The veracity of a former security guard’s allegation of being drugged and raped by Sean “Diddy” Combs nearly 20 years ago is being called into question after discrepancies emerged between the basic facts in his legal filing on the matter, and his account in a television interview about the alleged encounter.
On Tuesday, John Doe — who is remaining anonymous in court and to the public to retain his privacy while discussing the alleged assault — sat with CNN to explain how the alleged attack in the mid-aughts at one of Combs’ legendary White Party events cost him his job, ended his marriage and left him with a lifelong sense of shame. Details of his account, submitted in a legal complaint in the Southern District of New York on Oct. 14, track with what other alleged victims of Combs have claimed the rapper did in their separate legal filings. In particular, the details he shared are similar to the accounts described in the bombshell legal filing from Diddy’s ex-collaborator, producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Johnson. That case led to a still-roaring explosion of chatter about Combs’ behavior and the filing of dozens of additional lawsuits against the rap mogul.
“The full gravity of it lives with me to this day. It affects every single thing you do for the rest of your life,” the man told CNN regarding the alleged attack in an on-camera interview, with his face obscured in shadow and his voice altered.
In his Oct. 14 legal filing, Doe claimed to have encountered the rap star while working as security at the mogul’s annual White Party event in 2007 at his East Hampton estate. Speaking with CNN this week, he said the rapper was “incredibly friendly, very gracious” as the two chatted that day. Combs offered him two drinks, he said in his filing, that he believed would contain alcohol but now thinks contained the nervous system depressant GHB and the drug ecstasy. The suit claims that Doe felt woozy after the first drink and was incapacitated by the second. At that point, Combs — who Doe told CNN was “waiting in the wings” and observing him — feigned concern and then pushed him into an empty vehicle, where he tells the court that Combs held him down and sodomized him as he pleaded for help.
Doe revealed this week that a second celebrity was present during the alleged attack and was amused by Comb’s alleged sexual assault of him.
“I was screaming,” he recalled. “I was telling him to stop. It was incredibly painful, and he was acting like it was nothing, and he seemed to be disconnected from it, but it was abusive beyond belief.”
Doe then struggled to leave the event, he said. When he went to his supervisor at the security firm, he said that his account of the alleged attack was brushed off, and after that, he was never asked to work security at that firm again.
“After that, he didn’t talk to me again, he cut me out of everything,” he said. “I was totally blacklisted after that. I had to find a different field.”
Since that day, Doe claims in the civil suit he filed, he has struggled with emotional pain and mental health issues that led to the end of his marriage. The trauma he suffered after the incident has overwhelmed his personal relationships, he says.
In the complaint against Combs, which was one of the many following the mogul’s out-of-court settlement of a civil case with his ex, Cassie Ventura, it’s stated that “Plaintiff has experienced a significant impact on his personal life; he has never married and often struggles to maintain relationships due to the assault.” Doe is seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
The discrepancies in what was said in the CNN interview and in the legal filing have led to some serious questions about Doe’s credibility. Foremost, the civil suit filed in October claims that the incident took place in 2006, but there was no White Party held at Diddy’s East Hamptons that year. The 2006 annual summer event was in St. Tropez, France. It reportedly took CNN pointing this out to Doe’s attorneys for them to amend the complaint so the correct year is on their document, according to court records viewed by The Hollywood Reporter.
The amended complaint, submitted on Dec. 10, has also removed a factual allegation that read, “Plaintiff has experienced a significant impact on his personal life; he has never married and often struggles to maintain relationships due to the assault.” It has been replaced with a numbered allegation that reads: “Plaintiff has experienced a significant impact on his personal life; he was married at the time and was too ashamed to tell his wife after suffering through the assault.”
Lawyers for Combs initially declined comment, CNN reported, but after the story was published, they pounced, replying to the network regarding the amended complaint and took a swipe at the Texas attorney bringing dozens of cases against Combs.
“After [Tony] Buzbee was exposed this week for pressuring clients to bring bogus cases against Mr. Combs, and after public records showed that — contrary to his allegations — there was no white party in the Hamptons in 2006, Buzbee amended this complaint to walk back the allegations and now claim a different day and wholly different year,” Combs’ attorneys said in their statement.
Calls and emails sent to Buzbee by THR on Wednesday were not immediately returned by him, his paralegal or his associate. The attorney, however, reportedly had already shot down to CNN.
“This allegation is patently ridiculous… What we won’t do is pursue a case that we don’t believe has merit,” he told CNN in an email. “We don’t pressure people nor do we need to.”
Combs’ camp also addressed the lawsuits in a statement released on Oct. 14, incidentally the same day as Doe’s legal filing.
“The press conference and 1-800 number that preceded today’s barrage of filings were clear attempts to garner publicity,” his team said earlier this year. “Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone — adult or minor, man or woman.”
