Law&Crime Sidebar - P. Diddy’s Friend Cuba Gooding Jr. Responds to Sex Trafficking Lawsuit

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Starting point is 00:00:35 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. Academy Award winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr. has officially broken his silence after being named in one of Sean Diddy Combs' sexual assault lawsuits. We're going to break down the history of his connection to the case and analyze his new statements. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Cuba Gooding Jr. It's a name we haven't spoken about in a minute. Now, for anybody following the Sean Diddy Combs legal saga with us here on Sidebar, you're going to know his connection

Starting point is 00:01:21 to all this. But what you might have missed is the fact that Cuba Gooding Jr. has just spoken out about this, seemingly for the first time, broken his silence. But I'm going to give you a little bit more context here to understand what we're talking about. So, Sean Combs, the rapper, music mogul, purported billionaire, he was hit with a number of different sexual assault and misconduct lawsuits the past several months. His homes in L.A. and Miami were raided by federal agents pursuant to a reported ongoing sex trafficking investigation, although to be clear, aside from an associate of Combs who was

Starting point is 00:01:59 arrested on drug charges on the day of the raids, neither Combs nor his family nor anybody in his inner circle have been arrested or criminally charged in connection with this probe. Now, one of the lawsuits that Combs is facing is from his former music producer Rodney Little Rod Jones. Jones suing Combs for sexual assault, harassment, sex trafficking. Basically, claims that Combs forced him to solicit sex workers and perform sex acts for the pleasure of Combs and that Combs himself would touch and grope his private areas without his consent. It says that he was also forced to be present when Combs walked around naked and showered. There were also allegations of drug use, illegal firearms possession, shootings, violence.

Starting point is 00:02:49 But in this lawsuit, Jones also claims that Combs were. was trying to groom him for homosexual sex. And in the lawsuit, Jones recalls an incident on Combs Yacht with actor Cuba Gooding Jr. So according to the complaint, it reads that Mr. Combs introduced Mr. Jones to Cuba Gooding Jr. while they were on Mr. Combs rented yacht back in January of 2023. This was in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Now, according to Mr. Jones, during the introduction, Mr. Combs suggested that Cuba get to know Mr. Jones better, he then left them alone in a makeshift studio on the yacht.

Starting point is 00:03:28 Actually, in his complaint, Jones embeds a picture of the actor and Jones together talking in what appears to be that studio of the yacht. The complaint goes on. It reads, quote, as evidenced by a video of which screenshots are embedded below, to be clear, we haven't seen the video, but anyway, it says, as evidence by a video of which screenshots are embedded below, Cuba Gooding Jr. began touching, groping, and fondling Mr. Jones' legs, his upper inner thighs near his groin, the small of his back near his buttocks, and his shoulders.

Starting point is 00:04:02 According to Mr. Jones, he was extremely uncomfortable and proceeded to lean away from Mr. Gooding Jr. He rejected his advances, and Mr. Gooding Jr. did not stop until Mr. Jones forcibly pushed him away. The following is a screenshot of the encounter with Cuba Gooding Jr. And that screenshot, again, another one that's embedded, appears to show the actor sitting next to Jones with his arm around him, around his shoulder, close together. They have headphones on, seemingly listening to music. Jones appears to be smiling, and Cuba Gooding Jr. has his face close to Jones, seemingly looking at him.

Starting point is 00:04:39 Now, in a footnote, Jones writes, quote, Mr. Gooding Jr. has a storied history of sexually assaulting and forcibly touching individuals against their will, and then a link to a USA Today article. Quick note about that. The actor has faced sexual misconduct allegations in the past. In fact, he pled guilty in connection with forcibly kissing a nightclub worker back in 2018, actually pled guilty to that misdemeanor charge, but he was permitted to withdraw that plea, pled guilty to a non-criminal harassment violation because he had completed six months alcohol and behavior counseling. So no jail time, nothing goes on his criminal record. And last year, he settled a reported six million. dollar civil lawsuit that accused him of raping a woman in his hotel room in New York. Hey, I want to take a sidebar from sidebar right now to talk to you about something completely different. So look, we are in this whole new culture where we are finally recognizing how important it is to eat clean, to use clean products, because with new studies and new things

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Starting point is 00:07:37 It reads, quote, defending Cuba Gooding Jr. was a relevant actor who was fallen from grade. due to several sexual assault lawsuits and a recent guilty plea for sexual assault. Yeah, side note about that. I've spoken about this before that there is this language in the Jones lawsuit and another one I'll get to in a minute that kind of takes these shots, these personal shots at the defendant's relevant actor fallen from grace. Yes, he's accused of bad stuff, but it doesn't really seem to apply to the legal

Starting point is 00:08:11 accusations at hand. Just feels a little personal, not necessary. Anyway, so he is suing Cuba Gooding Jr., suing him for sexual assault, says that the actor forcibly touched him, attempted or threatened to touch his private areas, that it was malicious, it was willful, that he acted with a conscious disregard for his rights. He is also suing Gooding Jr. for both negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress for this alleged assault. The idea is that what he did was extreme and outrageous that it shocks the conscience, that the actor did what he did with either the intent to cause or disregard the strong chance that Jones would suffer extreme emotional distress, or he knew or should have known that emotional distress would happen.

