A security guard who claimed he was drugged and sexually assaulted by Sean “Diddy” Combs at one of the music mogul’s White Parties has spoken out for the first time about the alleged encounter.
“Nothing could give me back the person I was before that evening,” the former security worker said in a sit-down interview with CNN on Tuesday night. The man, who filed his lawsuit as a John Doe in October, had his face concealed and his voice altered to maintain his anonymity.
The man is the first accuser to give an on-camera interview about their alleged assaults. Producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones opened up to Rolling Stone earlier this year about the drugging, groping, and sexual harassment that he claimed to have experienced while working with Combs on the Grammy-nominated album The Love Album: Off the Grid.
The John Doe is being represented by attorneys Tony Buzbee and Andrew Van Arsdale, who made headlines when they announced they were representing more than 120 men and women in claims against Combs and his associates in October. As of December, they have filed 20 civil suits, including a claim from a 13-year-old who accused Combs and Jay-Z of raping her during a VMAs afterparty in 2000. (Jay-Z has vehemently denied the accusation and has filed an extortion lawsuit against Buzbee.)
In his CNN interview, the security worker claimed for the first time that an unnamed celebrity was a witness to the alleged assault, saying they “saw what happened and found it amusing.”
When reached for comment, Combs’ representatives referred Rolling Stone to a statement they made at the time of the man’s filings, saying it was a part of an attempt to “garner publicity.” “In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone — adult or minor, man or woman,” the statement added.
The New Jersey-based former security guard claimed he met Combs during the Bad Boy executive’s annual White Party bash in 2007. Hired through a private security firm, Doe alleged that Combs paid him special attention, offering him security work for another event and handing him two drinks throughout the event.
Doe believes those drinks were spiked with GHB and Ecstasy, according to his lawsuit. “I wasn’t able to stand,” Doe told CNN, adding that it felt like he had upward of a dozen drinks. “It was just an amazing level of incapacitation that I had never experienced before, and I felt powerless.”
Feeling “extremely ill” by the second drink, Doe claimed that he was leaning against his truck for support when a seemingly concerned Combs approached him and asked how he was doing. However, the man’s lawsuit alleged, Combs suddenly “forcibly pushed” him into an open van, held him down, and sexually assaulted him. Although the man claimed he cried for help, Combs allegedly overpowered him and repeatedly tried to soothe him by saying “you’ll be all right.”
Afterward, the man claimed that he told his supervisor about what happened, but the boss dismissed him. “After that, he didn’t talk to me again; he cut me out of everything,” Doe told CNN. “I was totally blacklisted after that. I had to find a different field.”
The man said he suffers lasting trauma from the alleged assault, claiming he couldn’t bring himself to tell his then-wife about the encounter due to his shame. “The full gravity of it lives with me to this day,” Doe said. “It affects every single thing you do for the rest of your life.”
CNN noted that it found inconsistencies with the man’s story — including that his original complaint claimed that he had never been married. An amended complaint was filed on Tuesday night, noting that while the man was married at the time, he “was too ashamed to tell his wife after suffering through the assault.” The man’s original complaint also claimed the alleged assault took place in August 2006. However, Combs’ White Party was held in St. Tropez that year, not in New York. The new complaint updated the year.
Combs’ representatives pointed out the inconsistencies to Rolling Stone on Wednesday when asked for comment. “After Buzbee was exposed this week for pressuring clients to bring bogus cases against Mr. Combs, and after public records showed that — contrary to his allegations — there was no White Party in the Hamptons in 2006, Buzbee amended this complaint to walk back the allegations and now claim a different day and wholly different year,” his reps said.
From Rolling Stone US
