Law&Crime Sidebar - Jennifer Lopez Named in P. Diddy Lawsuit from Hostile Inmate

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

Derrick Cardello-Smith, a Michigan inmate, first made headlines last year when he was granted a $100 million default judgment in a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs. After the judgment was overturned, Cardello-Smith has made increasingly unhinged statements about an alleged rape Combs committed back in the 1990s. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber has some of the craziest claims Cardello-Smith makes in official court filings, as well as the response from Combs’ legal team.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Straight Arrow News app at https://san.com/Sidebar and support journalists like us committed to delivering the truth!HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that will

keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Attorneys for Sean Diddy Combs are fighting a lot of battles on a lot of different fronts lately and likely spent their holiday crafting motions to try to curtail the amount of legal action and the disgrace music mogul is facing. But one of the strangest cases involves a Michigan prison inmate who claims that Combs raped him in the 90s. A judge had initially granted a massive $100 million judgment in his favor,

but after that was overturned, Derek Cardello Smith is now pushing forward with his lawsuit, and he says he plans to call pop icon Jennifer Lopez as a witness. Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. The legal battle involving Derek Cardello Smith is one of the strangest parts of the saga of Sean Diddy Combs right now. And as we know, the rapper is behind bars in Brooklyn, accused by the feds of forcing sex workers

and others to participate in hours long sex performances and orgies, sex trafficking, racketeering, transportation to engage in prostitution, federal charges. And at the same time, Combs has also been accused in several civil lawsuits of drugging and raping people as far back as the 90s. The allegations come from both men and women, including some who say that they were just teens when they were targeted. And in the midst of a flurry of lawsuits before he faced criminal charges in federal court, we learned about a man named Derek Cardello Smith. This is an inmate incarcerated at Ernst C. Brooks Correctional facility out in Michigan. Now he has been convicted multiple times for criminal sexual conduct

and kidnapping. Cardello Smith appeared on a judge's live stream from prison representing himself to explain why he wanted an injunction against, out of all people, Sean Combs. This is in the matter of Derek Lee Cardello Smith, MDOC number 267-009 versus Sean Combs, Sean Puff Daddy Combs, also known as Sean Pete Diddy, also known as Diddy, Bad Boy Records, label owner, comma, founder, also known as P-Dady, comma, bad boy, did he run the city, comma, Sean Cohn's, also known as Sean Puffington. And this is file number 24-7362N0. I'll grab your paperwork here real quick out of this other paperwork. We do have Mr. Cardello Smith appearing from the Michigan Department of Corrections. Sir, where are you currently

located? I'm located at the Ernest C. Brooks Correctional Facility, 2,500 South Sheridan Drive, Muskegon, Michigan, 4944-4-4-M. All right. Thank you, sir. Thank you. So I do see that we do have a proof service on Mr. Combs, but for purposes of this hearing, you filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and or a preliminary injunction. to stop all sales of the property and assets attached to or involved with said property based on the interest of plaintiff and plaintiff's connections to defendant's sexual assault, a plaintiff Derek Lee Cardell Smith requiring a preliminary injunction and or a temporary restraining order. By the way, when we're covering stories like this one,

it is very important to bring you just the facts, not put any kind of slant or bias on that. We always try to do that at law and crime and sidebar. But that is why we are so happy to partner with a company like Straight Arrow News. So this is an app and website that is focused on objective, unbiased reporting. As somebody who's always doing research for Sidebar, I know how easy it is to get lost and biased journalism, right? Well, Straight Hour News, they help us cut through that with tools like the media landscape, which shows where outlets fall on the political spectrum. We also have the Media Mist tool, highlighting stories that mainstream media might be skipping.

So you can check it out for yourself for free. Use the tools to research at SAN.com. sidebar or click the link in the description. Supporting them means supporting journalists like us who are committed to delivering the truth. Do you wish to argue the motion today, sir? Yes, your honor. All right, you may proceed then.

