Sean Combs has come beneath hearth from a former girlfriend, Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, who has alleged sexual abuse, sexual battery, rape and making a hostile work surroundings over a interval of years.
In a 35-page submitting Thursday in U.S. District Court docket within the Southern District of New York, which was first reported by The New York Occasions, Ventura claimed that the music mogul, designer and start-up specialist bodily abused her throughout their relationship.
The couple met in 2005, when Ventura, a R&B musician, was 19 and Combs was 37, in keeping with the criticism. The next yr she signed a cope with Combs’ Dangerous Boy Data. Ventura was mentioned to have been concerned with Combs till some level in 2018, and claimed that she was pressured to take medication, suffered from his controlling habits and was bodily harmed amongst different issues.
Ben Brafman, an lawyer for Combs, issued a press release Thursday afternoon denying the allegations. “Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations. Ms. Ventura’s demand of $30 million, beneath the specter of writing a harmful ebook about their relationship, was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail. Regardless of withdrawing her preliminary risk, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to submitting a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’ status, and searching for a pay day,” the assertion learn.
In response to that declare, Ventura’s lawyer Douglas Wigdor additionally issued a press release Thursday afternoon, testifying that Combs had provided Ventura “eight figures to silence her and forestall the submitting of this lawsuit. She rejected his efforts and determined to present a voice to all girls that suffer in silence. Ms. Ventura needs to be applauded for her bravery.”
Cassie Ventura on the runway at a “Style for Aid” present.
Thomas Iannaccone
She is searching for an undisclosed cash judgment for compensatory damages, misplaced wages, psychological ache and anguish, and “extreme emotional misery,” in keeping with the submitting.
Ventura mentioned the nearing expiration of New York’s Grownup Survivor Act, which provides survivors the prospect to come back ahead to rectify their losses even when an assault occurred a long time in the past, was a part of the impetus for taking motion.
The look-back window for that laws will finish on Nov. 23. Till then, victims of abuse can proceed to file civil fees on issues which have outrun the statute of limitations. Ventura mentioned in a press release: “After years in silence and darkness, I’m lastly prepared to inform my story, and to talk up on behalf of myself and for the good thing about different girls who face violence and abuse of their relationships. With the expiration of New York’s Grownup Survivors Act quick approaching, it turned clear that this was a possibility to talk up in regards to the trauma I’ve skilled and that I will likely be recovering from for the remainder of my life.”
Individually, main former fashions like Carrie Otis, in addition to the Mannequin Alliance’s founder Sara Ziff, have been encouraging victims of sexual abuse to come back ahead earlier than New York’s Grownup Survivor Act runs its course.
“No human ought to need to endure what Ms. Ventura has endured. Her capacity and willingness to talk up in opposition to the abuse she suffered, and searching for to carry accountable her abuser and those that enabled the abuse, is a testomony to her energy and resilience. We’re honored to characterize this courageous sufferer in her pursuit of justice,” her lawyer’s assertion mentioned.