Starting point is 00:08:55 And he's also suing Sean Combs under a premises liability theory for this alleged sexual assault, saying, this happened on your yacht. Basically, Jones is arguing that Combs is responsible because this alleged assault happened on Combs property, namely, the yacht that he chartered, that he had a duty as the owner of the property or someone who had dominion and control over the property to protect Jones from harm. That's actually a very common theme we see in personal injury cases. If something happens to your guests on your property, your business, your home, you could be held legally responsible. Okay. Now, I mentioned that this is not the only time that we heard Cuba Gooding Jr.'s name. No, we've heard it come up another time because he is also mentioned, not listed as a defendant, but mentioned in another sexual assault

Starting point is 00:09:45 lawsuit that we covered here on Sidebar, a steward named Grace O'Markey, who was working on that yacht, claims that she was drugged and sexually assaulted by Combs' son Christian. And if you want a full breakdown of that one, I encourage everyone to check out our previous sidebar on that, did a deep dive on it. Well, Cuba Gooding Jr. is mentioned in that complaint in a section that talks about how A-List guests came on board the yacht, including the actor. So the plaintiff, Grace O'Markey, claims that Cuba Gooding Jr. was extremely unpleasant to serve. He sat at the bar, made derogatory comments to her. He was visibly intoxicated, and she was in the room and witnessed him inappropriately

Starting point is 00:10:27 touching producer Rodney Jones, who at the time was working on the love album. So that's an important note. O'Markey and Rodney Jones, by the way, they are repped by the same attorney. Bernie, Tyrone Blackbird. I'm going to talk about him in a minute. So it's interesting that they both seem to be witnesses to each other's claim. She says that Jones videotaped her interaction with Christian, and she claims she witnessed what happened with Cuba Gooding Jr. Anyway, with all of this as a backstory, and I know that was a lot, now we have Cuba

Starting point is 00:10:59 Gooding Jr.'s response. He has broken his silence. So he spoke out, not in a formal written statement from his speech. PR team or his legal team, but he went on the PBD podcast with Patrick Bet David, where he's asked a few things. So he's asked at the start, what do you think of Little Rod and Diddy? And at first, Cuba Gooding Jr. says, you mean in terms of what? Now, in my opinion, it seemed like he was treading lightly, trying to be careful about how he answers. Well, Patrick Bet David says, you know, in terms of the raids. So Cuba Gooding Jr.

Starting point is 00:11:38 says it's crazy it's the craziest thing and then he jokes how he woke up in the morning turned on the today show they announced his name cuba gooding junior and he says excuse me pull me into this cuba gooding junior goes on to say to patrick bet david quote i think whatever he's dealing with he's on his journey man i think that god has got him on a path where i can't imagine that he's stupid enough to do whatever he's doing and keep it on the premises i think that the raid and all of that stuff. Only time will tell who was involved, who had been a frequent guest in these places and areas. It's funny because my lawyer said, you know, every outlet in the world wants to talk to you. And again, I'm like, I'm not defining myself from some headline in the press, so I stay

Starting point is 00:12:23 quiet. So interesting. So interesting. So clearly distancing himself from these allegations and from Diddy. He could have said, no comment. Could have said, look, I can't talk. about that because he said, my lawyers, they don't want me saying anything. But no, he gave his opinion. He didn't say, this is all untrue, these are all lies, they're making up everything about him. But he seemed to suggest it could be true, but he doesn't want any part about it. He doesn't want any part of it, doesn't want to be interviewed about it.

Starting point is 00:12:56 And that's really interesting. He doesn't want people now to define him based on that. now from a legal point of view makes 100% sense right you do not want to say anything anything that could be used against you in court especially if cuba gooding junior testifies at this trial right this case goes to trial what he says could be used to cross-examine him to question his credibility so he's very careful in what he is saying and not saying but from there, Cuba Gooding Jr. does talk about how his girlfriend, Claudine De Niro, who had been married to actor Robert De Niro's son, that Cuba Gooding Jr. claims that she ran Diddy's

Starting point is 00:13:44 publicity when he was doing his infamous white parties. And he claims that Diddy enlisted her to get him more ingratiated into the white community of entertainment, cultivating his new image. And Gooding Jr. says, and this is important, that he never met Diddy until 2019. 2020, and that he hadn't seen him since the yacht incident that Jones described, says they were only acquaintances, only hung out with him like two or three times. Again, either intentionally or unintentionally, there is a distancing of himself from Diddy. Now, this could very well be true. Doesn't know anything, doesn't really know Diddy, but basically seems to be suggesting

Starting point is 00:14:28 doesn't really know him that well. Now, this part is important. Cuba Gooding Jr. talks about Rodney Jones and that picture on the yacht that I mentioned. He says, quote, that picture, everyone in the room, there's probably 300 of us on the deck of P. Diddy's boat on New Year's Eve. I went from one ship, Happy New Year, hung out with Tyson. Next ship, Drake, and this ship had P. Diddy. He had his guy, videographer, listening to music. Hey, Cube, you want to listen to Diddy's new song.

