Law&Crime Sidebar - P. Diddy Accuser Cites 'New Evidence' in Sexual Assault Case

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

One of the women accusing Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexual assault, Liza Gardner, wants to move her civil lawsuit against the music mogul from New York to New Jersey. Gardner’s attorneys say new witnesses have come forward to corroborate her allegations of rape against Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber discusses the move with celebrity defense attorney Bradford Cohen.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOWIf you’ve used Incognito mode in Google’s Chrome browser, find out if you have a claim in a few clicks by visiting https://incognitoclaims.com/sidebarHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest 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. Sean Diddy Combs is facing several lawsuits, and we have a legal update now in one of them that may shed new light on what is going on here. We bring on acclaimed defense attorney to the stars, Bradford Cohen, to make sense of it all. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Prime. I'm Jesse Weber. Hey there, everybody.

This is a law and crime legal alert. Google Incognito tracked users browsing data without their knowledge. While MassTorred Alliance, one of our legal sponsors, is actually helping users file for compensation due to Google misleading the privacy of their incognito browser. So if you've used Google Incognito any time since 2016, you can start your claim in less than 10 questions at incognito claims.com slash sidebar. Interesting legal development in one of the cases involving Sean Diddy Combs. I want to talk to you about right now. Now, I say one of the cases because we know that the music mogul has been hit with a number of sexual misconduct lawsuits, and we know that the feds rated two of his properties back in March, reportedly pursuant to an

ongoing sex trafficking investigation. No arrests have been made. No charges have been filed. We don't know precisely what authorities are looking for. But here's what we do know, that there is an interesting development in one of the lawsuits. And this one concerns a woman named Lisa Gardner, and she had sued Diddy, and also singer and songwriter Aaron Hall, as well as several other corporate entities in Jane Doe's like MCA, UMG, Geffen Records. And she claims that back in 1990, when she was just 16 years old, she and a friend met Combs and Hall at MCA Records when they were invited back to Hall's apartment for an after-party. And while at Hall's apartment, Lisa Gardner was allegedly offered drinks and was coerced into having sex with Sean Combs. She said that she

was shocked, that she was traumatized, and then all of a sudden, after that happened, she claims Hall barged into the room, pinned her down, and forced her to have sex with him. She claimed that her friend was also sexually assaulted by Combs and Hall, that they were almost essentially switching off on the women. Then Gardner, allegedly a couple of days later, claims that Combs came to the home where she and her friend were staying, and Combs was irate, and he began assaulting and choking her to the point that she passed out. Lisa Gardner says this, but that happened to her.

Over the year, she says that she has sought medical treatment to heal from this trauma. She sued for sexual assault, battery, negligent infliction of emotional distress. She actually sued under the New York Adult Survivors Act, which provided a one-year look-back window for survivors of sexual assault to sue for abuse that would have otherwise been time-barred because they were old expired claims under statute of limitations. Now, as a result of defendant's conduct, plaintiff claims again that she suffered and continues to suffer harm, including physical injury, severe emotional distress, humiliation, anxiety, and that there are other consequential damages for which she says she's entitled to an award of monetary. monetary damages. Now, Combs previously denied this. He denied the claims when this was initially filed in November, released a statement saying, quote, these are fabricated claims falsely alleging misconduct from over 30 years ago and filed

at the last minute. This is nothing but a money grab because of Mr. Combs' fame and success. He is an easy target for anonymous accusers who lie without conscience or consequence for financial benefit. The New York legislature surely did not intend to expect the Adult Survivors Act to be exploited by scammers, the public should be skeptical and not rush to accept these bogus allegations. And he made very, or people on his behalf, his spokespeople made these kinds of statements in relation to the multiple lawsuits that he's facing.

Well, now I want to talk about this, that Ms. Gardner wants to move her lawsuit from New York to New Jersey. Hmm. Why? Well, in one of the filing, she writes, plaintiff and this writer have received information from several witnesses, a former employee of UMG subsidiary. uptown records and a bad boy records executive. This new information adds context to the plaintiff's claims and clarifies the timeline.

The first and second witnesses have photos of plaintiff and defendant Aaron Hall from the day of the assault, which was taken a few hours before he raped plaintiff. The first and second witnesses also confirmed that the 16-year-old plaintiff was assaulted at the MCA event in New York City, went to dinner in New York City, and then was taken to New Jersey where the rape occurred. The former employee confirmed that Aaron Hall was an employee of MCA at the time of the rape. And they asked for this case in New York to be discontinued without prejudice, meaning

you could file it again and that they do want to refile in New Jersey. Now, let me talk about what this means. I want to bring on fan favorite here at Sidebar, a claimed defense attorney to the stars, Bradford Cohen, famously represented Drake. Y&W Melly, Kodak Black. Bradford, so good to see you. Thank you so much for coming on. What is the legal strategy here?

