Singer's lawsuit adds to growing claims against Sean 'Diddy' Combs

NEW YORK (AP) — A singer who achieved success in bands put together by Sean “Diddy” Combs has sued the music producer, describing years of psychological and physical abuse, including groping, that she says she suffered as he helped launch her career.

With her lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan federal court, Dawn Richard added her voice to those now saying the music mogul subjected the people around him to an explosive temper, violent threats, and sexually charged and drug-fueled environments as they tried to follow his orders.

Richard, who became more widely known after appearing on the MTV reality show “Making the Band,” is suing for unspecified damages as well as millions of dollars in income that she says she was denied. She argues that damages, including punitive, are warranted because she suffered economic harm, physical injury, pain and suffering, and serious psychological and emotional distress.

Combs' representatives said in a statement that Combs was “shocked and disappointed” by the lawsuit. They said Richard was making “an attempt to rewrite history” by manufacturing “a series of false claims all in the hopes of trying to get a pay day — conveniently timed to coincide with her album release and press tour.”

They added that if her experience was so negative, Richard would not have continued working directly with Combs for so long, including returning in 2020 for a “Making the Band” reboot and agreeing to be featured on “The Love Album” last year.

“It’s unfortunate that Ms. Richard has cast their 20-year friendship aside to try and get money from him, but Mr. Combs is confidently standing on truth and looks forward to proving that in court,” they said.

According to the lawsuit, Richard witnessed Combs repeatedly abuse his girlfriend and endured threats that caused her to fear for her life as Richard worked on songs, often with no food or sleep for a day or two at a time, while becoming known in music circles as a member of the girl group Danity Kane and later as a member of Combs' band Diddy — Dirty Money.

She says in the lawsuit that Combs regularly exploded in rage, hurling cellular phones, laptops, food and studio equipment across the room or at people. At other times, the lawsuit says, Richard witnessed him choking and strangling his protege and longtime girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura. The events occurred from 2004 through 2011, according to the suit.

In May, CNN aired 2016 hotel security video that showed Combs punching, kicking and dragging the R& B singer Cassie. The incident closely matched a description in a lawsuit that Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, filed in November and that was settled the following day but drew intense scrutiny toward Combs, including a federal criminal investigation.

A few days after the video’s airing, Combs posted an apology video on social media saying he was “truly sorry” and that his actions were “inexcusable.”

In her lawsuit, Richard says she “now adds her voice to the growing chorus of victims bravely sharing their harrowing stories. Together, they seek justice and stand in solidarity, as the latest victims of the #MeToo movement in the music industry.”

In court papers, she accuses Combs of asking: “You want to die today?” And she alleges that he bragged that “I end people” as he withheld her earnings, stole her copyrighted works and subjected her to groping, assault and false imprisonment by locking her in a car for hours at one point.

Richard says in the lawsuit that between 2009 and 2011 while she did recordings, rehearsals and performances, Combs repeatedly demanded that she strip down to her underwear and made demeaning remarks about her body, sometimes calling her “lazy, fat, ugly and skinny,” even in front of his friends, producers and bodyguards.

On numerous occasions, the lawsuit says, Combs would enter Richard's changing room while she was undressed and grope her bare buttocks and chest area near her breasts. During an October 2010 trip to perform in Glasgow, Scotland, Combs made overt sexual advances towards Richard, it contends.

She included those around Combs and music companies which supported him as defendants, alleging that Combs carried out so much of his abuse in public settings and with record company employees around that they could be found liable.

The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Richard and Cassie have done.

FILE - Sean "Diddy" Combs arrives at the LA Premiere of "The Four: Battle For Stardom" at the CBS Radford Studio Center on May 30, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Dawn Richard arrives at the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen is expected to unveil the members of her new team for the next five-year tenure at the head of the bloc on Tuesday.

But it has been a tumultuous ride to get it ready for office — the search for the 26 members of her college was chaotic and scandal-ridden even before the parliament is to start hearings on whether to accept each proposed candidate.

French heavyweight Thierry Breton resigned and openly criticized von der Leyen for allegedly “questionable governance” on Monday and accused her of backroom machinations to oust him.

Many saw his shock resignation more as a removal by von der Leyen of one of her most open internal critics after exerting pressure on French authorities.

Compounding such problems was the defiance of many of the 27 member states as von der Leyen struggled to get anywhere close to gender parity on her Commission team — they staunchly refused to give her a choice between a male and a female candidate.

After days of secret talks with individual European governments about their picks, von der Leyen huddled with the leaders of the political groups at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, to discuss the makeup of her college.

Her full announcement was expected later Tuesday.

Even if the Commission's makeup has hardly become the talk of bar rooms or barber shops across the vast EU of 450 million people, it has enthralled the upper echelons of politics and bureaucracy, as they sought to boost one candidate or undermine another.

The Commission proposes legislation for the EU’s 27 member countries and ensures that the rules governing the world’s biggest trading bloc are respected. It’s made up of a College of Commissioners with a range of portfolios similar to those of government ministers, including agriculture, economic, competition, security and migration policy.

The Commission is to start work on Nov. 1, but speculation is rife that it might not get down to business before January.

A former German defense minister, von der Leyen has been pressing smaller countries to change their minds. In recent weeks, a man who was the preferred candidate of the government in Slovenia withdrew and a woman was proposed in his place.

She decides which country gets which portfolio, and some of them, like those involving trade or finance or EU enlargement, are coveted by certain countries. Plum jobs like the post of vice president — the commission has seven of these — are also much sought after.

FILE - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, second right, speaks with from left, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton and European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi during a meeting of the College of Commissioners at EU headquarters in Brussels, on June 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)