{"id":8649,"date":"2025-11-21T01:48:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T01:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/diddy-making-the-band-sexual-assault-accusers-appeal-dismissed\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T01:48:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T01:48:21","slug":"diddy-making-the-band-sexual-assault-accusers-appeal-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/diddy-making-the-band-sexual-assault-accusers-appeal-dismissed\/","title":{"rendered":"Diddy \u2018Making the Band\u2019 Sexual Assault Accuser’s Appeal Dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tAn appeal filed by Making the Band<\/em> contestant Sara Rivers aimed at reviving her $60 million sexual assault lawsuit against Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs has been abruptly dismissed \u2014 a move that came after her lawyers failed to file basic court forms.<\/p>\n

\n\tRivers sued Combs earlier this year over claims that he harassed and groped her during the filming of the 2000s MTV reality show, but a federal judge ruled this summer that she\u2019d waited far too long to sue. After that ruling, she quickly filed an appeal aimed at overturning it.<\/p>\n

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\n\tBut last month, according to court records reviewed by Billboard<\/em>, the appeals court dismissed Rivers\u2019 case. The reason? Her attorneys failed to meet a required deadline to file basic procedural forms that are filed at the start of any appeal.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat failure means that the earlier ruling dismissing Rivers\u2019 case is now final, and most of her case is now closed. A small element of the case has not yet been fully dismissed, but the majority of her case was dismissed permanently.<\/p>\n

\n\tAriel Mitchell<\/strong>, the attorney who represents Rivers and failed to make the required filings, did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday (Nov. 20). Reps for Combs also did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tRivers, who became a member of hip-hop group Da Band, sued Combs in February, claiming he had cornered her in a recording studio and \u201cran his left hand across her breasts.\u201d She also claimed that he later blackballed her in the music industry in retaliation for rebuffing his advances.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe case was one of dozens of civil lawsuits filed against Combs over the past two years alongside his blockbuster federal criminal case. Following a two-month trial, Combs was acquitted last month on the most serious charges of racketeering (RICO) and sex-trafficking in that case, though he was found guilty on two lesser counts of interstate prostitution. Last month, he was sentenced to four years in prison.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn August, Judge Jed Rakoff ruled that Rivers had filed her case far too late. He said allegations centered in the 2000s were clearly filed years after the statutes of limitations had expired.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt is important to remember the many positive purposes served by statutes of limitations,\u201d the judge wrote. \u201cThey promote justice by preventing surprises through plaintiffs\u2019 revival of claims that have been allowed to slumber until evidence has been lost, memories have faded, and witnesses have disappeared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tJudge Rakoff said Rivers had invoked a \u201chodgepodge\u201d of arguments for why the time limits should be lifted in her case, including that she was afraid of retaliation from Combs and his business empire. But the judge said that wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\u201cWhile Rivers does allege that she experienced a general fear of retaliation preventing her from speaking out against Combs, general claims of psychological stress cannot give rise to duress tolling,\u201d the judge said, referring to the technical term for such a delay.<\/p>\n

\n\tRivers quickly appealed, setting the stage for a lengthy battle before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. But after making her initial case filings, Mitchell never filed another document in the case \u2014 even after being warned to do so.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn early October, the court warned her that failure to submit Form C and Form D (a basic case synopsis and disclosure regarding transcripts, respectively) would result in the case being dismissed in two weeks. Mitchell never filed those forms, and the case was duly dismissed on Oct. 17.<\/p>\n

\n\tMitchell is the same attorney that Combs is currently suing for defamation over allegations raised by Courtney Burgess, another one of her clients. In TV interviews, Burgess claimed to have videos showing Combs in sexual encounters with celebrities \u2014 a claim Mitchell later echoed. Combs says such videos don\u2019t exist and that he was defamed by Mitchell and Burgess\u2019 \u201coutlandish claims.\u201d That case is pending.<\/p>\n


\"Billboard
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An appeal filed by Making the Band contestant Sara Rivers aimed at reviving her $60 million sexual assault lawsuit against Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs has been abruptly dismissed \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2044,366,302,1105,296,2059,1026,301],"class_list":["post-8649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-accusers","tag-appeal","tag-assault","tag-band","tag-diddy","tag-dismissed","tag-making","tag-sexual"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8649","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=8649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}