Diddy is one of hip-hop's best-known moguls - a man who has helped discover and nurture superstar-level talent for more than two decades. However, it isn't all sunny days for the rap icon, who's had a lawsuit hanging over his head for more than five years that stems from a New Year's Eve party in Miami gone wrong. Today (August 17th), he finally ended that bit of legal trouble.
According to The Miami Herald, the case revolves around Diddy and two of his security personnel, who supposedly laid a heavy beatdown on a paparazzo and tried to rob him afterwards as well. The precise details, as per the plaintiff Gustavo Garces, are detailed below:
"Garces was standing by the DoubleTree Grand Biscayne Bay Hotel in downtown Miami when he noticed the artist formerly known as P Diddy and Puff Daddy sitting in a car by the entrance. Garces claims he started taking photos of Combs inside the car when the occasional actor and bodyguards Kwmae Sandy and Neil Dominique jumped out and charged him.
'Sandy proceeded to repeatedly punch the plaintiff in and around his ribs,' the complaint reads, while 'Dominique subdued the plaintiff in a headlock, therefore preventing the plaintiff from breathing and allowing Sandy to continue his vicious attack.' The paperwork shows Combs stood by during the alleged attack but is accused of directing his musclemen to grab Garces' cameras. Garces called police but says they arrived after Combs’ crew had cleared out."
As per a TMZ report, that lawsuit has now been settled. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed, although that normally means that a large payout from the defendant was what tipped the scales in favor of getting this deal done in the moment. Neither Diddy's team nor any representative for Garces have officially commented on the matter as of this writing either. Now, if the name Gustavo Garces sounds familiar to you, that may be because you remember it from another story. The same photographer once accused Justin Bieber of stealing his memory card - an separate incident that also took place in Miami. He definitely doesn't have good luck with celebrity interaction while on the job.