Okay, the purpose of it is based on two actions taken by Mr. Combs himself directly with me here. We did a live one-on-one visit in our prison visiting room. There's two meetings within the past two weeks, with Mr. Combs on one meeting and then a financial advisor on the other meeting on Mr. Combs' behalf. And he stated that he would make me an offer to end the case and what happened to me because of other things that he stated he has going on in his life that require his money right now and he wants to sell everything off. And he made me a financial offer of

$2.3 million to allow what happened to me to go away. And he stated that he's going to be selling his property. And under the 2005, California Civil Code 2881-2885, the creation of liens, which allows out-of-state justices and orders to cause a stop of any title transfer, property transfers in Los Angeles or any other place that he has property. He stated that he wouldn't be able to proceed with that sale. And he did it the day after I served him the suit. And he also said that he won't be filing an answer to the complaint. He said, you can find me in default or whatever. He has a better chance with default than he would with having a restraining order to stop. And I said, so you want to hide what you're,

you want to hide your money and stuff remains being quite possibly paid to me if I'm given the benefit of a judgment in my favor for what you've done to me. And he pretty much said, yeah he says you know how we get down and I said okay well I disagree with how you get down your sales shouldn't go through so you hold on I'm sorry I'm sorry Cadello Smith okay so you went in a different direction that I thought you were going into I thought we were just going to focus no no no you kind of went off on a different direction than what your actual emotion was yeah so what I just want to say is settlement negotiations Yeah. I'm sorry.

In this case, they're probably better not, yeah, they're not for to be placed on the record today. Okay. I apologize. No, no, no, it's okay. You're not an attorney. I understand that. So if we can just backtrack and focus just on your motion. I get what you want. Okay, thank you. If he's allowed to sell his property that he has in L.A. and the properties that are in his name

being used and held by other people in Michigan, then it will cause me harm because I can be tied directly to those properties through loans and through other areas of investment that I did when I was out there and while in prison through money that I've sent. And if he's allowed to go through with any of the sales, I won't be able to recoup any of my monies

or anything from them. as a result of any possible judgment in this action if he's allowed to proceed with it. And an injunction or restraining order would help ensure that he's not manipulating and selling the property to avoid this, his responsibility in these matters here. That's what a temporary restraining order would do. It would prevent that from happening. Because it's a very serious matter. It involves a lot of money. A lot of money. And him selling this is, would help him avoid his liability for these actions done upon me.

And I was just hoping that I'd be able to get the restraining order to prevent that. There won't be any harm to them, any of the parties, there won't be any harm to him in any way. And if it's deemed that it's not just, then he can go ahead and go through with the sale at the end of the case. But one has to be put in place to stop this from happening. Okay. Okay. So thank you very much.

Yes. So I received your complaint and all the attachments to it. And then I received this motion. and I just wanted to review, take a moment to review back through the U.S. district civil docket and your complaint. So I did do that. That's all. Okay. Anything else?

All of everything that you're looking at, they're all tied in together. Every part as crazy as it seems, as outrageous as it seems, it all ties in every bit of it, every facet. Okay. All right. Well, I have a proof of service showing that Mr. Combs was served on July 6th of 2000 and, let me see. Is that 24? Yes, John. Looks like it. 2000 and 24. So that was August of 2024. And a month earlier in July, Combs had put his house in the Holmbie Hills part of Los Angeles up for sale. And the judge, to issue an injunction, preventing Combs from selling the property for 90 days while the rest of the case played out.

And in the complaint against Combs, Cardella Smith asked for $100 million, claiming Combs drugged and raped him during a party in Detroit in 1997. He also alleges that Combs filmed the assault. And we have also learned, through separate filings, that Cardella Smith claims that Combs allowed him to invest in bad boy records if he took the blame for a rape case and went to prison. And get this. Since Combs seemingly didn't respond to the summons, the judge issued a default judgment against him. That means $100 million was awarded to Cardello Smith. Unfortunately for him, it would not be for too long because Combs' attorneys quickly responded with emergency

motions saying they had no idea that this lawsuit was even going on or who Cardello Smith was. So the default judgment was set aside and the case carries on. Now, Mark Agnifalo, who is Combs' lawyer in his federal criminal case said, this is a frivolous lawsuit against a prominent businessman based on obvious fabrications filed by a convicted rapist and serial litigant with an overactive imagination and a thirst for fame. Well, since then, Cardella Smith has been hard at work from inside prison filing document after document after document with the court. I am talking, by the way, hundreds and hundreds of pages of arguments, case law, exhibits. In fact, he is filing so many documents in so many different courts that he seems to be having trouble keeping things like

