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A Los Angeles federal judge says that a woman accusing Diplo of sharing “revenge porn” must reveal her identity if she wants to proceed with her civil lawsuit against the star.
The case — which claims the DJ (Thomas Wesley Pentz) filmed sexual encounters and shared them on Snapchat — was filed by an unnamed “Jane Doe.” But in a ruling Tuesday (Dec. 31), Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani said the accuser had failed to legally show that she needs to remain anonymous.
The use of Doe pseudonyms has become common in sexual abuse complaints, and attorneys for Diplo’s accuser had argued that she would face retaliation if her name is revealed. But Judge Almadani said such treatment is reserved only for clear-cut, high-risk situations — and that the case against Diplo doesn’t qualify under that standard.
“The court appreciates that plaintiff’s allegations in her complaint are sensitive and of a highly personal nature, and that she may face some public scrutiny,” the judge wrote. “However, absent a demonstrated need for anonymity, there is a prevailing public interest in open judicial proceedings.”
The ruling is a win for Diplo, who has strongly denied the lawsuit’s allegations and argued that the plaintiff must reveal her name. In court filings, his lawyers had argued that he “cannot adequately confront his accuser without knowing her identity.”
In a complaint filed in June, Diplo’s accuser alleged she’d had a consensual sexual relationship with the DJ from 2016 to 2023, and that she occasionally “gave defendant Diplo permission to record them having sex.” But she said she later learned that he had sometimes secretly recorded them and then shared footage on the internet “without plaintiff’s knowledge or consent.”
“Plaintiff brings this action to recover for the emotional and physical injuries she endured because of Diplo’s actions and to make sure no one else is forced to suffer the privacy invasions and physical and mental trauma she felt and continues to feel to this day,” Doe’s attorneys wrote.
The lawsuit accused Diplo of violating the federal Violence Against Women Act, which was amended in 2022 to ban the sharing of “intimate” images without the consent of those depicted in them. The case also cited an earlier revenge porn law enacted by the state of California.
In seeking to use the “Jane Doe” pseudonym, attorneys for Diplo’s accuser argued that she would face “personal embarrassment and social stigmatization” if her name were revealed. They warned that the DJ has a “large following,” and that when another woman spoke out about alleged revenge porn, she had faced “ridicule and threats to bodily harm.”
But in Tuesday’s decision, Judge Almadani said Doe had failed to supply hard evidence to support those claims — and that barring such proof, people using the American legal system must use their real names. The judge cited an earlier ruling that “the people have a right to know who is using their courts.”
“Those using the courts must be prepared to accept the public scrutiny that is an inherent part of public trials,” the judge wrote, quoting from another old ruling. “Plaintiff has not sufficiently demonstrated that this case warrants an exception.”
Though Almadani wasn’t swayed by fears of potential foul play, she pointedly warned both sides about avoiding any such behavior as the case moves forward — saying that she would “not tolerate any disrespect toward either party.”
“This case, like all other cases, shall be handled with professionalism and civility by all sides,” the judge wrote. “Any actual threats of retaliation or harassment shall be brought to the Court’s attention immediately.”
Neither side’s attorneys immediately returned requests for comment on Friday (Jan. 3).
Diddy will remain behind bars until his sex trafficking trial begins in May, but those closest to him have broken their silence. Peacock released the shocking trailer to the Diddy: The Rise of a Bad Boy documentary on Thursday (Jan. 2), detailing the embattled Bad Boy mogul’s rise to fame, transformational years in the spotlight […]
Lil Durk’s trial on federal murder-for-hire charges will be pushed back until October after both his lawyers and federal prosecutors agreed to a months-long delay.
The case against Durk — over an alleged plot to kill rival rapper Quando Rondo in a 2022 Los Angeles shooting that left another man dead — had been scheduled to go to trial next week because federal “speedy trial” rules require such cases to be quickly heard by a jury.
But in a motion on Tuesday (Dec. 31), both sides agreed to a request from Lil Durk (real name Durk Devontay Banks) and his co-defendants to postpone the courtroom showdown until Oct. 14 to give them more time to prepare for the trial — a request that prosecutors did not oppose.
