How Cassie’s Lawsuit Against Diddy Galvanized A Movement Of Survivors
It all started with Cassie’s bravery.
One year ago, on Nov. 16, 2023, Cassie took a courageous stand for survivors everywhere when she filed asearing lawsuit against her ex-boss, former partner and alleged abuser, Sean “Diddy” Combs.
In a 35-page complaint, the “Me & U” singer, born Casandra Ventura, accused the now-disgraced mogul of inflicting hellish physical violence and sexual abuse on her throughout their relationship, which began when she was 19 and he was 37 and lasted over a decade. Within 24 hours, the trigger warning-labeled suit was stunninglysettled between both parties. However, Combs’ attorney clarified that the decision was “in no way an admission of wrongdoing” from his client. Then, a domino effect of civil lawsuits followed in the months after, seemingly triggering a federal investigation that led to athree-count criminal indictment of Combs in September.
Detained in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, Combs faces federal charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He also faces120 incoming lawsuits, some of which have already been filed, alleging more sexual and physical abuse, including some claimsinvolving minors as young as 9 years old, according to Houston attorney Tony Buzbee. The Bad Boy Records founder has denied the mounting allegations and pleaded not guilty to all of his charges, but they may have already done irreparable damage to his reputation.
If Ventura had not spoken out when she did, the onslaught of allegations against Combs may never have emerged. Her lawsuit arrived just before the deadline of New York’s Adult Survivors Act, a one-year “lookback window” for sexual assault allegations that had surpassed the state’s statute of limitations. The gutsy lawsuit signaled a watershed moment for the music industry and other parts of the entertainment world. Ventura likely motivated other accusers to publicly name their allegations, too, as evidenced by the flurry of claims still surfacing. But Combs has not been convicted or tried for any of the mounting allegations against him. As the world awaits Combs’ fate in the courtroom, many hope to see a reckoning for accused abusers in the music industry and beyond.
HuffPost spoke to some sexual assault survivors and advocates to see what the path forward could look like based on the complexities of Combs’ case. Some credit Ventura for giving other accusers a roadmap.
“I’m astounded by Cassie’s courage,” Drew Dixon, a former A&R executive and longtime advocate for sexual assault survivors, tells HuffPost. “Cassie made it out, and now that we see just how dangerous Puffy was, the fact that she survived and freed herself is remarkable.”
In the days following Ventura’s bombshell suit, two other accusers filed complaints against Combs, alleging disturbing incidents that stretch back to the ’90s.
Joi Dickerson-Neal, who once appeared with Combs in a music video, claimed that he drugged and raped her in 1991 and later showed a video of the alleged assault to others.Liza Gardner accused the “Bad Boy For Life” musician and R&B artist Aaron Hall of raping her at Hall’s home in either 1990 or 1991 when she was just 16 years old. Gardner also claimed that Combs then physically assaulted her days later. Hall did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Combs vehementlydenied the accusations in December 2023, claiming that his accusers were seeking “a quick payday” and attempting to “assassinate” his character and reputation. However, allegations against him have continued to pile up.
In November 2023, a woman claimed that Harve Pierre, the former president of Bad Boy Records, and Combs“gang raped” and “sex trafficked” her at 17 years old. Pierre did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Months later, producerRodney “Lil Rod” Jones — who worked on Combs’ 2023 comeback album, “The Love Album: Off the Grid” — followed with his own accusations, becoming the first male accuser in a seemingly endless string of lawsuits to allege sexual misconduct against Combs.
The jarring accusations about Combs left much of the world in shock, despite the general inseparability between hip-hop music and misogynistic lyrics,several past claims of Combs’ brutal violence, and whispers about the mogul’s nefarious behavior that circulated for years.
But Dixon wasn’t surprised. At least, not at the time Ventura filed her lawsuit.
“I was horrified,” Dixon, who once collaborated with Combs on Method Man and Mary J. Blige’s 1995 “All I Need” remix, recalls learning about the producer’s alleged violent acts months before he faced accusations.
