Diddy’s lawsuit stream may shake up his sex-trafficking case

• Plaintiffs in 14 lawsuits name Sean Combs as the rapist, including eight who filed lawsuits in the past two weeks.
• Credible plaintiffs can help prosecutors win Combs’ criminal case, legal experts say.
• Combs’ side already portrays the plaintiffs as financial opportunists who are not to be believed.

The accusation of sex trafficking against Sean “Diddy” Combs names only one cooperating accuser, a longtime ex-girlfriend referred to only as “Victim-1.”

Legal experts believe she won’t be alone much longer.

Plaintiffs from Combs’ growing number of sexual abuse lawsuits may soon join him as “Victim-2,” “Victim-3” and more in an updated indictmentveteran New York defense attorneys predict.

“You can bet the US attorney’s office is interviewing the lawyers, if not the clients themselves,” attorney Michael Farkas, a former New York prosecutor.

While strong civil prosecutors—those who provide credible evidence, corroboration, and testimony—can help prosecutors win a criminal case, their financial stake in the outcome of the case makes them vulnerable to cross-examination.

“If they are credible, they could constitute very strong evidence against Mr. Combs, either as additional charges or as witnesses called to the stand to show a pattern,” Farkas said.

“But U.S. attorneys will use caution in all of these interviews with plaintiffs, at least entertaining the possibility that these are opportunistic claims,” ​​he said.

Defense attorneys have already signaled that this will be a line of attack against “Victim-1.”

Although she is not identified by name in court documents, her details in the indictment match those in a $30 million fast-track lawsuit filed in November by Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, the rap mogul’s longtime girlfriend.

Ventura’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, declined to comment for this story.

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“There are 30 million reasons” to doubt her credibility, Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo told a judge during bail arguments last month. “One for every dollar he was sued for.”

Any weakness in a witness’s credibility can hurt a case, said Stacey Richman, a Bronx attorney who has represented rappers including Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and Ja Rule.

“If they believe a witness willfully gave false testimony as to any material fact, jurors can disregard the witness’s entire testimony,” Richman said. “And if there’s enough momentum with more witnesses, it can destabilize the whole case.”

Farkas, Richman and other experienced federal criminal defense attorneys said BI prosecutors will be particularly interested in the most serious of the two dozen civil claims filed in the year since Ventura’s trial opened the floodgates to the Combs litigation.

So far, 11 women and three men claim they were raped by the music mogul after being beaten or drugged at parties he threw in Manhattan, Los Angeles and Las Vegas over the past three decades. Nearly a dozen additional plaintiffs allege sexual abuse without using the word rape.

In a lawsuit filed this week, a Jane Doe in Alabama said he was 13 years old when Combs and an unnamed “Celebrity A” raped her at a 2000 MTV Video Music Awards after-party.

The trial was one of 13 cases submitted in the last two weeks by the Houston law firm Buzbee. Founding attorney Tony Buzbee says he will file 120 in total.

“We expect to file weekly filings naming Mr. Combs and others as defendants as we continue to gather evidence and prepare the filings,” he told BI.

Combs remains in a federal prison in Brooklyn while he appeals his bail denial and awaits trial. His indictment alleges that he engaged in a decades-long pattern of physical and sexual violence, including during elaborate one-day sex shows called “freaks.” He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyers have said the alleged conduct was consensual.

In court filings regarding the criminal case, defense attorneys used the words “false” and “utter nonsense” to refer to the lawsuits’ allegations. Members of the defense team declined to comment for this story.

A spokesman for the US attorney’s office also declined to comment.

The verification will be rigorous

The vetting of these potential plaintiffs-turned-federal witnesses will be rigorous, said Michael Bachner, a former New York prosecutor who was on Combs’ 2001 defense team during a Manhattan gun and bribery trial that ended with the acquittal of the rap mogul. .

“They’ll want to know, is there corroboration or proof?” Bachner said of federal prosecutors. “Many of these allegations are decades old – are there hospital records? Is there an explanation for a 13-year-old going to a VMA party? Why was she alone?”

This check is already in progress.

Federal prosecutors have been interviewing the plaintiffs for months in a less-than-secretive trial, defense attorneys complained recently, asking the Manhattan judge in Combs to gag potential witnesses and their attorneys.

Comb maker Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a $30 million lawsuit in February citing sexual assault and harassment, allegations Combs has denied and is seeking to dismiss.

Last week, Tyrone Blackburn, an attorney for Jones, told a federal judge in Manhattan that he and his client met repeatedly with prosecutors, with Jones drawing a map of Combs’ home and sharing photos, according to Law 360.

Blackburn, which he also represents Combs accuser Liza Gardnerdid not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Blackburn dropped Jones’ claims against UMG Recordings, Motown Records and Universal Music Group in May after lawyers for the music companies complained about inconsistencies in the lawsuit.

Another suit from Combs, submitted in July by adult film actress Adria Englishsimilarly hit the legal docks this month when her lawyers successfully asked to withdraw from the case, citing “irreconcilable differences” with the English language, according to court filings. The lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Experts said Combs’ defense attorneys will try to challenge the financial motives not only of the plaintiffs taking the stand in May, but also of their attorneys.

In a motion seeking a gag order last week, the defense accused the plaintiffs’ lawyers of using “publicity stunts” tactics to create a “torrent of accusations.”

They singled out Buzbee for live streaming a press conference last month in which anyone with claims was advised to call a “1-800” number. The hotline received 12,000 calls in the first 24 hours, he told the New York Post.

“We will let the allegations in the complaints filed speak for themselves and work to get justice,” Buzbee told BI this week.