Diddy lawsuit: Cuba Gooding Jr. added as co-defendant

Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr. has been named as a co-defendant in a lawsuit introduced in opposition to embattled hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.

The lawsuit, which was introduced in February by Diddy’s “Love Album” producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, was amended Monday to checklist Gooding as a defendant, in addition to to incorporate a declaration from former Motown Data chief government Ethiopia Habtemariam about technical license agreements and to insert further proof to the RICO and sex-trafficking part of the lawsuit, Jones’ lawyer Tyrone Blackburn confirmed Tuesday in an e-mail to The Occasions.

The second amended criticism was filed Monday, the identical day that Homeland Safety Investigations carried out bicoastal raids on mansions owned by Combs in Holmby Hills and Miami. Federal brokers carried out the searches as a part of an inquiry into intercourse trafficking allegations involving the hip-hop mogul and entrepreneur, regulation enforcement sources mentioned. Aaron Dyer, an legal professional for Combs, on Tuesday known as the raid an “unprecedented ambush” that “results in a untimely rush to judgment of Mr. Combs and is nothing greater than a witch hunt primarily based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.” Dyer added that Combs cooperated with authorities, “is harmless and can proceed to battle each single day to clear his identify.”

Blackburn, Jones’ legal professional, mentioned he has not been contacted by federal authorities relating to the Homeland Safety investigation.

“Defendant Cuba Gooding, Jr. was a related actor who has fallen from grace as a result of a number of sexual assault lawsuits and a current responsible plea for sexual assault,” mentioned the criticism, which was obtained Tuesday by The Occasions. In it, Blackburn famous that his shopper — a Chicago-born producer, who produced 9 songs on Diddy’s 2023 album — believed Combs “was grooming him to move him off to his associates” and that “concern grew to become actuality” when Combs launched him to Gooding on his yacht in January 2023.

Jones accused Gooding of fondling his “legs, higher inside thighs close to his groin, the small of his again close to his buttocks, and his shoulders,” which made the producer “extraordinarily uncomfortable.” Though he allegedly rejected the actor’s advances, Gooding “didn’t cease till Mr. Jones forcibly pushed him away.”

“Because the proprietor of the property, Mr. Combs had an obligation to guard Mr. Jones from the hurt he suffered by the hands of Cuba Gooding Jr. Mr. Combs breached his obligation when he didn’t cease Cuba Gooding Jr from sexually assaulting Mr. Jones,” the criticism mentioned. “In furtherance of this breach, Mr. Combs inspired Cuba Gooding Jr to proceed his assault on Mr. Jones when he mentioned that Cuba Gooding Jr ought to privately get to know Mr. Jones higher. Mr. Jones has suffered immensely due to Mr. Combs’s intentional breach of his obligation to him.”

Representatives for Gooding didn’t instantly reply Tuesday to The Occasions’ request for remark.

Gooding, 56, who has individually pleaded responsible to forcible touching and settled a rape lawsuit final yr., was talked about in Jones’ preliminary lawsuit — filed in U.S District Court docket for the Southern District of New York — with Jones alleging that he was sexually harassed and assaulted by the “Jerry Maguire” star.

The “American Horror Story” actor joins an inventory of co-defendants within the $30-million lawsuit that features Combs, his son Justin Dior Combs, Common Music Group chief government Lucian Charles Grainge, UMG, former Motown Data government Habtemariam and Motown Data, Love Data, Combs International Enterprises, ABC Companies, Diddy’s chief of employees Kristina “KK” Khorram and a number of other John and Jane Does. That community of alleged involvement, Jones mentioned, quantities to a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).

Within the 105-page criticism, Blackburn mentioned that Jones’ “life has been detrimentally impacted ever since” he agreed to provide the album in August 2022. Jones alleged that he was “below an implied work-for-hire settlement” with Combs and lived with the recording big for months at a time in Combs’ houses in Los Angeles, New York Metropolis and Miami, in addition to a number of weeks on a yacht rented by Combs within the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Jones, describing himself as a “heterosexual Christian man,” alleged within the lawsuit that he was “the sufferer of fixed unsolicited and unauthorized groping and touching of his anus by Mr. Combs” and was “uncomfortable with Mr. Combs’ advances.” He expressed his complaints to Khorram, who allegedly instructed him “you recognize, Sean will likely be Sean” in response, the doc mentioned. Blackburn described Khorram as “the Ghislaine Maxwell to Sean Combs Jeffrey Epstein.”

Multi-instrumentalist Jones mentioned that he had “secured irrefutable proof” of illicit exercise, together with Combs offering laced alcoholic drinks to minors and intercourse employees at his houses and the rapper’s acquisition, use and distribution of ecstasy, cocaine, GHB, ketamine, marijuana and mushrooms, in addition to displaying and distribution of unregistered unlawful firearms. He additionally alleged that Combs gave him “strict directions to tell the police that [Combs] had nothing to do with” a capturing at Chalice Recording Studio in Los Angeles on Sept. 12, 2022, regardless that Jones believed in any other case.

Jones additionally alleged that he was sexually assaulted by a cousin or assistant of rapper Yung Miami, who has dated Diddy and claimed that he obtained footage of a rapper and an R&B singer (whose names have been redacted from the criticism) consorting with underage women and intercourse employees.

Britain’s Prince Harry was additionally talked about within the criticism, as he had been when it was initially filed final month. Though no allegation of wrongdoing on his half was made, the prince was referred to in a bit about why Grainge “ignored the quite a few crimson flags about Mr. Combs … to obtain monetary advantages from Mr. Combs and his intercourse trafficking enterprise.” (Intercourse abuse and intercourse trafficking claims have dogged Combs over the previous yr, starting with a November lawsuit introduced by ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura that was filed and settled inside days.)

“Earlier than Cassie Ventura’s lawsuit was filed, Mr. Combs was a preferred and extremely influential determine within the music trade to whom everybody needed to attach. Mr. Combs was recognized for throwing the ‘finest’ events. Affiliation with and/or basic enterprise partnerships with Mr. Combs garnered legitimacy, immense success, and entry to high and rising artists, celebrities, well-known athletes, political figures, musicians, and worldwide dignitaries like British Royal and Prince Harry.”

Grainge, the criticism mentioned, “knew first-hand the facility, affect, and impact attaching themselves to Mr. Combs would have on their bottom-line and, as evidenced by their repeated basic enterprise partnership agreements … profited from their affiliation with Mr. Combs and their basic enterprise partnership, which got here with unmonitored financing that will have supported his sex-trafficking enterprise.”

In a Tuesday assertion to The Occasions, an legal professional for Common Music Group and Grainge characterised Jones’ criticism as “offensively reckless” and mentioned Grainge has been “improperly dragged into this matter regardless of having no data of, nor any involvement in, any of Mr. Combs’ alleged conduct.”

“Additional, after we suggested Plaintiff’s counsel of the offensive falsity of the absurd claims, as a substitute of dismissing the claims, as they need to have accomplished, the plaintiff has now tried to amend his claims in opposition to Sir Lucian, eradicating the unique set of outrageous falsehoods associated to Sir Lucian, changing them with wholly contradictory new falsehoods which might be equally absurd,” mentioned Donald S. Zakarin of Los Angeles-based agency Pryor Cashman LLP. “Not solely will we reveal the offensive falsity of those claims, however we’ll search restoration of each penny of price and harm attributable to their assertion.”

Occasions employees author Richard Winton contributed to this report.