Dixon knows the hardships of exposing the abuse of power in the music world. Years before Ventura spoke out, the ex-music executive also alleged sexual abuse claims against another powerful man in music: Russell Simmons. In 2017, Dixon accused the Def Jam Recordings co-founder, who’s also her former boss, of violently raping her in her New York City apartment in 1995, making her one of the first to go “on the record” about him (she did so again in the 2020 Max documentary of the same name).
Simmons denied the claims from Dixon and other accusers in December, saying that rape is “a serious word, but I think they’ve changed the meaning.” Dixon then sued Simmons, whose representatives did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment, for defamation in early 2024.
Moreover, a week before Ventura filed her lawsuit, Dixon alsosued her other former boss, famed music executive Antonio “L.A.” Reid, for sexual assault and harassment she claims took place in 2001. Attorney Shawn Holley, who represents Reid, tells HuffPost that he “adamantly denies Ms. Dixon’s allegations.”
So, Dixon is seemingly familiar with the heart-wrenching betrayal of discovering that once-celebrated figures like Combs are not who they appear to be.
“I didn’t spend time with Puffy socially in my career. I had a professional relationship with him, so I really didn’t know the details of his personal life,” Dixon says. She adds that she finds the allegations claiming to have occurred at a studio where she previously worked “sickening.” She went on to say, “I had no idea how stark and toxic and horrific [he was]. That’s been a chilling revelation for me, as somebody who has been in and out of [Combs’] Daddy’s House recording studio many times.”
In late March,Homeland Security raids rained down on the mogul’s Los Angeles and Miami homes amid scathing sex trafficking allegations. News cameras captured federal agents storming through one residence where Combs’ adult sons were subject to a search warrant and also detained. Authorities reportedly discovered several guns, including three AR-15s, ammunition, drugs and an unsettling amount of baby oil and lubricant. At the time, Combs’ attorney, Aaron Dyer, called the show of force an “unprecedented ambush” that was “nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”
But at least one of those accusations proved to be true.
On May 17, CNN releasedharrowing footage from a hotel surveillance camera showing Combs physically attacking Ventura at a Los Angeles-area hotel in 2016. The same incident was detailed in Ventura’s lawsuit as it appeared to occur in the video.
“In this day and age, you have to come with all the receipts,” says Oronike Odeleye, co-founder of #MuteRKelly, the grassroots movement that pushed for the financial boycott of the R&B singer years ago and shed light on his dark history of allegations. “Survivors are learning lessons from other survivors,” she adds, in speaking out about abuse with proof.
“It’s not enough anymore that people saw it,” Odeleye continues. “You really have to come with your full laundry list. And it’s unfortunate that that means people are in these situations having to remember to keep notes, evidence, pictures, videos, all the things that they can to protect themselves.”
Not long after the hotel footage surfaced, Combs released ahalf-baked apology on Instagram, acknowledging his “inexcusable” behavior despite directly avoiding naming Ventura.
“I was fucked up,” the rapper-producer said in a video, looking directly at the camera. “I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses.”
He added, “I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it. I am disgusted now.”
Within months of the apology, which has since been deleted from Combs’ page, he was arrested and indicted.
Combs sought release on a $50 million bond in exchange for home detention as he awaits trial. However, his request for bail and subsequent appeals have beendenied out of concern that he’ll resort to intimidation tactics, perprosecutors’ claims that the producer repeatedly contacted victims and witnesses in the months, and even days, leading up to his arrest.
Prosecutors alleged that afterformer Danity Kane and Diddy–Dirty Money member Dawn Richard filed a lawsuit against Combs on Sept. 10, accusing him of sexual assault, retaliation and threats to her life, the rapper reached out to another member of their group, Kalenna Harper, who was named in the lawsuit. Over three days, prosecutors allege he made 128 phone contacts — including 58 calls and texts — to Harper. A representative for Combs declined to provide additional comment on being accused of reaching out to Harper and other victims and witnesses.