“Due to the nature of the prosecution and the number of defendants, including the charges in the indictment and the voluminous discovery that will be produced to defendants, this case is so unusual and so complex that it is unreasonable to expect adequate preparation for pretrial proceedings or for the trial itself within the Speedy Trial Act time limits,” the parties told the judge in the new filing.
Durk was arrested in October on conspiracy, murder-for-hire and firearms charges for allegedly orchestrating the 2022 attack at a Los Angeles gas station, which left Rondo (Tyquian Bowman) unscathed but saw his friend Lul Pab (Saviay’a Robinson) killed in the crossfire. Durk allegedly ordered the shooting in retaliation for the 2020 killing of rapper King Von (Dayvon Bennett), a close friend and frequent collaborator.
In charging documents, prosecutors claim that Durk’s “Only The Family” (“OTF”) crew was not merely a well-publicized group of Chicago rappers, but a “hybrid organization” that also functioned as a criminal gang to carry out violent acts “at the direction” of Durk, including the Rondo attack.
“Banks put a monetary bounty out for an individual with whom Banks was feuding named T.B.,” prosecutors wrote in the charges last month, referring to Rondo by his initials. “Banks ordered T.B.’s murder and the hitmen used Banks and OTF-related finances to carry out the murder.”
Among other evidence, prosecutors say the assailants booked flights to Los Angeles using a credit card connected to Durk. The feds say the card was issued under a bank account that listed Durk’s one-time manager as an owner, and that another credit card was issued under the same account to Durk’s father. Charging documents also cite a text allegedly sent by Durk to another co-conspirator in the lead-up to the shooting: “Don’t book no flights under no names involved wit me.”
Durk has denied the allegations and pleaded not guilty to the charges. In addition to the star himself, prosecutors have also charged those who they say actually carried out the attack, including alleged OTF members Kavon London Grant, Deandre Dontrell Wilson and Asa Houston, as well as Keith Jones and David Brian Lindsey, two other alleged Chicago gang members.
With the rapper seeking release on pre-trial bond, prosecutors unsealed new documents in December linking him to another shooting that left Stephon Mack, an alleged Chicago gang leader, dead in 2022. The feds argued that the earlier slaying had also been an act of revenge by Durk, ordered after the star’s brother was killed by a member of Mack’s gang.
Following those revelations, a federal magistrate judge denied Durk’s motion to be released on bond at a December hearing, leaving him in jail until his eventual trial. He’s currently being housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, a federal prison frequently used to house defendants before and during trial.
In some cases, denial of bond might prompt defense attorneys to force prosecutors to stick to the speedy trial schedule and quickly present the case to a jury. But in Tuesday’s order, attorneys for Durk and the other defendants said the complexity of the Rondo shooting case would require more time to adequately prepare a defense — and that “the government does not object to the continuance.”
“Defense counsel represent that failure to grant the continuance would deny them reasonable time necessary for effective preparation,” the judge wrote, adding that defense lawyers needed plenty of time to “conduct and complete an independent investigation of the case” and “complete additional legal research” ahead of trial.
Jingle Punks and Audio Up Media founder Jared Gutstadt has been accused of sexual assault in a new lawsuit filed by singer-songwriter and actor Mary Koons (known professionally as Scarlett Burke), who alleges that the influential executive “trapped” her “in a cycle of manipulation, abuse and exploitation” for years.
Filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Tuesday (Dec. 31), the complaint alleges that Gutstadt “manipulated” Koons “into a sexual relationship under the guise of advancing her career”; repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted her; “isolated” her from professional opportunities “unless she complied with his sexual and logistical demands”; and “engaged in stalking, harassment, intimidation and retaliation” when she tried to escape his control — in the process “causing her significant and irreparable financial and professional harm.”
Audio Up and Anthem Entertainment — the former parent company of creative music agency Jingle Punks, which Gutstadt founded in 2008 — are also named as defendants in the lawsuit for allegedly facilitating Guststadt’s grip over Koons “by exerting substantial financial control and decision-making power over [her] professional opportunities and working conditions, particularly through her employment and contractual relationships with Jingle Punks.”
The allegations were first reported by the Los Angeles Times.
