A person that sued American rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs over an alleged sexual assault has received $100m (£76.6m) by default after Combs failed to reply.
Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, 51, accused Combs of drugging him and sexually assaulting him at a celebration in Detroit, Michigan, in 1997. Attorneys for Combs have denied the allegations.
Cardello-Smith is a convicted felon at present serving a jail sentence and is thought for his lengthy historical past of submitting civil lawsuits, based on a neighborhood newspaper.
Attorneys for Combs stated Cardello-Smith was committing “fraud on the court docket” and advised the BBC that the rapper will battle the ruling.
Courts concern default judgments in opposition to folks when they don’t reply to a lawsuit.
Combs and his legal professionals advised the BBC they’d not been conscious of the lawsuit as a result of Combs was not correctly served discover of it, and that they are going to be looking for to vacate Monday’s judgment.
The lawsuit is amongst a string of sexual assault allegations which were not too long ago made in opposition to Combs, one of the profitable moguls within the historical past of rap music.
The award to Cardello-Smith was issued on Monday by Decide Anna Marie Anzalone of the Lenawee County Circuit Court docket, after Combs failed to seem for a 9 September listening to over the lawsuit.
Based on the native newspaper, the Detroit Metro Instances, Cardello-Smith crossed paths with Combs within the Nineties whereas he was working within the restaurant and hospitality business in Detroit.
He advised the court docket that Combs not too long ago provided him $2.3m to drop the lawsuit, however he rejected that provide. He additionally stated that he continues to know Combs, and had produced paperwork exhibiting Combs’s title in a jail visitation log.
Combs’s lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, denied that the rapper ever knew Cardello-Smith in an announcement to the BBC.
Cardello-Smith is serving time for unrelated convictions of sexual misconduct and kidnapping, based on court docket paperwork.
The Detroit Metro Instances reported that he taught himself prison and civil legislation throughout his time in jail, and had since developed “an extended historical past of difficult the judicial system” by submitting a number of lawsuits.
Others have sued Combs for sexual and bodily abuse, together with his long-time accomplice Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.
Combs paid Ventura an undisclosed sum of cash, which settled the matter exterior of court docket.
The rapper had repeatedly denied the allegations, however later apologised after CCTV footage from 2016 was launched in Might showing to indicate Combs throwing and kicking Ventura in a resort hallway.
In March, federal brokers raided two homes owned by the star “as a part of an ongoing investigation” into intercourse trafficking.
On the time, Combs’ lawyer had known as the raid an “unprecedented ambush” and stated his consumer was harmless.
