Diddy Ordered to Pay $100 Million Sexual Assault Judgment After Missing Court Hearing

Sean “Diddy” Combs is in more legal hot water. On Monday, multiple outlets reported that a Michigan judge awarded a $100 million default judgment to Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, a 51-year-old inmate, after Combs failed to appear at a virtual hearing related to the civil lawsuit. Combs, through his legal team, has denied any wrongdoing.

Cardello-Smith, who is currently incarcerated for an unrelated crime, claimed that he met Combs while working at a Detroit restaurant in 1997, Variety reported. 

Cardello-Smith alleged that he and Combs were having sex with a group of women when he felt Combs touch him on the buttocks, USA Today reported. Cardello-Smith said that he stopped the sexual encounter as a result, allegedly prompting Combs to offer him a drink, which he claimed was spiked.

“I stayed sitting there and began getting drowsy and started to pass out,” Cardello-Smith wrote in his June complaint, according to the outlet. “Then Sean Combs said to me, ‘I added a little something to it for you. I will get that from you anyway, one way or another.’”

When he awoke, Cardello-Smith alleged that he was bleeding and in pain, per the outlet. Cardello-Smith said that Combs, who was then allegedly having sex with a woman, told him, “I did this to you too.”

A source told Variety that Combs didn’t appear at the hearing or file a response to the suit because the paperwork “was sent to an out-of-date address and was not received by Combs’s team in a timely manner.”

As a result of the judgment, Combs has been ordered to pay $10 million a month beginning on October 1.

However, according to Billboard, if Combs’s legal team responds to the lawsuit now, “they could seek to overturn the default judgment and proceed to normal litigation, where Cardello-Smith would need to prove his allegations to a jury before securing a judgment.”

Cardello-Smith told the Detroit Metro Times, which was the first to report the judgment, that he goes “way back” with Combs, even providing prison visitor records that included the rapper’s name. Cardello-Smith, whom the outlet claimed has a “long history of challenging the judicial system with civil lawsuits,” alleged that Combs offered him $2.3 million to dismiss the lawsuit, which he declined. 

Monday’s ruling followed an August court date in which a judge issued a restraining order against Combs to prevent him from selling off assets that could fund a then-undetermined judgment, the Metro Times reported.

Marc Agnifilo, Combs’s attorney, denied all of Cardello-Smith’s claims, telling multiple outlets, “This man is a convicted felon and sexual predator, who has been sentenced on 14 counts of sexual assault and kidnapping over the last 26 years.” 

“His resume now includes committing a fraud on the court from prison, as Mr. Combs has never heard of him let alone been served with any lawsuit,” Agnifilo’s statement continued. “Mr. Combs looks forward to having this judgment swiftly dismissed.”

Combs is currently facing several other sexual assault allegations, including from rapper Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, a Jane Doe, Joi Dickerson-Neal, and his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura. Combs has denied all the claims against him but did admit to and apologize for assaulting Ventura in a hotel after CNN published a video of the incident. 

In March, Combs’s Los Angeles and Miami properties were raided by Homeland Security as part of an “ongoing investigation,” a representative for the department told People. Jonathan Davis, another attorney for Combs, told the outlet that “no matter how many lawsuits are filed, it won’t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted or sex trafficked anyone.”

“We live in a world where anyone can file a lawsuit for any reason and without any proof,” the statement continued. “Fortunately, a fair and impartial judicial process exists to find the truth, and Mr. Combs is confident he will prevail against these and other baseless claims in court.”

If you need someone to talk to about an experience with sexual assault or abuse, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673), where trained staff can provide you with support, information, advice, or a referral. You can also access 24/7 help online by visiting online.rainn.org.

If you think you may be in an abusive relationship, you can call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or visit their website, thehotline.org.