Sean “Diddy” Combs could also be going through the brunt of a damning intercourse trafficking cost, however the disgraced music mogul additionally scored a authorized victory in Michigan.
A Lenawee County Circuit Court decide determined Wednesday to vacate a default judgment requiring the founding father of Bad Boy Records to pay $100 million to a Michigan inmate who sued Diddy for sexual assault. Last week, Judge Anna Marie Anzalone ordered Combs, 54, to pay accuser Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith $10 million a month beginning in October, after the tycoon failed to seem at a listening to in civil court docket.
Combs’ legal professionals filed an 83-page movement on Sept. 13 to vacate the sentence, arguing that Cardello-Smith, 51, didn’t adequately serve Combs in accordance with Michigan legislation. The movement additional said that the rapper solely grew to become conscious of the lawsuit from experiences of the massive defaulted settlement.
A authorized consultant for Combs had no remark to the Times on Wednesday. The Times was unable to succeed in Cardello-Smith, who filed the lawsuit towards Combs with out an lawyer.
This week, Combs’ protection crew alerted the court docket to alleged inconsistencies with Cardello-Smith’s proof of service, arguing that he had altered paperwork mandatory for the court docket to problem the default judgment, he advised the Times.
Cardello-Smith is serving time in Earnest C. Brooks Prison for quite a few intercourse crimes. He sued Combs in June, alleging he was drugged and sexually assaulted by Diddy throughout a June 1997 encounter at a Holiday Inn in Michigan.
In his grievance, Cardello-Smith stated Combs touched him on the left buttock and supplied him a spiked drink. After accepting the drink, Cardello-Smith stated, he handed out. He claimed that when he got here to, he noticed Combs having intercourse with a lady. The rapper allegedly stated, “I did this to you too,” in response to the lawsuit.
Before submitting this lawsuit, Cardello-Smith had been convicted 3 times in Minnesota legal court docket, every time after coming into a plea settlement or pleading no contest. The costs towards him vary from third-degree legal sexual conduct to kidnapping and first-degree legal sexual conduct through the fee of against the law. Five of the crimes occurred in September and October 1997, the identical 12 months because the alleged incident with Combs.
In final week’s movement, Combs’ legal professionals described Cardello-Smith’s allegations as “objectively unimaginable,” including that the grievance gives an “unimaginable narrative to observe.” Before that, Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, dubbed Cardello-Smith a “convicted felon and sexual predator” in an announcement shared with the Times.
In addition to the pricey late fee compensation, Anzalone additionally canceled a short lived restraining order that Cardello-Smith had requested in August towards the troubled businessman. A listening to for the case is ready for subsequent month.
However, Diddy’s authorized troubles are removed from over.
The rapper, whose alleged historical past of sexual assault has come to gentle over the previous 12 months, was arrested Monday amid a wide-ranging federal investigation into intercourse trafficking allegations. He pleaded not responsible to all costs — three counts of intercourse trafficking, racketeering and transportation to interact in prostitution — Tuesday in a Manhattan federal court docket.
Combs will stay in a federal jail in Brooklyn, New York, awaiting trial, regardless of his lawyer’s requests for home arrest and bail on $50 million bail.