dates and location straight. And look, in those filings, he's doing his best to, you know, stick to the legalese and facts of the case. But remember, he is representing himself. He's not an attorney. But he ends up using a lot of underlining all caps, exclamation points. I said it before I said again, the fact that he was initially awarded the $100 million, you got to give him credit, right? But look, he is not shy about what he has to say. For example, how about this quote from his proposed 250-page answer to the defendant's motion to dismiss. Defendant Sean Combs is a fake gangster hiding behind his money and his lawyers, and most importantly, his enforcers, who knows that he has committed multiple acts of fraud,

and it has been an ongoing thing. His fraud is eternal, and his entire empire was built on rape, torture, being a fake gangster, rapist, brutal, power-hungry, greedy millionaire, and quite simply, he is not a man. Wow. And remember, Combs says he doesn't even know who Cardello Smith is. And we have to be clear about something. Sean Combs has never been criminally charged for rape or sexual assault per se. And as far as the federal charges, he hasn't been found guilty. And for all the lawsuits, he hasn't been found liable in any of them as well. Now, he has entered a not guilty plea in federal court. He strongly

denies any of these allegations. But who is this Derek Cardello Smith character, right? And how, by the way, is Jennifer Lopez fit into all of this? Well, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections, Cardello Smith is serving a decades-long prison sentence at a correctional facility near Muskegon. In 1998, Cardella Smith was convicted of two counts of third-degree sexual conduct. He was paroled and while out, prosecutors say he committed more sexual offenses. He was convicted in 2008 on six counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and two counts of kidnapping, pled no contest in that case. And then in 2019, he was convicted. to four counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

And according to the Department of Corrections, the earliest release date for him is 2036. So Cardello Smith, by the way, has appealed all of those convictions over the years and says that he was falsely accused of rape in 1998, that he was set up by police. And by the way, in his filing against Combs, Cardel Smith also claims that there is collusion, that there is a conspiracy afoot saying and alleging that Detroit police covered up his rape at Combs' instruction. And that is not even the wildest claim in this lawsuit. So let's dig into it. On December 9th, Cardella Smith filed a notice of submission of material witnesses and named three people. New York police officer Derek Palmer, former Combs employee Kirk Burroughs, and pop superstar Jennifer Lopez, J-Lo, who dated Combs from 1999 to 2001. And possibly one of the most memorable headline-making moments of their relationship came in December of 1999 when Combs, Lopez, Combs, bodyguard, Anthony Wolf, Jones and rapper Jamal Shine Barrow were involved in an argument in a New York City nightclub

that led to gunshots. All four were arrested on charges after they left the club in a car. Police pulled them over after they ran a red light. A gun was found lying in the car in full view according to police reports. And the weapon, turns out, had been reported stolen out in Georgia and none of the people in the car had a license for the gun. Now the charges against Lopez, they were dropped. And after a trial in New York Holmes and his bodyguard were acquitted, Shine, though, was found guilty of criminal possession of a weapon and first-degree assault. He was acquitted on the charge of attempted murder, and he served nearly nine years for his charges. He since said that Combs was the one who actually fired the shots, and he took the fall for him.

But going back to Cardello Smith's filing, his notice says that Jennifer Lynn Lopez, aka J. Lo, aka Jenny from the Block, quote, will be called as a material witness and expert to Sean Combs' viewing, possession, and distribution of his sexual. assault upon the plaintiff in 1997 and the orders of defendant Sean Combs forcing Jennifer Lopez to remain silent about the videotape sexual assault of plaintiff by defendant. Plaintiff states that the material witness Jennifer Lynn Lopez, also known as J-Lo and Jenny from the block, was engaged in a relationship with the defendant Sean Combs during 1999 and 2001 and that the sexual assault of the plaintiff was recorded, distributed, and held by the defendant at his New York residence and recording studio. And during the relationship with Jennifer Lopez. She was made privy to this video that was taken by Sean Combs and his employee,

Kirk Burroughs. She, J-Lo, has known this video existed and was in existence and took no action to make it known to anyone in law enforcement, and that she was even questioned by New York Police Detective Derek Palmer about this matter, and that the report will show that her answers to this tape was and still remains a resounding yes to its existence. And again, Cardell Smith writes that he wants to call Officer Derek Palmer as a witness because he says, Palmer is the one who questioned Lopez and believes that he will have testimony that could help his case. As I mentioned, Ditty's legal team has called for this entire case to be thrown out. Cardella Smith has filed a massive response to that request that totaled more than 200 pages.