Why do this? Why try to move it from New York to New Jersey? Well, I think there's a couple things going on. Number one is it avoids the motion to dismiss that Diddy filed in the case. And Sean Combs' team filed this motion to dismiss. It's pretty lengthy motion to dismiss. Has a lot of facts in it. It has a lot of details in it.

I think number one is it, them time to research that motion to dismiss and see if they can address the issues in the motion to dismiss. They know they're going to have to do that anyways. Generally speaking, you can get some time to respond to motions to dismiss, but they may want more time than what the court would allow to really kind of nail down some issues, go through some witnesses, see if they can get some affidavits from these new witnesses, so to beef up their complaint instead of going forward the motion to dismiss getting that complaint dismissed and then refiling a new a new complaint this way it would be very clean to refile in new jersey i think that's number one

number two is i think the facts that now they're saying it happened in new jersey i think they understood that they would be subject to a motion to dismiss if they brought those claims in new york city in the lawsuit in new york city saying that the rape actually occurs heard in New Jersey, they would be subject to a new motion to dismiss saying that venue and jurisdiction is proper in New Jersey, not in New York. Well, let me just tease that out a little bit. Does that signify to you a weakness in Lisa Gardner's case? Does this sound like there was a mistake that was made, or is this just common?

Sometimes these cases change. You have to end a case in one state and refile in another one. I never believe in just, oh, this is a common occurrence. When someone comes into my office and they're making allegations that are very serious, such as these allegations, you nail down facts. I mean, I go through the facts probably two, three, four times before I file a complaint because I know those facts are going to be examined in great detail because of what they are based on. You know, you're not saying, hey, this was a breach of contract.

You're accusing someone of sexual misconduct or rape. These are very serious allegations that generally speak, And I don't think personally, I never had a case where I made these type of allegations. And then I'm like, whoops, sorry, I filed in Florida, I meant the file in Alabama. Never happened to me because, like I said, I go through those facts in such detail that that would be impossible. Now, when we're talking about this case, it's strange because what's happening with Sean Combs, and I said this originally, right? So back when all of this was happening with Cassie and the allegations were coming out and I've heard like rumors on the street that she wanted to sue, but she didn't sue yet. And by the way, just to be clear, Cassie Ventura was, it filed one of these initial lawsuits against Diddy.

She settled with him the next day for she accused him of sex trafficking and sexual assault. Correct. So when that happened, when it was kind of a rumor that she wanted to file a lawsuit, I spoke with several people in. not in his orbit but in an orbit that's similar to his and i said this should have this should be settled like these accusations even if they're not true they're so grandiose that he's going to lose sponsorships he's going to lose this even if they're completely false this is something you settle i don't know what advice he got in terms of settling or not settling but she end up filing that lawsuit and then it was open season on sean combs and that's what i predicted that it would

be open season on Sean Combs. And that's what happened. Everyone under the Sun filed lawsuits against Sean Combs, whether or not they're true or false, that was the key to open the door to the people rushing in to sue him. And that's a fair assessment. And we've talked about that before, again, not going to the gravity of the accusations or the credibility of them. I do think it's interesting the way that you're laying it out because it seems to me wouldn't a judge look at this and say, again, you know, why are you asking to move this case? Because the first part of your analysis was it might be to buy themselves more time to file a legal response, which wouldn't be, I think, a satisfactory or adequate reason to switch jurisdictions. Would a court look at this and say something's not right here?

Courts always look at that, but you're limited to what's on the page, right? You're limited to the four corners of the complaint or the four corners of the document that's filed in the case. It's always, my feeling is every judge always has in the back of their head, hey, what's really going on? I just got out of a trial two weeks ago, a civil trial, where the complaint read one way, the defense read another way, but during trial, I think the judge started to understand exactly what the case was about. And the ruling started to go a different way when the judge actually understands, hey, there's something going on here. What did you make of this idea that, you know, we have these witnesses who are coming forward now, we have these photos out. that that's a reason why we need to actually move this case. I think it's interesting.