Starting point is 00:14:58 they didn't use this angle which makes me laugh oh i get it you made it look the way you want it to look and then cuba gooding junior shows what seems to be a live photo on his phone to patrick bet david shows him the photo and it's a live photo so you only hear it for like a second and you kind of hear music in the background presumably it's from him interacting with rodney jones and from there cuba gooding junior says you see what i mean here we are just listening to to music, finished up, took the thing off, said whatever I said to him and left. That was it. This guy who's suing him going after the money man, I'm sure, by the way, I don't know

Starting point is 00:15:40 Pete Diddy's life, I don't know what he's going through, I don't know what police are going to find, really interesting statement. So, he claims there was no assault, that the picture shown in the complaint is being used out of context, that he has this other photo to show that there is more to the story, perhaps could be a key piece of evidence in his defense of this lawsuit. You don't hear Patrick Bet, David, really say much about the photo, so we really don't know what it is. But Cuba Gooding Jr. basically says that this is all being distorted.

Starting point is 00:16:14 And in response to his comment that we don't know what police are going to find, it's a good point because we don't know. We don't know what law enforcement found, what they will find, what will happen, if anything will happen. But remember, in those raids, it was reported. that items were taken from these properties. There were allegations asserted by Rodney Jones that Diddy has videotapes that may have recorded some of these things that he's alleging.

Starting point is 00:16:39 We don't know if authorities have issued subpoenas to people for more information and whether the accusers in these civil lawsuits are cooperating with law enforcement and prosecutors. I mean, Cassandra Ventura, Cassie, Diddy's ex, was the first to file a lawsuit against Diddy, alleging she was forced into sexual slavery and sex trafficking that Diddy violently abused and assaulted her. She settled with him, but is she cooperating? We don't know. So from there, Patrick Bet David says to Cuba Gooding Jr., well, why are you included in this lawsuit? And Cuba Gooding Jr. responds because of the darkness, the darkness of the other grab of cases that I had already went through, seemingly referring to his previous legal history.

Starting point is 00:17:21 Now, he doesn't really go into more about Diddy or anything in the interview after that. But that idea that Jones is going after Diddy for the wrong reason, that has been echoed before. In response to the Rodney Jones lawsuit, Combs attorney, Sean Hawley called the claims lies, said his reckless name dropping about events that are pure fiction and simply did not happen is nothing more than a transparent attempt to garner headlines. We have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies. And it's interesting because, of course, when a lawsuit is filed, there will, of course, be denials. Denials from Diddy, denials from Cuba Gooding Jr. Of course, always happens in lawsuits. But we can't forget that there's a little bit more meat to the bone here because people named in the lawsuit, not defendants, but mentioned in the lawsuits like Young Miami, 50 cents X.

Starting point is 00:18:17 Daphne Joy, Jade Ramey, they all fired back against the allegations from Jones that they were, because he claimed they were participants in Dittie's sex trafficking operation, freak off sessions, that they received money for sex. Daphne Joy wrote on Instagram, quote, I am deeply hurt by the lies in Rodney Jones lawsuit. The claim that I am a sex worker is 100% false in character assassination. I am retaining an attorney to explore all legal remedies against both Rodney and his attorney. Then, by the way, I should mention talking about his attorney, Tyrone Blackburn, the lawyer for Jones, was critiqued by a federal judge. United States District Court judge for the Southern District of New York, Denise Cote, had some very harsh words for Blackburn and has even submitted a referral to the New York Federal Court grievance committee, claiming issues with Blackburn in five cases. Writing, quote, significant resources have been spent by judges of the court and defendants named in actions he has filed. to address glaring deficiencies in his filings.

Starting point is 00:19:20 A referral to this court's grievance committee is warranted. She goes on to write, a reasonable inference from Blackburn's pattern of behavior is that he improperly files cases in federal court to garner media attention, embarrassed defendants with salacious allegations, and pressured defendants to settle quickly. Indeed, his submissions to this court

Starting point is 00:19:41 have been rife with disturbing allegations against the defendants and defense counsel. that's scathing. And then attorneys for UMG Universal Music Group, they have called the claims in Rodney Jones lawsuit offensively false. They say Tyrone Blackburn knowingly filed false allegations without the slightest factual or legal basis. And one of the lawyers, Donald Zakarin, wrote,

Starting point is 00:20:06 A License to Practice Law is a privilege. Mr. Blackburn, plaintiff's lawyer, has misused that license to self-promote gratuitously, falsely and recklessly accusing the UMG. defendants of criminal behavior. So Cuba Gooding Jr. saying this is all a money grab, this is all fake, although again, very common defense, when you hear all this other stuff, something to think about.

Starting point is 00:20:31 Time will tell what happens with this lawsuit. Time will tell whether Cuba Gooding Jr. We'll say more, but at the very least, fascinating, fascinating response. That's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining. us as always. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.

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Law&Crime Sidebar - P. Diddy’s Friend Cuba Gooding Jr. Responds to Sex Trafficking Lawsuit

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