Probably half of it was just straight up copies of case law that seems to support his arguments. Word for word, it's something of like a legal textbook. There's so much to slog through, but I kind of want to give you some of the highlights. So first, in addition to the claims of rape and a cover-up, Cardello Smith also claims and alleges that Combs was violent towards his loved ones. At times, Cardello Smith addresses alleged threats against his family. Other times, he says Combs actually caused serious injuries to his brother. His response reads, defendant used threats of murder to force the plaintiff to not bring the case to any court of law enforcement until the homes of the defendant were raided by Homeland Security that the plaintiff knew it was a safe time to bring the case, and that is why we are here at this juncture.

And Gardell Smith argued that fear for his own safety and the safety of his family is one of the main reasons that he waited so long to report the alleged rape and says that that reason alone should override any issue with the statute of limitations, that these claims might be otherwise be time barred. And he also argues that while he's been in prison, fellow inmates and prison guards have threatened him on behalf of Sean Combs. Quote, plaintiff states that the court cannot authorize a dismissal of these claims because to do so would mean that the plaintiff was time-barred because the plaintiff did not want to take any action that could have resulted in the death or danger of his family, friends, or their family by filing this report until after Homeland Security got involved. And if this court does not grant dismissal of this claim, then it would be instructing the defendants of a sexual assault claim brought by a plaintiff

to threaten to kill the victim's family members and then they would be able to get away with it. And that is most certainly this court authorizing murder. Wow. And when it came to threats, by the way, Cardello Smith swears that Combs visited him in prison on August 28, 2024. That is just days before his arrest on September 16th. In fact, he claims that Combs visited him multiple times in prison and that the visitor logs and the security video will prove it.

But he also claims that that evidence is being buried. So according to Cardello Smith, Combs threatened him on that day in August saying, quote, What up, N-word, so I see you have been getting my messages, and your family has too. That is good, and they can keep it that way by staying quiet. I am untouchable, N-word. And Cardello Smith even went so far as to accuse some of Combs' attorneys of helping him cover up these crimes. He says he believes attorneys from the law office of Fink Bressac and Cher Tramante should have their licenses reviewed for possible disbarment. He wrote, it is terrible because they are hiding behind their law licenses to do these

deplorable acts, and one can only say that for them to defend a rapist, thief, fraud, manipulator, extortionist, sadist, fake gangster, such as Sean Combs, and get a paycheck for it, and do it with a straight face, and then sleep at night? Well, it makes them just as worse as their client, and it is deplorable. And I reject every single word they have said and every statement they have made in their motion to dismiss because they are liars and, just wrong and misusing the laws to lie to this court and help Mr. Sean Combs get away with his rape. Attorneys on behalf of Sean Combs have filed multiple documents that call Cardello Smith's

assertions transparently false, stating in a filing once again plaintiff seeks to persuade this court that he is the subject of an ever-growing conspiracy to frame him and cover up an alleged assault. The lawyers alleged that affidavits, transcripts, other exhibits reportedly from people with connections to Combs are just fake documents. For example, one of the documents names Catherine Preston as defendant's agent, but according to Combs' attorneys, Catherine Preston is an intimate associate of plaintiff, whom plaintiff refers to as his wife.

They also point out that, quote, the additions to the proposed response are elaborations on plaintiff's conspiratorial narrative, including the claim that defendant, again, Sean Combs, must have had plaintiff's mother killed because the coroner listed her cause of death as undetermined. And they end by saying that even if every single claim that Cardello Smith was making and his amended response was true, his claim is time-barred by the statute of limitations, and therefore all of this is moot. Now, so far, no word from the judge on whether Cardella Smith's amended response will be

accepted by the court or not, but should be interesting to see. And in the meantime, Combs' legal team is also asking the court to sanction Cardella Smith for his frivolous lawsuits or what they claim are frivolous lawsuits. and they want to keep him from filing any more of them. They state this is not plaintiff's first attempt at a shakedown. And unless this court intervenes, it will not be his last. Plaintiff has a lengthy history of filing frivolous lawsuits in this district and beyond. A pacer search reveals that plaintiff appears on the caption in 173 lawsuits and appeals

in the Sixth Circuit and its district courts. The overwhelming majority, if not all of plaintiff's cases, have been dismissed as meritless. Still, he has continued filing. numerous judges have admonished plaintiff to stop litigating. Plaintiff has ignored them. But we shall see if this is another case that gets thrown out or maybe it will progress. Time will tell. That's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar.

Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.