A woman who says Sean “Diddy” Combs subjected her to violence and abuse over several years in the 1990s has filed a lawsuit in New York accusing the rapper of sexual assault, battery and gender-based violence.
April Lampros, who met Combs in 1994 when she was a college student, described several “terrifying sexual encounters” with him, including being forced to take ecstasy and have sex with Combs' late girlfriend. Kim Porter.
“I am confident that justice will prevail and the veil will be lifted so that no other woman has to endure what I did,” Lampros said in a statement provided by her attorney to CBS News.
Lampros' lawsuit, filed Thursday in state court in Manhattan, comes after a series of allegations against the hip-hop mogul. A former model accused Combs of sexually assaulting her at his New York City recording studio in 2003 in a separate lawsuit presented earlier this week.
Supreme Court of the State of New York
Lampros, 51, said in the lawsuit that she was a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City when she met Combs, who gave her a gift and promised to help her achieve her dream of a career in fashion.
The relationship became abusive and coercive, according to the lawsuit.
Lampros said Combs raped her in a Manhattan hotel room in 1995. She passed out and woke up the next morning “naked, sore and confused,” according to the lawsuit.
On another occasion, Lampros said, Combs forced her to perform oral sex on him in a parking lot.
“He saw the parking lot attendant witness this horrific assault,” the lawsuit alleges.
Combs also allegedly forced Lampros and Porter to have sex with each other in his apartment in 1996 after he stuffed ecstasy pills down their throats, according to the lawsuit.
“Ms. Lampros was vocally opposed to this idea, but Mr. Combs quickly reminded her that he had no control over the situation as it could cause her to lose her job,” the lawsuit said.
Porter died of pneumonia in 2018.
According to the lawsuit, Lampros also allegedly “discovered that Mr. Combs recorded and released a tape of him having sexual relations with her.”
A message seeking comment on Lampros' allegations was sent to an attorney for Combs.
The Associated Press does not typically identify sexual assault victims by name unless they identify themselves publicly, as Lampros has.
The lawsuits filed by Lampros and the former model come days after CNN aired a security video showing Combs attacking singer Cassie in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. Combs on Sunday posted a video admitted he attacked Cassie in the hotel hallway, saying he was “truly sorry” and that his actions were “inexcusable”.
On Thursday, Cassie shared a statement on social media, thanking her fans for their “outpouring of love.”
“Domestic violence is THE problem. It made me into someone I never thought I would be,” she said. “With a lot of work, I am better today, but I will always recover from my past.”
A lawsuit filed by Cassie in November alleging beatings and abuse was settled a day after it was filed. It led to increased scrutiny of Combs, with additional lawsuits filed in the months that followed, along with a federal criminal sex-trafficking investigation that led to raids on Combs' mansions in Los Angeles and Miami.
