intercourse trafficking and transportation for functions of prostitution, federal prosecutors mentioned.
Prosecutors in New York’s Southern District accused Combs of coercing and forcing ladies into elaborate, drug-fueled “freak offs” with male intercourse employees that he organized, directed and recorded.
Combs has additionally been named as a defendant in lawsuits Buzbee filed on behalf of greater than 100 accusers from throughout the U.S.
Combs, who’s being held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center with out bail, pleaded not responsible to the federal expenses, and his legal professionals have denied the allegations within the lawsuits.
“As his authorized crew has mentioned earlier than, Mr. Combs has full confidence within the details and the integrity of the judicial course of,” his authorized representatives mentioned in a press release Sunday. “In court docket, the reality will prevail: that Mr. Combs by no means sexually assaulted or trafficked anybody — man or girl, grownup or minor.”