Gutstadt is best known for founding Jingle Punks and Audio Up, a podcast network he launched in 2020. Anthem (then known as ole Music Publishing) acquired Jingle Punks in 2015, ultimately leading to Gutstadt’s exit four years later. In July, Anthem and Gutstadt struck a joint venture enabling Audio Up to develop scripted podcasts from some of the publishing and intellectual property assets he created at Jingle Punks. In October, Jingle Punks was acquired by music licensing company Slipstream along with Anthem’s other production music businesses. (Slipstream is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.)
According to the complaint — filed by L.A.-based attorney Samuel Brown at Hennig Kramer along with Parisis Filippatos, Tanvir Rahman and Gabrielle Rosen Harvey at New York firm Filippatos — Koons met Gutstadt in 2017, when she was 27 and he was 39. Over the next several years, she alleges she endured “psychological manipulation, physical violence and sexual abuse, leading to severe emotional and psychological trauma,” according to the complaint. “The relentless pattern of abuse culminated in an environment where Ms. Koons felt she had no choice but to comply with Mr. Gutstadt’s sexual demands, to avoid the horrifying consequences of refusing him.”
In the lawsuit, Koons claims she met Gutstadt in May 2017 at the Peppermint Club in West Hollywood, where Gustadt’s band, The Jingle Punks Hipster Orchestra, had a residency. That night, she says, Gutstadt “fixated” on her immediately and later had his assistant contact Koons’ then-manager to arrange a meeting. Over the next several weeks, Koons claims Gutstadt “launched a calculated campaign to groom” her, “bombarding her with messages about prestigious career opportunities designed to captivate and overwhelm her,” inviting her to dinners with high-profile music and TV executives, and bringing her along on trips to Nashville and Lake Tahoe “under the guise of collaborating on music projects” for Jingle Punks’ then-parent company ole Music (later Anthem).
Koons says that within a week of meeting Gutstadt, he requested that she record “Let the Dice Roll,” a song he was planning to pitch as the theme for the Netflix series Girls Incarcerated. “This marked the start of her employment with Jingle Punks and her entrapment in his manipulative control,” according to the suit. After Netflix acquired the song, Koons claims Gutstadt paid her only $500 (“a glaring underpayment that disregarded the value of her work and contribution”) and kept the rights to the song for himself.
According to the lawsuit, the first flash of Koons’ alleged abuse occurred “in or around” June 2017 after Gutstadt invited Koons to a dinner that had “several prominent music executives” in attendance. After driving her back to her Studio City apartment, Koons says Gustadt “began incessantly pressuring” her to kiss him, and, when she obliged by agreeing to kiss him on the cheek, he “turned his head at the last moment, tricking her into kissing him on the lips.”
The following month, Koons said that Gutstadt invited her to join him in Nashville for a week of writing sessions with him and his team, during which she says she was put up in a seedy “motel along the interstate,” half an hour’s drive from the Thompson Hotel where Gutstadt was staying. Claiming she felt unsafe, she says she asked Gutstadt to move her to a different hotel and that, instead of providing her with her own room, he manipulated her into staying in his. Koons claims the first sexual assault happened that night, when she alleges Gutstadt “forcibly grabbed her hand and put it on his penis” and “ignored her pleas for him to stop.”
Over the next several months, Koons says Gustadt “overwhelmed” her with “lavish gifts and gestures,” including freelance work opportunities, and “deliberately isolated” her from supportive people in her life, including her manager, “who, like many others, recognized that something was wrong and tried to separate” her from Gutstadt.
In a pattern of alleged abusive behavior that Koons says occurred over the next seven and a half years, she says Gutstadt’s “manipulative tactics paved the way for his coercive sexual relationship” with her. “In or around” August 2017, she says Koons invited her to a Jingle Punks company retreat in Lake Tahoe, only to again deceive her into sharing a hotel room with him and failing to include her in any of the “team building activities.” It was around this time that Koons says she became aware of a “misogynistic” culture at Jingle Punks and Anthem, including an alleged incident at the Tahoe retreat in which a male Jingle Punks music supervisor attempted to assault a female Jingle Punks composer in her hotel room. Koons claims that despite the company being aware of the alleged incident, “no action was taken” to address it.
