Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is facing yet another sexual assault lawsuit. In a new filing with the New York courts, dancer Adria English claims that she was the victim of sex trafficking orchestrated by Combs and an employee at his Bad Boy Entertainment company, Tamiko Thomas.
Numerous allegations of sexual harassment and assault, and other misconduct, have been made against Combs over the last year. The rapper continues to deny all the allegations, with his lawyer, Jonathan Davis, responding to the latest litigation in a statement saying, “No matter how many lawsuits are filed it won’t change the fact that Mr Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone”.
English says that she first met Combs in 2004 when her then boyfriend Anthony Gallo attended an audition to model for the musician’s fashion company Sean John. At the audition, Gallo was allegedly told to perform oral sex on Combs to get the job. After he refused, Gallo was told that he could still get the modeling contract if he persuaded English to work as a go-go dancer at one of Combs’ White Party events.
English agreed, partly to help Gallo, and partly because she believed it was legitimate employment. Once at the event, she was told to give lap dances and be “sexually flirtatious” with guests, and was forced to consume alcohol and drugs. After that first party, she was asked to perform at subsequent events. This, she alleges, is how Combs and Thomas were able to “groom” her into sex trafficking.
English goes on to claim that during the third White Party she attended, Combs and Thomas demanded that she have sex with guests, using the fact that she had previously worked in adult films to coerce her into complying with that demand. One of the men she says she was forced to have sex with was celebrity jeweler Jacob Arabov. English, the lawsuit claims, did as instructed because she feared “not only for her safety, but her and her then-boyfriend’s job security”.
The lawsuit also criticises Vibe magazine, partly for publishing an image of English in an article about the White Parties without her consent, but also for “intentionally and falsely marketing and promoting” the parties as high profile networking and social events in order to “disguise and deceive the real intent” of the gatherings. Which was to “further the goals of the defendants’ illegal and criminal enterprise”.
Ultimately English broke contact with Combs after she moved to California in 2009. She only tolerated his demands in the years prior to that, she says, because he made false promises that he would launch her career in the music industry by putting her into a new girl group.
In his response to the new lawsuit, Combs’ attorney Davis also says that he is confident his client will ultimately win in court. “We live in a world where anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason and without any proof”, he adds. “Fortunately, a fair and impartial judicial process exists to find the truth and Mr Combs is confident he will prevail against these and other baseless claims in court”.