NEW YORK — An anonymous woman who accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexual assaulting her when she was in high school must reveal her identity if her lawsuit proceeds, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
TMZ was first to report the news.
Combs, 54, has denied “the awful things being alleged” and is currently attempting to get the suit dismissed. If successful, the woman’s identity will stay masked. But if he loses his motion and the case carries on, the Jane Doe’s real name must be used in court documents.
It’s unclear when that decision will be made.
The lawsuit against Diddy was filed in early December of last year. In it, the woman claims Diddy and two others flew her from Michigan to New York City, plied her with drugs and alcohol, and raped her at a Manhattan recording studio in 2003. She was 17 years old and a junior in high school at the time.
According to reports, the co-defendants successfully argued it would be prejudicial if their names were public while the plaintiff remained anonymous.
Manhattan judge Jessica G. L. Clarke said that while making the woman’s identity public “could have a significant impact on her” due to the “graphic and disturbing allegations in this case,” the court “cannot rely on generalized, uncorroborated claims that disclosure would harm plaintiff to justify her anonymity,” according to Billboard.
The ruling cited similar decisions in lawsuits against Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein, in which John and Jane Does were also denied anonymity.
Earlier this week, Combs was accused in a separate lawsuit of sexually harassing, drugging and threatening record producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones.
Combs was also accused of rape, sex trafficking and years of abuse by ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a lawsuit filed mid-November, which was settled just one day later.
He has also been accused of drugging and raping Joie Dickerson-Neal in a case filed prior to the expiration of the Adult Survivors Act, which suspended New York’s statute of limitations for one year, allowing sex crime victims to sue their alleged abusers regardless of when the abuse occurred.