Koons says she was subsequently “lured into an intermittent extramarital affair” with Gutstadt, who she says “would also constantly resort to coercion and manipulation to convince Ms. Koons she had to stay with him in order to advance her career” — all while being denied the opportunity to “reap the benefits of her work” as a songwriter for the company and being cut off from outside work opportunities. In one account, she says that when the Deutsch advertising agency reached out to her with an offer of work, Gutstadt “became enraged” and verbally abused her before compelling her to tell the Deutsch executive that any future offers needed to be run through Gutstadt and Jingle Punks.
According to the lawsuit, Koons says that Gutstadt, in a bid at “entrenching his dominance over her,” eventually left her completely financially dependent on him, after which she says “the abuse escalated significantly.” Each time she says she tried to release his grip on her, he would allegedly lure her back with lucrative work opportunities on high-profile projects, including paid writing sessions for the movie Trolls and an opportunity to write for country star Chris Stapleton.
In the fall of 2018, Koons says that after taking her to an Emmy Awards party, Gutstadt effectively forced her to have sex with him at his office after making her “feel indebted to him” for the invite. “This was not consensual sex,” the lawsuit reads. That same October, she says Gutstadt manipulated her into signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) “not tied to any specific project” with Gutstadt or his company. After signing it, she says Gustadt “warned her that if she ever spoke out, no one would believe her, and that breaching the NDA would not only destroy her career but allow him to ruin her entirely.” She claims that as a party to the NDA, ole Music (now Anthem) “exerted additional control over Ms. Koons by restricting her ability to speak out” about Gutstadt’s alleged abuse.
Koons claims the abuse further escalated after she signed the NDA and that she was forced to take jobs with Gustadt, Jingle Punks, ole Music and Audio Up, including through signing multiple agreements with the companies that served “to strip her of her creative ownership” and deny her adequate financial compensation. According to the lawsuit, one of these alleged agreements — a development deal with Jingle Punks and ole Music for Make It Up As We Go, a podcast series based around Koons’ original music — saw Koons effectively “signing away her creative rights” to the project and being paid just $10,000, described as “a paltry and insulting amount that grossly undervalued her contributions and highlighted the agreement’s exploitative nature.”
The lawsuit includes multiple allegations of physical abuse. In one April 2019 incident described in the complaint, Koons claims that after allegedly protesting when Gutstadt “took most of the money” she earned from participating in a two-day Deutsch songwriting session, he “became violent” and began hitting both her and her dog. In another alleged incident in October 2019, Koons claims that Gustadt “violently tackled her to the ground” after she attempted to read text messages between him and his wife.
In another account of alleged abuse, Koons claims that while recording two songs with him and another songwriter at Audio Up’s Audio Chateau in L.A. in January 2022, she awoke in the middle of the night to find Gutstadt “raping her in her sleep.” She claims Gutstadt raped her again in September 2023 — while they were staying at the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, Calif., during an Audio Up writing retreat — after Gutstadt became enraged when Koons “refused his sexual advances.”
Throughout Koons’ alleged relationship with Gutstadt, she says Anthem/ole Music “enabled” a culture of “harassment and coercion,” thereby “solidifying its complicity in the ongoing mistreatment” of Koons as well as multiple other female employees by Jingle Punks staffers.
“Mr. Gutstadt’s deliberate and vindictive behavior has marginalized Ms. Koons, stunting her professional growth and obstructing her visibility within the industry,” the complaint reads, adding that she “has suffered and continues to suffer from profound emotional distress,” including post-traumatic stress disorder.
Koons is seeking compensatory damages, lost wages and earnings, a money judgment for “mental pain and anguish and severe emotional distress,” and punitive and exemplary damages, among other relief.
Representatives for Gutstadt, Anthem and Audio Up had not responded to Billboard‘s request for comment at press time.
Beyoncé‘s mom, Tina Knowles, has had a busy week flying her matriarch flag. First, on Friday, she took to social media to defend Bey’s eye-popping Christmas Day NFL halftime show during the game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans. When some commenters took issue with the 12-minute set highlighting songs from Bey’s hit Cowboy Carter country-influenced album, Knowles wrote, “It is mind-boggling to me that you would take your precious Christmas day and watch a performance of someone you hate and you don’t think has talent so that you can talk ish about it later.”