Harper issued a public statement on Sept. 13 to “acknowledge” Richard’s accusations against Combs but also to say that many of her former bandmate’s claims “are not representative of my experiences” and “do not align with my own truth.” HuffPost reached out to Harper for comment.
While Harper’s statement fell short of corroborating her former bandmate’s claims of sexual assault and retaliation, Richard’s attorney, Lisa Bloom, highlighted that the grand jury’s indictment against Combs is “strikingly similar” to her client’s complaint, according to a statement she sent HuffPost shortly after Combs’ arrest.
“This incident is just one way of making clear that this defendant has the ongoing ability to keep witnesses, even witnesses who might have been around for very distant-in-time abuse, in his pocket and at his disposal,” prosecutorsargued of Combs in court.
Combs’ defense team argued in court documents that he was solely reaching out to “potential defense witnesses to let them know that counsel would reach out to speak with them.” A representative for Combs declined to provide additional comment on the matter.
One could argue that such moves are also evidence of a man unwilling to face the truth of his alleged improprieties, cheaply diminishing the allegations as the “takedown of a successful Black man,” per Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo.
“I’ve seen music executives chalk accountability up to being [a part of] cancel culture, which is not the same,” Karina Pardus, president of theFemale Composer Safety League, tells HuffPost. “They are not equivalent.”
Conceived in 2018, The Female Composer Safety League (FCSL) is an organization that advocates against the sexual abuse and harassment of women in the music composing industry. Earlier this year, FCSL — along with survivor-led advocacy collectives like Lift Our Voices, The Representation Project and The Punk Rock Therapist — published a comprehensive report titled “Sound Off: Make the Music Industry Safe,” detailing decades of reported sexual abuse accusations leveled against artists and executives. Its findings revealed that alleged predatory individuals and major entities (including record companies) all played a role in sustaining a broken system.
As Pardus suggests, alleged offenders like Combs are part of a rotting institution that, for years, has enshrined a merciless culture of open secrets, degradation and vicious misogyny.
Hip-hop is explicitly known for oftenembracing misogyny,especially against Black women, in its lyrics and music videos. While the genre’s conception is linked to themes of positive or thoughtful discussions about issues that have impacted Black communities, itsoon began to make room for the blatant disrespect of women as the gangsta rap subgenre made its meteoric rise in the ’90s. The degradation of women in lyrics became a seemingly inseparable tenet of the hip-hop music we hear today, inextricably linking misogyny with a driving force of pop culture.
Given Combs’ immense artistic and business impact on hip-hop and the music industry, he, too, is inseparable from it.
It’s no wonder that an industry that profits off of misogyny would enable or look past Combs’ and other powerful men’s injustices against women, especially those who are Black.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, it was just that one person that’s a fluke,’ when, in fact, it’s not. It is a part of the system,” Pardus explains. “It is naturally baked within it and perpetuated. It continues on, not just in this single individual, but in every aspect and in every space of the music industry.”
Following Buzbee’s announcement that more than 120 other lawsuits were incoming against Combs in October, Combs’ attorney Erica Wolff said he “cannot address every meritless allegation in what has become a reckless media circus.”
“That said, Mr. Combs emphatically and categorically denies as false and defamatory any claim that he sexually abused anyone, including minors,” Wolff continued. “He looks forward to proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court if and when claims are filed and served, where the truth will be established based on evidence, not speculation.”
For decades, Combs, formerly known as “Brother Love,” was lauded as a beacon of “Black excellence,” the preeminent party purveyor and astute entrepreneur who used his fortune, fame and success to secure a top spot in pop culture. At one point, the music iconchampioned Black empowerment at nearlyevery turn.
Some folks are holding steadfast to their idolatry of the former industry titan despite the numerous accusations that have been made against him. Not even his alleged involvement in a deadly 1999 nightclub shooting — Combs was eventuallyacquitted — could besmirch an enthralling musical legacy that launched the careers of rap-R&B royalty and nurtured a new generation of stars.
