In February of 2023, Diddy was hit with a lawsuit by Rodney "Lil Rod" Jones. The producer accused him of sexual harassment, drugging, making threats, and more. Diddy vehemently denied the allegations, and in August of the same year, filed a motion to dismiss the suit. “Mr. Jones’s lawsuit is pure fiction — a shameless attempt to create media hype and extract a quick settlement,” Diddy's lawyer Erica Wolff said at the time. “There was no RICO conspiracy and Mr. Jones was not threatened, groomed, assaulted, or trafficked.”
While the mogul won the dismissal of the civil RICO claims in Lil Rod's lawsuit last month, U.S. District Judge J. Paul Oetken said allegations of sex trafficking and sexual assault could proceed. Diddy isn't the only person named in the suit, however. The Bad Boy founder's son Justin Combs and Cuba Gooding Jr. are also listed as co-defendants. Lil Rod accuses them of taking part in the alleged abuse as well as covering it up.
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Lil Rod Lawsuit
Lil Rod alleges that Gooding Jr. groped him on a yacht that Diddy rented in January of 2023. As for Justin, he's accused of helping facilitate some of the illegal activity alleged in the complaint. Lil Rod's legal team says that despite multiple attempts to serve both men, they've been unable to do so. As a result, he's asked the court to allow service by publication under New York law, according to AllHipHop.
His team claims that due to the men's ties to New York and California, the New York Times and Los Angeles Times would be a reasonable way to reach them. They argue that without court approval, Lil Rod will be unfairly blocked from moving forward with his claims. For now, a judge has yet to rule on the motion.