Then, on the Run-Through With Vogue podcast Knowles, 70, talked about a recent social media hiccup in which it appeared she liked a post about allegations that her son-in-law Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs sexually assaulted an unnamed 13-year-old girl in 2000; Jay-Z has denied the allegations.
“I’m a protector of my kids and I just feel like that’s my job,” Knowles said on the New Year’s Eve episode of the pod (social media talk begins around 21:30 mark). “And, you know, my kids are always like, ‘Mama, just ignore that.’ But it gets to the point where I’m just like, ‘I’m sorry. This is enough. It’s enough.’ You know? Because imagine being a mother and somebody’s lying on your kid. It’s hard to watch.”
That said, Knowles explained that just because she appeared to like a negative post about Jay doesn’t mean she did it on purpose. “It’s so funny because you know how many times I’ve liked something that was negative about my own children?” Knowles said. “Because if I’m busy and I’m going through the thing, I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s Beyoncé with so and so.’ I like that. And then the fans come back and say, ‘Miss Tina, please erase that because you’re liking some negative post.’ I mean, that’s what happens to 70-year-olds on social media. It’s true.”
Earlier this month, many fans were surprised when it seemed as if Knowles liked a post about the rape allegations against Jay-Z (born Shawn Carter) that are part of a civil suit against the two rappers; Combs is currently in jail awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering and is the subject in more than 10 civil suits related to allegations of sexual assault, rape, sexual harassment and other charges. Combs has also vehemently denied the allegations and Jay-Z has called the suit a “blackmail attempt.”
After Knowles initially liked the post, just days later, the like was gone and she informed followers that she had been “hacked,” adding, “As you all know I do not play about my family. So if you see something uncharacteristic of me. Just know that it is not me !”
Knowles did not take on the allegations against Jay, but she did share some sage advice the rapper has given her about social media etiquette. “I know that it doesn’t understand what I’m saying, and it’s got crazy stuff,” she said of her Insta comments, many of which feature captions that are created using voice-to-text and some of which are misinterpreted due to her Southern accent. “And my son-in-law, Jay will say, ‘Listen, if you’re gonna read somebody, at least spell your words right. Don’t misspell your words, Ma. You can’t do that. Take your time and go over and spellcheck your stuff!’”
While she appreciates the tip, Knowles admitted, “I don’t have time for that.”
The chat also found Knowles talking about fashion and shopping, describing how as a Texas native she’s always appreciated cowboy fashion. “I’ve always worn boots and cowboy hats,” she said, noting that some people used to make comments in not “such a great way” when she showed up in L.A. in her Cowboy Carter finest. She also reminded any lingering haters that costumes she designed for Destiny’s Child back in the day hinted at the family’s Texas roots, with “a lot of fringe and cowboy hats and cowboy boots.”
Joe Budden has been charged with lewdness in New Jersey, according to the Edgewater Police Department. The EPD released a statement on Monday (Dec. 30) confirming law enforcement was dispatched to an apartment complex in Edgewater on Dec. 4 for a report claiming a man was standing naked outside a residence around 7:21 a.m. ET […]
In the wake of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, an unexpected cultural phenomenon is unfolding. Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old accused of the fatal Dec. 4 shooting in New York, has become the subject of several regional Mexican ballads posted online.
In recent years, regional Mexican music — which encompasses corridos, norteño mariachi and more –has experienced an unprecedented global revival, particularly with the emergence of corridos tumbados in early 2019, pioneered by Natanael Cano. This genre was further popularized by artists such as Fuerza Regida, Junior H and Peso Pluma. The style quickly spread across the Internet on platforms such as SoundCloud and TikTok, and by the end of that year, it had impacted the Billboard charts and continues to do so. And now, a wave of new songs has emerged on various platforms, seeking to cast Mangione within the corridos tradition.
