Sean 'Diddy' Combs files motion to vacate $100M default judgment in sexual assault lawsuit filed by inmate

Sean “Diddy” Combs has asked a judge to set aside a $100 million default judgment awarded this week to a Michigan inmate who alleges he was sexually assaulted by the music mogul.

The inmate, Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, filed a lawsuit in June, in which he alleged that when he was in his 20s, he had been sexually assaulted by Combs at a hotel party in 1997. A Lenawee County Circuit Court judge ruled in his favor because Combs failed to respond to Cardello-Smith's complaint.

But in an emergency motion filed Thursday, attorneys for Combs said the default judgment is invalid under Michigan state law because he was never served with the lawsuit and learned of it only after the judgment was reported by media outlets Monday. Combs’ attorneys said that the statute of limitations ended in 2007, so the suit should be dismissed.

His attorneys also filed a motion to dissolve a temporary restraining order Cardello-Smith recently obtained against him after Combs failed to contest it. In the request for Judge Anna Marie Anzalone to vacate the default judgment, Combs’ attorneys said that Cardello-Smith is a “convicted felon who is currently serving time in prison for kidnapping and sexual assault” and that he has frequently filed “frivolous” claims.

Cardello-Smith, who is representing himself, alleged in the lawsuit that on or around June 14, 1997, while he was a bartender at a Detroit-area restaurant, he was invited to an afterparty hosted by Combs at a Holiday Inn. A copy of the lawsuit is included in the emergency motion filed Thursday.

Cardello-Smith alleges that he attended the party, where Combs groped his buttocks while Cardello-Smith was engaged in a sexual act with a woman. Cardello-Smith also alleges that he passed out after he drank a glass of alcohol that Combs had given him and that when he later awoke, he saw Combs having sex with a woman. He claims Combs told him, “I did this to you, too!”

Combs’ motion says the “allegations are objectively unbelievable.”

In a statement, Marc Agnifilo, an attorney for Combs said his client “has never heard of him let alone been served with any lawsuit. Mr. Combs looks forward to having this judgment swiftly dismissed.”

Cardello-Smith’s criminal history includes convictions for criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping. Combs’ attorneys mentioned those convictions in their response to the judgment.

Combs has faced several sexual misconduct lawsuits, one as recent as this week, filed by Dawn Richard, who came to fame as a member of the urban pop group Danity Kane. Richard alleged Combs groped and threatened her when she was employed by him from 2005 to 2012, and that she witnessed him brutally beat his former girlfriend Cassie, whose lawsuit last year has prompted others. Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, sued Combs in November, alleging he had repeatedly physically abused her over the course of their yearslong relationship, and that on one occasion in 2018, he raped her after she tried to leave him. The two settled the lawsuit a day later, without disclosing the terms of the agreement. Combs’ attorney said the settlement was not an acknowledgment of wrongdoing. He previously denied the allegations.

In response to Richard’s lawsuit, Erica Wolff, another attorney for Combs, said in a statement that Richard had “manufactured a series of false claims all in the hopes of trying to get a payday.”

Combs, who is the subject of a federal investigation, admitted he had physically abused Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016, after CNN released hotel surveillance video of the attack in May that showed him punching, kicking and striking her. He has denied the other allegations brought against him in the other lawsuits.

“My behavior on that video is inexcusable,” he said in a video posted on his Instagram in May, that was later removed from his page. “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now.”