A federal judge in New York on Monday gutted one of the most explosive civil lawsuits filed against Sean “Diddy” Combs, dismissing the most serious allegations lodged by music producer Rodney Jones and warning Jones’ attorney to stop making “irrelevant insults, misstatements, and exaggerations.”
Jones, known professionally as Lil’ Rod, claimed he was the “victim of constant unsolicited and unauthorized groping and touching” while living with Combs and forced into unwanted sexual situations with others. Jones alleged Combs “promised to make sure that Mr. Jones wins producer of the year at the Grammys if he engaged in homosexual acts.”
Combs denied the allegations.
Judge Paul Oetken dismissed all of the claims Jones made under racketeering statutes, including his claims of trauma, mental-health problems, emotional pain and suffering, and embarrassment and humiliation from breach of contract.
The judge preserved Jones’ claims under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act that said on numerous occasions, Combs allegedly recruited or enticed Jones to solicit and perform sex acts with commercial sex workers, as well as transported Jones across state and international borders in order to do so. Combs allegedly secured Jones’ compliance with his requests both by promising economic benefits that never materialized, and by threatening Jones with physical restraint and harm. The judge noted, however, that Jones does not connect most of Combs’ verbal threats to specific sex acts on specific dates.
“Taken together, and with all inferences drawn in Jones’s favor, these allegations support an overall inference that Combs used a combination of threats and promises to secure compliance with his requests, and that those requests included participation in numerous commercial sex acts. Federal pleading standards do not require more precision at this stage in the litigation,” the judge’s opinion said.
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