These corridos — historically used to narrate tales of revolutionaries and rebels that date back to the Mexican Revolution of 1910 — are now casting the accused killer of the health insurance CEO as a complex figure caught between villainy and vigilantism. This musical portrayal is igniting discussions about justice, corporate ethics and the makings of modern antiheroes amid a backdrop of deep-seated societal discord.
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While a developed country, the United States still grapples with health care access and affordability disparities. Despite boasting cutting-edge medical technologies and treatments, people often face prohibitive costs and inadequate coverage. This paradox has fueled a national discourse on health care injustice and attempts to overhaul the health care system, with some sympathizing with and/or glorifying the accused killer, who is facing federal murder and stalking charges. Separately, the Manhattan district attorney, in addition to multiple murder charges, also charged Mangione with murder as an act of terrorism; he has pleaded not guilty to the state charges. If he’s convicted on the federal charges, Mangione could potentially face the death penalty, while the state charges could mean a maximum of life without the possibility of parole.
On Dec. 22, a SoundCloud user named Alan Rendon posted an accordion-led track called “El Corrido de Luigi Mangione,” which goes, “In the cold December morning in New York, his law was laid/ A man on a bicycle crossed with a plan that lived in his mind/ On 54th Street his fate was met, Brian Thompson fell by the bullets/ Justice Luigi wanted to serve.” The song continues, “In his message, he left his reason/ He did not seek riches or fame, only justice for his nation/ Today his name travels the streets, a dark message he left/ The industry he blamed so much, his own sentence he signed.”
The corrido frames Mangione as a dark symbol of resistance against corporate misconduct, and some have compared the accused to the antihero from V for Vendetta.
Artist Gabriela MC echoed this sentiment in a TikTok posted Dec. 15, singing, “One day, Dec. 4, it is said that the businessman had a meeting pending/ With high-ranking people, when three precise bullets snatched his life/ People are not moved by the rich man slain/ ‘Deny,’ ‘depose’ and ‘defend’ — keys to the murder/ And although he died suddenly, the meeting was not canceled/ Do not believe that for millions [of dollars] you have bought your life/ He was dedicated to that and could not secure it/ How life turns around, and karma claims it.”
She cites the three bullets found on the crime scene with the engraved words “deny,” “defend” and “depose.” According to The Associated Press, those three words are often used to describe insurance companies’ practices when denying claims. The phrase also mirrors the title of Jay M. Feinman’s book Delay, Deny, Defend: Why Insurance Companies Don’t Pay Claims and What You Can Do About It. Published in 2010, this tome provides a critical look at the practices commonly used by insurance companies that negatively affect policyholders.
“Six days after his death they came upon the Italian/ A sharp young man graduated from Pennsylvania,” she sings. “He was playing Monopoly/ Don’t insult the intelligence of those American people/ His mother asked for clemency, as many were denied/ Luigi ran out of patience and adjusted them.”
During the initial manhunt after Thompson’s murder, a backpack containing Monopoly money believed to be the killer’s was found abandoned in Central Park on Dec. 6. According to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by The AP, Mangione was carrying a handwritten note at the time of his arrest on Dec. 9 in Pennsylvania, and the document slammed “parasitic” health insurance companies.
A TikTok user going by the name Cruzistojose1978 posted a corrido introducing a first-person perspective of Mangione’s narrative. “I am a young, intelligent man, I graduated from Penn/ Life gave me its tests, and fate has collected them/ Today I find myself behind bars, but my motive is marked,” he sings.
While he awaits trial, Mangione’s story as depicted in corridos could challenge listeners to confront realities about the power imbalances within society — or, at least, that’s what the origin of corridos claim, if Américo Paredes’ 1958 book With His Pistol in His Hand: A Border Ballad and Its Hero can be applied to this case. The title is about Gregorio Cortez, a Mexican-American outlaw who killed a sheriff in self-defense against racism and injustice in the late 1800s. This incident sparked the creation of corridos that celebrated his deeds as a symbol of resistance against the discriminatory actions of the Anglo authorities toward Mexican-Americans in Texas. The book argues that the origin of corridos such as those about Gregorio Cortez served not just entertainment, but powerful expressions of protest against oppression.
