How a New York state law opened Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to sexual assault lawsuits

Read the Full Transcript

• Amna Nawaz:

  Four women are suing hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs over sexual assault allegations dating back to the early '90s.

  Previously, those lawsuits couldn't have been filed because of the statute of limitations. But most were filed under a New York state law that allowed survivors a one-year window to sue for past abuse. About 3,000 civil lawsuits were filed under the law before its deadline last month.

  Joining me now is attorney Mariann Wang. She's represented multiple clients seeking justice for sexual crimes both before and after this New York law, and NPR music correspondent Sidney Madden. Thank you both for joining us.

  So, Mariann, 3,000 civil lawsuits before that legal deadline closed. Tell us what you were seeing in your practice as that deadline approached, what kind of inquiries you were fielding.

• Mariann Meier Wang, Cuti Hecker Wang LLP:

  We were fielding and dozens in the final days, sometimes even in the final hours.

  But throughout the year, as there was more awareness of the opening, I spoke to probably hundreds of women, mostly women, who had been victims of very serious trauma and rape and sexual assault many years before and who were finally in a place in their lives where they had processed it and were actually able to speak about it to somebody and who wanted to do something.

  And that is precisely the importance of these laws, because the trauma that is perpetrated on women during sexual assaults and afterwards, it really takes an enormous amount of time for people to process.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Obviously, this got a lot of attention because of some of the celebrity names we're talking about here.

  But, Mariann, we know most of the women and most of the accused here are not celebrities. Just paint us a portrait of your clients and their circumstances.

• Mariann Meier Wang:

  Yes.

  So many of them are very vulnerable people to begin with, as young women or as women who don't have any resources who are preyed upon by those with a lot more resources or people in relative power, so employers or members of institutions. There are people who suffered in foster care or later in life people who were incarcerated who were assaulted by guards and others.

  And those types of people are often the most vulnerable and have very little ability to even first understand how harmed they are and then over the years understand that they actually might have the ability to hold somebody to account. And so it just takes a very long time before people understand that.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Sidney, we know one of those lawsuits was filed by R&B singer Casandra Ventura. She's known as Cassie, the former girlfriend of Sean "Diddy" Combs.

  Why did this one case get so much attention?

• Sidney Madden, NPR Music:

  The tidal wave of allegations really started with the case that was filed by, as you said, Cassie Ventura, who was Diddy's not only longtime partner, romantic partner, but also one of his employees at Bad Boy Entertainment.

  And this was really big news in the hip-hop space and beyond for a few key reasons. First of all, the severity of the allegations were utterly shocking. In the civil suit that Cassie filed, she detailed almost a decade of psychological and physical abuse, moments where he had complete control over her life, coercion.

  She even alleged that he raped her in her own home towards the end of their relationship and that he once blew up the car of a man who was interested in Cassie. So the details of this case filing were absolutely explosive, no pun intended there.

  But then also another factor is the stature of Diddy overall. This is a man who's been ubiquitous in the hip-hop and music space for over 30 years at this point. He's credited with making the careers of people like Notorious B.I.G. and Mary J. Blige. And even now, he is one of hip-hop's billionaires.

  He's someone who's skyrocketed in not only the music space, but wine and spirits, restauranteuring, media, with his own company, Revolt Entertainment. And so he's someone who's one of the most well-connected, influential, and richest people, definitely a power player in this space.

  So to hear of these allegations and these indiscretions was a big shock.

• Amna Nawaz:

  And, Sidney, as you know, Cassie's case was settled out of court, relatively quirky, but she wasn't the only one to come forward. Three other women have come forward, one of whom was a minor at the time of her alleged abuse.

  As you said, Diddy is one of the most powerful people in this space, though. When you look at this, is this a moment of a larger reckoning in the industry, or is that going too far?

• Sidney Madden:

  It's an interesting question and one that has been circling around a lot of hip-hop spaces right now.

  As we were talking about, this is one of many cases that have been filed. There were also civil suits filed against former record exec L.A. Reid, another record exec, Jimmy Iovine, also two very powerful people in the music space. And so it is definitely bringing back to conversations of a MeToo reckoning.

  And it's a crucial turning point that we could be having right now, but I do think it is a bit too early to tell. So, it's a yes and no. There are a lot of big events that are coming up that will determine where Diddy and others lie in terms of their own cultural capital, things like the Grammys, which Diddy is nominated in the 2024 ceremony upcoming.

  That's when we will really see the power of his proximity, the power of his bank account, and how people relate to him and align with him going forward.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Mariann, meanwhile, all these other many, many women are searching for justice in their cases.

  The deadline for this Adult Survivors Act has now passed. So now what? What happens with those cases? What happens with anyone else who wants to come forward with a case from long ago?

• Mariann Meier Wang:

  Well, I think the most important thing to tell any survivor is that, if they think they could have a case or they have been hurt and they want to seek justice, they should try to learn about what their legal rights — because the legal landscape is actually fairly complicated, and it depends on when the assaults happened as to whether or not you have a live claim.

  But the fact of the matter is having a time limit to immediately file a lawsuit after you have either been controlled by and/or abused for years sometimes by a perpetrator, it's something that takes years to understand and get healthy from and get to a place where you actually feel like maybe you can pursue something and can face this perpetrator again in court.

  It's not an easy thing, and I think the public and the legislators should understand that, and that should be reflected in extending or even eliminating statutes of limitations.

• Amna Nawaz:

  That is attorney Mariann Wang and NPR music correspondent Sidney Madden joining us tonight.

  Thank you to you both. We appreciate your time.

• Sidney Madden:

  Thank you, Amna.