“We are all emotionally tied to a lot of these entertainers,” Odeleye offers, pointing to the grueling mass effort it took to urge people to stop supporting the music of R&B king-turned-convicted sexual predator R. Kelly. She sees a similar pattern with Combs, whose many musical and cultural contributions conflict with what we now know.
“Because their music is the soundtrack to our lives and our experiences, we then project onto these entertainers who they are,” she adds. “We want Puffy to be the fun, party-starting kind of guy… And so that also makes it hard [to hold them accountable].”
Odeleye suggests that it takes someone in a position of power to be the fearless catalyst. Someone like Ventura, a high-profile celebrity who had direct ties to her accuser and could vouch for the abhorrent injustices she claims to have endured and witnessed.
“For [Ventura] to come forward and be so vulnerable and so open,” Odeleye continues, “in order to try to get some justice and accountability, I think makes people pay attention and [say], ‘Hold on, wait a minute. Maybe I need to think about this person in a different way.’”
Lesser-known accusers aren’t always afforded the same grace. It took a six-month investigation fromRolling Stone’sCheyenne Roundtree and Nancy Dillon to uncover violent accusations about Combs from his late ’80s college days at Howard University.
According to Rolling Stone, some individuals avoided making claims against Combs out of fear he would use his power and influence to protect himself or retaliate with threats of harm. Others weren’t sure anyone would evenbelieve them.
“There are big, big names of people that they build up for themselves, and they believe themselves to be untouchable,” Pardus explains. “And in a lot of places, they’re proven right, and that is a problem with survivors of the misconduct of sexual harassment, assault, prejudice and marginalization, especially for women of color in the [music] industry.”
Pardus adds, “When they speak up, they don’t have as much power in play, and so they are dismissed, more often than not, and their careers are harmed, while the careers of the people causing harm continue to thrive.”
Professional retribution is an obstacle that accusers like Dixon are familiar with when reporting allegations against industry giants. The former executive left behind a career in music, she told HuffPost in 2021, and later turned toward advocacy work to aid fellow survivors.
“Drew, her advocacy, even from back in 2017, helped to push to be a part of the monumental movement of #MeToo and added color to it,” Kenya Davis, Dixon’s attorney representing her against Reid and in a defamation suit against Simmons, tells HuffPost.
The fight to hold celebrities accused of abuse accountable hasn’t been easy, especially for those who’ve been legally restricted from speaking out. Enter non-disclosure agreements, also known as NDAs.
In early November, TMZ published what appeared to be at least one of Combs’ NDAs, which reportedly prohibited signees from taking photos and videos or publicly discussing what happened at the parties without Combs’ written consent. While that is fairly standard for an NDA, what’s more, the NDA doesn’t expire until 20 years after Combs’ death or 70 years after signing, whichever comes first. An attorney for Combs declined to provide additional comment on the NDAs that TMZ published.
NDAs have long served to protect valuable information or a public figure’s life. But, generally speaking, NDAs have been weaponized by the rich and powerful to disadvantage signees, like victims and witnesses, and force their continued silence.
Such was the case for former Hollywood mogul and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein. Reportedly, Combs offered toreturn publishing rights to former Bad Boy artists and songwriters last year in exchange for them signing a mandatory NDA.
“I have to sign an NDA that I will never disparage Puff, Bad Boy, Janice Combs or Justin Combs’ music, or EMI, or Sony ever in public,” former Danity Kane singer Aubrey O’Day — along outspoken critic of Combs after he viciously kicked her off of “Making the Band 4” — claimed in a2023 interview with OnlyStans after receiving Combs’ offer to return artists’ and songwriters’ publishing rights.
Julie Roginsky and Gretchen Carlson, co-founders of the nonprofit organizationLift Our Voices, say in a joint statement that “NDAs are very likely one of the reasons Sean Combs was able to allegedly prey on so many people.”
They claim that the NDA TMZ published is fairly standard. “Predators and abusers use NDAs to muzzle and intimidate victims for life and even years after death. The abuse of power is sick and dangerous, and why we work so hard every day to eliminate these silencing mechanisms,” they add.