I don't know how they made that mistake in the first place that she was taken to New Jersey. She had another friend with her. There were some witnesses anyways, and no one remembered that she was taken to New Jersey. No one remembered that she was in the car. Of course, what they're going to say is that victims of sexual assault try to put it out of their minds. They don't remember every single detail. They remember the big things, not the little things. or the opposite. You know, when it's they remember the little things and not the big things that they say, oh, that's what sexual abusers and sexual assault victims do. They kind of cater it to whatever is coming in or not coming in. In this case, she's going to say, oh, you know, I didn't remember that they took me to New Jersey. These new witnesses came out. And because these new witnesses came out, we want to use their testimony. We have to move it to New Jersey or be subject to a motion to dismiss in New York for lack of Jersey.

and venue. That's what they're going to say. I think a judge is going to look at it, you know, not with blinders on. I think a judge will look at this in a totality of the situation. Do I think that it warrants a motion to dismiss or something like that? Probably not, but I think that the basis that this huge fact that it was in New Jersey and not New York was overlooked, I don't think will fall on death ears of a court. I think that a court will certainly look at that kind of side-eyed and and and I think that will will help Sean Combs ultimately with the case again depending on these witnesses and things like that but like I said this is what happens in these cases right yeah the door gets open all of a sudden witnesses come forward someone else comes

forward someone who's got an axe to grind with Sean Combs and to be quite honest with you Sean Combs is a polarizing guy you know he some people love him in the industry some people hate them in the industry. And I think that that also, when someone is down, the people that hate you figure out a way to kick you when you're down. Again, not knowing all the facts and circumstances, if this is true or false, just my experience in this area when the door gets opened, anyone who's never liked you in your life all of a sudden comes forward and has a memory of, hey, I remember this guy on May 17th. He was doing this or doing that. So that's what I things happened. You mentioned, again, there might be another strategic legal reason to move the

case. I am curious if this has anything to do with the fact that an attorney for UMG, one of the defendants, had asked the court recently to deny Gardner an extension of time to respond to UMG's motion to dismiss. You mentioned it a little bit with Combs, but Gardner, by the way, is being represented by a man named, an attorney named Tyrone Blackburn. He represents Rodney Jones, who is the former Diddy producer, he filed a separate lawsuit against Diddy for sexual assault and sex trafficking. Blackburn also represents a young woman who filed a lawsuit against Diddy's son Christian for sexual assault too. And Blackburn, of course, as I mentioned, is the attorney in this case. But the filing from a UMG's attorney says, quote, while Mr. Blackburn claims his client

needs additional time to gather her documents and affidavits from the witnesses, there is no colorable ground on which additional documents or affidavits from the witnesses could change the fatal defect in the amended complaint, namely plaintiff's age at the time of the alleged conduct. UMGR communicated to Mr. Blackburn that the complaint was deficient as a matter of law and urged him to discontinue the action against UMGR, and while Mr. Blackburn has chosen not to discontinue the action against UMGR, this court can and should deny his request for an extension to bring these frivolous proceedings and should dismiss this matter before any more resources are spent by the court and UMGR.

Accordingly, UMGR respectfully requests that Mr. Blackburn's extension request be denied. So here, Bradford, again, I wonder if this move to try to switch jurisdictions is maybe in response to this letter from UMG. It certainly could be that. So courts have great discretion when granting extensions of time to answer motions to dismiss or anything, discovery, to answer a complaint, very likely the judge would give them some additional time. How much? I don't know. It could be that that's why I said number one is it could be to avoid that, you know, that extension, asking for that extension. Sometimes what happens is

a motion gets filed, a motion for extension gets filed. The other side says, hey, you should deny this motion for extension. And the judge may deny that motion for extension. And that that point they dismissed without prejudice and refile in another jurisdiction. They could have done that as well. That would have looked probably more suspicious than how they did it. I just think the whole thing is very strange. I've read Mr. Blackburn's complaints on Rodney and a couple other, you know, they represent, he represents a couple of these people. The complaints are written in such outrageous language that it almost begs the conclusion. that this is what he's doing. He's trying to embarrass and trying to force a settlement on these

cases. Well, we know that Mr. Blackburn was called out by a judge recently, a federal judge for some of the filings, and we talked about it on a previous sidebar as well. I get into the controversial stance there. But look, I agree. There was some very pointed language used in these complaints, and it's interesting because I haven't seen it before. But having said that, Wish we had a little bit more time to talk, but really interesting development nonetheless. Bradford Cohen. Thanks so much for coming on. Great seeing you as always.

Thanks. You as well. All right, everybody. That's all we have for you here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.

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