A man who accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexually assaulting him has won a $100m judgment after the rapper, music producer and businessman failed to contest the allegations in a civil courthouse in Michigan.
An attorney for Combs issued a statement denying that his client knows the plaintiff, Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith. The lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said Cardello-Smith had committed “fraud on the court” and that Combs “looks forward to having this judgment swiftly dismissed”.
Lee Cardello-Smith, 51, secured the remarkably large judgment after filing a lawsuit that described how he encountered Combs while working in the restaurant and hospitality industry near Detroit.
According to the Detroit Metro Times, Cardello-Smith alleged that he was both drugged and sexually assaulted by Combs at a party in Detroit in 1997, just one claim amid a broader pattern of alleged sexual abuse and other misconduct by the three-time Grammy winner once also known as P Diddy, Puff Daddy and Love.
Cardello-Smith, who is incarcerated, eventually sued over the alleged attack and provided information showing Combs’s name in a prison visitation log. And at a preliminary 7 August court hearing conducted virtually, Cardello-Smith testified that Combs offered him $2.3m to drop his lawsuit, which would allow the music mogul to complete a property sale.
The plaintiff testified that Combs, 54, told him he would not acknowledge Cardello-Smith’s claims in court, saying: “You know how we get down.” Cardello-Smith said he told Combs, “Well, I disagree with how you get down,” and rejected the settlement offer.
Lenawee county circuit court judge Anna Marie Anzalone subsequently issued an order restraining Combs from selling off assets that could help him cover any damages possibly awarded to Cardello-Smith. Then, when Combs failed to appear at a virtual hearing in Cardello-Smith’s lawsuit on Monday, Anzalone awarded the plaintiff a default judgment of $100m, as the Metro Times first reported.
Plaintiffs receive default judgments in their favor when defendants fail to take action in response to cases brought against them.
Court records show that Cardello-Smith is incarcerated at the Earnest C Brooks correctional facility after multiple previous convictions of criminal sexual misconduct as well as one of kidnapping. The Metro Times reported that Cardello-Smith taught himself criminal and civil law during his incarceration while also developing “a long history of challenging the judicial system” with lawsuits.
Combs is not the only prominent defendant named in one of those lawsuits. Another is the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Detroit, in a lawsuit alleging that two of the organization’s priests as well as one of its lay employees sexually abused Cardello-Smith between 1979 – when he was about seven years old – and 1993.
It was not immediately clear how easily Cardello-Smith may be able to collect his judgment against Combs, though the plaintiff told Metro Times he went “way back” with the defendant.
Agnifilo’s statement on Tuesday referred to Cardello-Smith as “a convicted felon and sexual predator”.
“His resume now includes committing a fraud on the court from prison, as Mr Combs has never heard of him let alone been served with any lawsuit,” Agnifilo said.
Combs has faced several other lawsuits accusing him of rapes, sexual assaults, other instances of physical violence and distribution of “revenge porn”. He initially denied all allegations and pledged to “fight” to clear his name.
However, in May, CNN obtained and published hotel security camera video showing him battering the singer Cassie Ventura – his girlfriend at the time – in 2016. Ventura had sued Combs for damages several months earlier, accusing him of rape and severe physical abuse during the course of a relationship that by then had ended. Combs paid an undisclosed sum to settle Ventura’s claims out of court within one day of her having filed the lawsuit.
The video in May vividly contradicted Combs’s denials. And two days after it surfaced, Combs released a video apology.
Meanwhile, in March, federal authorities conducting a sex-trafficking investigation raided Combs’s properties in Los Angeles and Miami. Those investigators have not charged Combs with any crimes, though multiple media outlets on Monday reported that he had put up the raided Los Angeles home for sale at an asking price of $61.5m.