The woman who accused Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs of drugging and raping her when she was 13 years old can remain anonymous for now, a judge ruled Thursday (Dec. 26), citing the “highly sensitive” nature of her accusations.
According to court documents obtained by Billboard, Judge Annalisa Torres wrote that “the weight of the factors” in the case “tips in favor of allowing Plaintiff to remain anonymous” for now. In justifying the decision, the judge cited the Jane Doe’s assertion that she continues to suffer from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other health effects due to the alleged rape, as well as a claim by the woman’s attorneys that Combs has threatened other alleged victims who have filed suits against him for speaking out. However, the judge acknowledges that “because the balance of these factors will certainly shift” as the case moves forward, she plans to revisit the question of anonymity at a later date.
Also in Thursday’s ruling, the judge turned down a request by Jay-Z’s legal team to fast-track a hearing on their motion to dismiss the case against him and criticized the rap mogul’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, for his “relentless filing of combative motions containing inflammatory language and ad hominem attacks” against the plaintiff’s attorney, Tony Buzbee, calling them “inappropriate, a waste of judicial resources, and a tactic unlikely to benefit his client.” The motion to expedite the hearing was tied to a Dec. 13 NBC News interview in which the Jane Doe admitted to inconsistencies and “mistakes” in her narrative of the alleged assault and was contradicted by her own father.
In the woman’s complaint, filed earlier this month, she accused Combs and Jay-Z (born Shawn Carter) of drugging and sexually assaulting her following an MTV Video Music Awards after-party in 2000. The case was an updated version of a previous complaint the woman had filed against Combs alone.
Since the updated case including Carter was filed on Dec. 8, the rap mogul and his attorneys have forcefully denied the allegations, with Carter calling the lawsuit a “blackmail attempt” and characterizing Buzbee as a “fraud” with an aim “to exploit people for personal gain.” Buzbee has filed a host of lawsuits against Combs over the last several months and has said he represents dozens more victims who have yet to file their own complaints.
In a statement sent to Billboard in response to Thursday’s court ruling, Buzbee said that “the coordinated and desperate efforts to attack me as counsel for alleged victims are falling flat.”
An attorney for Carter did not immediately respond to Billboard‘s request for comment.
The latest decision in the case comes as part of a mounting legal war between Jay-Z and Buzbee. On Dec. 18, Buzbee filed a lawsuit against Jay-Z’s company, Roc Nation, and its attorneys (including Marcy Croft and law firm Quinn Emanuel) accusing them of “engaging shadowy operatives” to derail his case against the rapper, including by allegedly offering money to one of his former clients (Gerardo Garcia) to convince him to file bogus lawsuits against his firm — an incident Buzbee claims was caught on tape. “Defendants have conspired to obstruct justice by engaging shadowy operatives to illegally seek out more than two dozen current and former clients of The Buzbee Law Firm to convince those clients to bring frivolous cases against [the firm],” Buzbee wrote.
In response, a Roc Nation spokesperson called Buzbee’s lawsuit “nothing but another sham” and “a pathetic attempt to distract and deflect attention,” while Croft reacted by calling the allegations in the lawsuit “false” and “a desperate attempt to distract from his mounting legal woes.”
Buzbee’s Dec. 18 lawsuit is actually the second he’s filed against Carter’s attorneys over the past month. The first, filed earlier in December, accused Quinn Emanuel of retaliatory behavior, including alleged harassment of Buzbee’s colleagues, clients and family. That came in response to a lawsuit Jay-Z secretly filed against Buzbee in November in which the rapper accused the Texas attorney of spearheading an effort to extract settlements from innocent celebrities after threatening to link them to Combs.
Paris Hilton wants you to unwrap her, but she didn’t leave much to take off in a cheeky holiday video set to Ariana Grande‘s “Santa Tell Me” on Christmas Day. In an NSFW clip posted to Instagram on Wednesday (Dec. 25), the businesswoman leaves little to the imagination while wearing red pumps and matching fingerless […]
Jelly Roll was spotted shaking hands and smiling with president-elect Donald Trump at a UFC match New York City’s Madison Square Garden last month, leading to controversy surrounding the country star’s political opinions. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news However, Jelly cleared the air alongside his wife […]