NEW YORK (Court TV) — A federal judge in New York has tossed a lawsuit against disgraced music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, saying that while the claims may have had merit, they were filed too late.
FILE – Sean Combs arrives at the Pre-Grammy Gala And Salute To Industry Icons at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Mark Von Holden/Invision/AP, File)
Combs, 56, is serving time in a federal prison after a jury found him guilty of flying girlfriends and male sex workers across the country to engage in drug-fueled sexual encounters. The same jury cleared him of the more serious charges he faced of sex trafficking and racketeering, which could have sent him to prison for life.
In 2024, Combs faced a wave of lawsuits from ex-girlfriends, ex-business associates and others who claimed he had abused and manipulated them mentally, physically and sexually. Among the lawsuits filed was one from Dawn Richard, who was a singer who worked with Combs beginning in 2004.
Richard met Combs when she participated in the MTV reality show “Making the Band.” She was chosen as one of the winners and was part of the newly created group Danity Kane. That group disbanded in 2009; Richard then partnered with Combs and another artist to form Diddy — Dirty Money, which lasted until 2011 or 2012, according to court filings.
In her initial complaint, filed in Sept. 2024, Richard accused Combs of emotional abuse, physical abuse, manipulation and copyright infringement. Her lawsuit detailed allegations of Combs using demeaning language to talk to and about her and other women, accused Combs of depriving her and others of food and sleep and described acts of violence that she allegedly suffered and also allegedly watched Combs inflict on others.
FILE: Dawn Richard arrives at an event in Burbank, CA on Tuesday, July 14, 2015. (Photo By Sthanlee B. Mirador/Sipa via AP Images)
In an order dismissing the case, U.S. District Judge Kathrine Polk Failla said that whether the allegations in the lawsuit were true or not ceased to matter because the claims were filed too late. “Mr. Combs’ conduct for which Plaintiff sues — while indisputably odious — ceased in 2011 or 2012.” Under New York law, most of the claims in the lawsuit expired by 2021 or 2022 at the latest.
Richard’s attorneys had sought to salvage the suit by claiming that she remained in fear of Combs for years, but Failla found that argument unpersuasive. “Plaintiff does not allege that Mr. Combs committed any tortious conduct against her again in the twelve or thirteen years before she filed suit. Plaintiff was thus not subject to a continuous wrong, and duress tolling does not apply.”
Richard had also sought to sue Combs for copyright infringement, saying that he had released the song “Deliver Me” without her consent. But Richard only wrote a portion of the song, and Combs contributed to its creation too, making them coauthors; under the law, “coauthors cannot sue one another for copyright infringement,” Failla wrote.
Combs is currently housed at Fort Dix, a low-security federal prison. He is scheduled to be released on Feb. 23, 2028.
