Experts say the new case adds to the growing 'pile of evidence' against Sean 'DD' Combs

i amn September 2000, a 13-year-old girl who hoped to attend the Video Music Awards – or at least an afterparty – began asking limousine drivers outside the event in New York City for help getting into the festival.

A driver told her that because of her age, she “fit what DD was looking for” and that he could take her to a party, according to court documents.

It turned out that the offer meant hip-hop mogul Sean Combs wanted to have sex with her and allegedly used a date-rape drug to do so.

“You're ready to party!” Combs said the woman named Jane Doe was disoriented in the case. He and another male celebrity then allegedly raped her while watching a female celebrity.

The suit, filed Oct. 20 in New York federal court, is part of the latest wave of federal civil lawsuits against Combs, who faces more than 20 counts and was indicted in September on federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering, conspiracy and transportation. Involved in prostitution

The charges against Combs, who has pleaded not guilty, make him the latest person — joining the ranks of R. Kelly, Bill Cosby, Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein — to be accused of promising access to employees, drugs and celebrities and luring young women into situations where the powerful Men and in some cases, others in their circle then sexually assault them.

DD, who is in federal custody in Brooklyn awaiting trial, not only faces a reckoning in the court of public opinion but will likely be convicted of criminal charges and, according to legal experts, will have to lose or settle the cases.

“This is not a woman who usually rakes over the coals. It seems like a stack of evidence,” said Nancy Erica Smith, a New Jersey attorney who represented former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson in a sexual harassment lawsuit against the network's late chief Roger Ailes and a woman who said she was sexually harassed and a member of Trump's golf club. Sexually coerced by supervisor.

“There are many women who have testified about their own experiences and will testify about that, but they have witnessed the abuse of other women in the same group or organization.”

Combs, a rapper whose successes have also included launching a record label and clothing line, faced a sexual harassment lawsuit in 2017, which was later settled. In November 2023, the public began to pay more attention to his alleged predatory behavior when Combs' ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit alleging that he beat her, raped her, and forced her to have sex with male prostitutes, which she filmed.

The parties also settled that case, but more cases began to come in with similar allegations of DD drugging and sexually abusing women. Then in May 2024, CNN released hotel surveillance footage from 2016 showing Combs grabbing Ventura by the neck, throwing him to the ground, kicking him and dragging him.

DD was arrested a few months later, in September, on federal charges.

Earlier this month, Texas-based attorney Tony Buzbee announced that he is representing more than 120 men and women whose allegations against Combs include “violent sexual assault or rape, sexual facilitation with a controlled substance, dissemination of video recordings, sexual assault. Minor”.

The criminal complaint states that Combs went on a “freak off,” in which he “distributed a variety of controlled substances to keep victims compliant and compliant.”

Combs' attorneys have repeatedly denied the allegations.

“Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defense, and the integrity of the judicial process,” Combs' attorneys said in a statement to CNN. “In court, the truth will prevail: Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted anyone – adult or minor, male or female.”

Los Angeles-based entertainment attorney Trey Lovell said, despite the denials, “when you have a consistent line of victims making the same or similar claims, it lends a lot more credibility to the allegations”. He compared the scale of the allegations against Combs to those against Cosby, who was accused by more than 60 women of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment.

“It's the continuity and the rush of the same story,” Lovell said.

As more civil cases are filed, state prosecutors may also begin to review those cases and file criminal charges, Lovell said.

“They're going to give each other more credibility, certainly potentially more witnesses because these different plaintiffs can be witnesses to each other,” he said.

Also, since celebrities attended Combs' party and — according to the young woman who attended the awards show afterparty — engaged in at least one sexual assault, attorneys may begin trying to add defendants to the civil suit, Lovell said.

Plaintiffs' attorneys may send their target demand letters and draft complaints and offer to resolve the complaint confidentially. If not, they can file a lawsuit, in which case their names will be publicized, Lovell said.

Combs' attorneys have argued that his sexual activity with his accusers was consensual. Legal experts predict it will be difficult for defense attorneys to prove.

“They may be in that position initially consensually, but they didn't sign up for what happened to them there,” Smith said. “After reading several civil complaints and criminal charges, I think this is going to be a fairly consistent story.”

If federal prosecutors decide to charge Combs' alleged enablers, they may choose to testify against Combs to protect themselves. Smith said it could also strengthen the government's cases.

Lovell thinks that's unlikely because prosecutors have already charged them, though he also suggested that prosecutors could talk people into becoming government witnesses in exchange for not charging them.

“It's pretty clear they're just going after Diddy and his empire,” Lovell said.

Despite how strong the case against Combs may be, Cosby and Weinstein also faced numerous accusations and convictions for sexual assault and rape, but some of those convictions were dismissed. (Weinstein was also convicted in a separate case, which he is appealing, and remains in prison.)

Still, Smith expects Coombs to be convicted.

“The evidence, I think, is overwhelming,” he said, adding that the cases are helping to change the culture.

“I think women will be less likely to tolerate it and be afraid to speak up, and other women will come forward.”