The male prisoner who is suing Diddy for an alleged 1997 sexual assault at a Holiday Inn introduced an alleged witness in court, a new report claimed. Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, currently residing in a Michigan facility, submitted an affidavit for his fellow prisoner, Dephonso Wilson.
In his affidavit, Dephonso claimed that he possessed information about Derrick's lawsuit against Diddy, 54. At seventeen, he was employed by the Michigan police for unlawful purposes, as per BBC.
“What was good about it was that I met a lot of people, like Sean Combs,” he stated. Dephonso claimed in his affidavit that he observed a meeting between Diddy and Derrick in the aftermath of the alleged assault.
He declared that a government official was present. According to Dephonso, Derrick was purportedly intimidated by a government official into maintaining silence regarding the incident.
“I was scared about all this because this is Sean Combs and he had a lot of power … So I stayed quiet. Then I saw Combs got arrested and I also saw that Derrick had sued him and so, I am coming forward now,” he wrote.
Dephonso stated that he would provide testimony regarding his observation of a government official hiding Diddy's alleged offense.
“I will testify to these facts if you want me to because they happened,” he wrote.
Erica A. Wolff, Diddy's attorney, informed In Touch Weekly, “The allegations in this new filing, like the claims in this lawsuit, are ridiculous and totally false. The notion that some twenty-seven years after the alleged events at issue and after a court already found his claims ‘unlikely . . .[to] succeed on the merits,’ Mr. Cardello-Smith just located a key witness who just so happens to be incarcerated in the very same correctional facility in which Mr. Cardello-Smith resides is, to put it charitably, as implausible on its face as Mr. Cardello-Smith’s allegation that Sean Combs promised to give Mr. Cardello-Smith forty-nine percent of Mr. Combs’ assets in exchange for $150,000.”
Derrick, according to Diddy's attorney, had a history of "filing utterly meritless" lawsuits. The attorney concluded, “We are confident that the court will grant our pending motion to dismiss because Cardello-Smith’s Complaint is absolutely meritless.”
Derrick claimed that he encountered Diddy while employed as a bartender in Detroit in 1997. He alleged that the entertainer extended an invitation to him to attend a sex party at a hotel.
The individual claimed that Diddy sexually assaulted him at the party. He stated that Diddy provided him with a beverage at the party and informed him that he had "added a little something" to it. Derrick claimed that he fell unconscious and awoke to the sight of Diddy engaging in sexual intercourse with a woman. He contended that Diddy informed him, "I also did this to you!"
Derrick accused government officials of hiding Diddy's alleged criminal activities in his lawsuit, as per GLOBE Magazine. He requested $400 million in compensatory, punitive, and monetary damages. Diddy denied all allegations of misconduct.
Following the lawsuit's filing, his attorney informed TMZ, “This man is a convicted felon and sexual predator who has been sentenced on 14 counts of sexual assault and kidnapping over the last 26 years. 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.”
Diddy's attorney claimed that Derrick had "baselessly" accused the mogul of sexual assault in court. Derrick was accused by Diddy's legal team of fabricating a "fantastical set of allegations" that numerous high-ranking [government] officials engaged in a vast cover-up with [Diddy].” Additionally, they noted that “incredibly, in two different complaints filed in two different courts, [Derrick] alleges that this purported assault occurred in two different counties on the same day.”
Diddy's legal team requested that the lawsuit be dismissed, arguing that the claims were filed after the statute of limitations had expired.
“Because the assault allegedly occurred in June 1997, any claim [Derrick] might have had expired in June 2000—more than two decades before [Derrick] commenced this litigation,” Diddy’s lawyer argued.
Earlier this month, Diddy was the subject of numerous lawsuits regarding alleged assaults. One of the lawsuits accused him of threatening to murder a 19-year-old after an assault occurred in a hotel room in New York.
Following filing the new lawsuits, Diddy's representative issued a statement. They stated, “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.”
Diddy has been detained since his arrest on September 16 on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
