{"id":2591,"date":"2024-09-13T16:43:26","date_gmt":"2024-09-13T16:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/diddy-says-inmates-100m-abuse-judgment-must-be-overturned\/"},"modified":"2024-09-13T16:43:26","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T16:43:26","slug":"diddy-says-inmates-100m-abuse-judgment-must-be-overturned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/diddy-says-inmates-100m-abuse-judgment-must-be-overturned\/","title":{"rendered":"Diddy Says Inmate’s $100M Abuse Judgment Must Be Overturned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tSean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs is seeking to overturn a $100 million sexual assault judgment won against him by a Michigan inmate earlier this week, claiming he was never served with the \u201cfrivolous\u201d lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an emergency motion filed Thursday, attorneys for the embattled rapper said he had learned about Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith<\/strong>\u2019s lawsuit and massive judgment from media coverage \u2013 and that the case would have been easily dismissed if Combs had been given a fair chance to respond.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is a frivolous lawsuit against a prominent businessman, based on obvious fabrications, filed by a convicted rapist and serial litigant with an overactive imagination and a thirst for fame,\u201d Combs\u2019 lawyers write.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe huge award, issued by a Michigan state judge on Monday, was what\u2019s known as a default judgment \u2014 a kind of legal award granted when an accused party doesn\u2019t respond to a legal action. Court records show that attorneys for Combs never participated in the case nor filed any kind of response.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in Thursday\u2019s filings, they say that\u2019s because they were never been legally served with the allegations \u2013 a crucial first step in any American lawsuit: \u201cHad Mr. Combs been notified in a timely manner of these outrageous claims, he would have defended himself, as he is prepared to do now. But he did not have that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAt a hearing last month, the judge overseeing the case said Cardello-Smith had supplied sufficient proof that he properly served Combs via certified mail, which requires confirmation of receipt. But in Thursday\u2019s response, Combs lawyers say that the letter was not sent to the rapper\u2019s primary residence and it had not actually been signed by him personally.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAccordingly, the default judgment must be set aside,\u201d lawyers for Diddy write.<\/p>\n

\n\tOnce one of the most powerful men in the music industry, Diddy has been hit with at least eight civil lawsuits alleging sexual abuse over the past year, including claims by ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura that were later followed by a video showing him assaulting her. The hip-hop mogul is also facing an apparent federal criminal investigation after authorities raided his homes in March.<\/p>\n

\n\tCardello-Smith sued Combs in June, claiming the rapper had spiked his drink and sexually assaulted him at a party in 1997. But in Thursday\u2019s filings, the rapper\u2019s lawyers said the inmate\u2019s allegations are \u201cobjectively unbelievable\u201d and that \u201cno lawsuit could be more frivolous.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cPlaintiff alleges that he was sexually assaulted in 1997, but he cannot keep his story straight as to where this supposedly occurred,\u201d Combs lawyers write. \u201cAside from the purported assault, plaintiff alleges a fantastical conspiracy between Mr. Combs \u2026 and numerous high-ranking Wayne County judicial and law enforcement officials.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs attorneys for Diddy repeatedly pointed out in their filings, Cardello-Smith, 51, is serving multiple, decades-long sentences for a variety of crimes, including first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of kidnapping. The earliest he can be released from prison is 2036.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe lawsuit against Combs is not the first civil action Cardello-Smith has filed from behind bars. Last year, he sued a Detroit-area Catholic archdiocese, alleging he had been sexually abused by a priest and others between 1979 and 1993. The case was dismissed last month by state appeals court, which ruled that Cardello-Smith\u2019s allegations were barred by the statute of limitations.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn their response Thursday, lawyers for Diddy said that same defense would also apply to the current lawsuit: \u201cAs ridiculous as the allegations are, if every word of the complaint were true, the action would still be completely nonviable because the statute of limitation on the claims asserted expired almost 17 years before the case was filed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs is seeking to overturn a $100 million sexual assault judgment won against him by a Michigan inmate earlier this week, claiming he was never served […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2592,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2573,362,296,1605,467,3416],"class_list":["post-2591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-100m","tag-abuse","tag-diddy","tag-inmates","tag-judgment","tag-overturned"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}