Roginsky tells HuffPost in an interview that that’s the “pernicious aspect of NDAs.”
“They don’t just harm survivors. They isolate them,” she says. “They exist as to silo survivors, to ensure that they don’t speak to each other, compare notes, stories, that they don’t warn each other about bad behavior, and certainly never warn the public, what they will experience.”
Roginsky notes that “most people don’t understand what they’re signing.” She went on to say, “They think they’re signing a confidentiality provision to assure that you’re not going to leak a new track, for instance, before the track is released. But that’s not what this says. This says [they] can’t talk about time whatsoever that takes place there, including things like sexual assault.”
Roginsky adds, “What ends up happening, unfortunately, is that most people don’t have access to lawyers to have to comb through these very long contracts, onboard documents or employee handbooks to see what might be wrong here… and then there’s also a sense of fear because here you are coming up against either a major conglomerate with unlimited funds or somebody like Sean Combs.”
Ventura did sexual assault accusers a great service earlier this year, when she refocused the dialogue surrounding Combs following surfaced footage of his assault on her. At that moment, it seems the singer knew where to turn our attention next: back to the people who have been forgotten amid the tasteless baby oil and homoerotic “No Diddy” jokes and downplayed discourse surrounding Combs’ alleged crimes.
“My only ask is that EVERYONE open your heart to believing victims the first time. It takes a lot of heart to tell the truth out of a situation that you were powerless in,” Ventura pointedly wrote in a May statement. “I offer my hand to those that are still living in fear. Reach out to your people, don’t cut them off. No one should carry this weight alone.”
As more accusations against Combs surface, advocates like Odeleye hope that, should the mogul be found guilty, they could lead to a major leap of justice for accusers all over.
“It’s a warning to a lot of other folks that this is not gonna be something you can get away with now for 85 years,” she says, reflecting on Combs’ arrest and indictment. “Being able to see your Harvey Weinsteins, R. Kellys, […] all of these rich, powerful men who are being held accountable and put in jail… it’s very important that we see this happen because we as a society need to decide that this is no longer acceptable.”
Many of Combs’ accusers hope that justice prevails during his trial, tentatively scheduled for May 5, 2025. Emotional and mental healing for accusers is likely needed, but an industry-wide reckoning seems like the only way to get to the root problem, which is bigger than just one figure.
“There’s deep, deep rot on this issue within the music industry that has nothing to do with Sean Combs,” says Roginsky, who hopes Combs won’t be used as a “scapegoat to say that they’ve cleaned house and now everything’s OK.”
“It’s a slow process,” Pardus points out, “and it’s not something that the industry is going to take readily. They don’t want to change. They like where they are. They’re not being impacted economically by this. They don’t see it as a problem with them. And so I hope that [Combs’ indictment] is another start that can keep the ball rolling, but it’s going to take a lot of time.”
Davis is hopeful that the “legal remedy” of Combs’ trial will mark an industry shift, too. But while New York’s jurisdiction plays a hefty role in holding Combs to the fire, the attorney is concerned about the statute of limitations in other states that still present a challenge in reporting other accusations of sexual abuse.
“One of the things I do hope that people hear and effectuate is bringing these types of statutes to women in Tennessee, Georgia, victims in different parts of the country, as opposed to just New York and California, where we know we’ve gotten those statutes back before,” she says.
Still, her client sees Combs’ public ostracization as a step in the right direction in sussing out powerful abusers — something she didn’t think would ever happen.
“I never thought there would be any accountability for any of these abuses in the music industry,” Dixon reflects, comparing Combs’ catastrophic demise to a “sort of Shakespearean fall from grace.”
The wide-ranging movement to hold the music industry and its alleged abusers accountable is likely far from over. The litany of accusations against Combs commands attention, making it clear that a reckoning across the music landscape is on its way.
“The spectacle of it all is tragic and hard to process and painful,” Dixon says. “It’s a reckoning that is necessary and overdue, but even necessary reckonings are painful, and this is no exception.”
