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Danity Kane singer Dawn Richard filed a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs in New York on Tuesday, alleging sexual assault and abuse.
Richard met Combs in the early 2000s when he hosted the MTV singing competition and reality show “Making the Band.” Her lawsuit alleged that while on the show, Combs deprived her and her bandmates of food and sleep.
Richard also said that between 2009 and 2011, Combs touched her near her breasts and buttocks while she was in a dressing room. She stated that she saw Combs and other men “gang-banging” his ex-female assistant at a hotel pool in Scotland, according to Page Six.
TMZ reported that Richard recounted an instance in which she witnessed model Kim Porter crying with bruises on her face in 2005. Porter, who had four children with Combs, died from lobar pneumonia in 2018.
Richard allegedly watched Combs abuse his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in 2009 — throwing her against a wall, choking her, and dragging her up a flight of stairs. She also claimed she saw Combs hurl a hot pan of eggs at Cassie while saying, “I can’t stand you b***h, you never do it right!”
The alleged abuse occurred while Richard was a member of Diddy-Dirty Money, a hip-hop R&B group with Combs and Kalenna Harper. According to the lawsuit, Richard tried to step in and stop the abuse but was “physically” stopped by Harper.
Richard went on to allege that she is owed $1.2 million in unpaid wages and royalties, in addition to $350,000 in unpaid wages from touring.
Richard’s lawsuit comes weeks after one of Combs’ other accusers filed a police report in Florida. The accuser, Adria English, said she agreed to be a go-go dancer at one of the rapper’s now-infamous white parties around 2004. English said Combs and his associates laced her alcohol with ecstasy before forcing her to have sex with his friends. English claimed her boyfriend was seeking a modeling job, but declined an offer to perform oral sex on Diddy for a gig.
In March, federal authorities raided Combs’ homes in Holmby Hills, California, and Miami. Reports indicated that the raid was connected to an ongoing sex trafficking investigation.
The reported raids also occurred four months after his ex-girlfriend, Cassi Ventura accused him of sex trafficking and abuse. In a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, she alleged that Combs drugged her and forced her to have sex with other men. The pair settled the lawsuit a day after its filing.
However, in May, a video surfaced reportedly showing Combs assaulting Ventura at a California hotel in 2016.
Two more accusers came forward a week after Ventura’s lawsuit. One of the women claimed Combs drugged and raped her at Syracuse University in New York in 1991. Combs denied those allegations before a third accuser, named Liza Gardner, levied similar allegations against him.
In that case, Gardner claimed Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall drugged and raped her and a friend following an Uptown Records event in 1990. Gardner said she was 16 at the time of the incident. She also accused Combs of choking her a day after the assault.
Days after footage of the 2016 assault was publicized, two more women filed lawsuits against Combs. One of those women was April Lampros, a student at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology who reportedly met Combs in 1994. Lampros accused Combs in the lawsuit of sexually assaulting her on four instances between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s.
Lampros claimed Combs promised to mentor her and connect her with executives in the fashion industry. Instead, Combs allegedly forced her to drink before raping her in a hotel room. Lampros recalled another instance in which Combs forced her to perform oral sex on her in a parking garage while a parking attendant watched
Reports indicated that Combs has been accused of committing or facilitating sexual abuse in eight lawsuits. He continues to deny these allegations. He has not been formally charged with any crimes.
[Feature Photo: Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP]
