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Universal Music Group Recordings, a co-defendant in yet another Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sexual assault lawsuit, has opposed an accuser’s request for a court extension ‘to oppose UMGR’s motion to dismiss the amended complaint.’
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ co-defendant in another sexual assault lawsuit — in which the accuser alleges she was forced into having sex with the rapper against her will when she was a 16-year-old minor in 1990 — has filed a motion to prevent accuser Liza Gardner and her lawyer Tyrone Blackburn from being granted more time to respond to a motion to dismiss the lawsuit altogether.
The latest dust-up follows a high-profile filing by producer Rodney Jones, whose graphic complaint ensnared Universal Music Group chief Lucian Grainge and former Motown CEO Ethiopia Habtemariam. For Diddy, the case is just one in a series of suits that have besieged the hip-hop heavyweight.
In the latest legal episode, Gardner and her lawyer have requested an extension to enable them more time to respond to a recent motion to dismiss the lawsuit, but now Lisa Linsky, an attorney for UMG Recordings, has submitted a letter to the New York County Courthouse this week (April 29) in opposition of that request.
In the letter, Linsky wrote, “White Mr. Blackburn claims his ‘client needs additional time to gather her documents and affidavits from the witnesses,’ there is no colorable ground on which additional documents or ‘affidavits from the witnesses’ could change the fatal defect in the amended complaint — namely, Plaintiff’s age at the time of the alleged conduct.”
“UMGR communicated to Mr. Blackburn that the complaint was deficient as a matter of law and urged him to discontinue the action against UMGR,” the letter continues. “And while Mr. Blackburn has chosen not to discontinue the action against UMGR, this Court can and should deny his request for an extension to bring these frivolous proceedings and should dismiss this matter before any more resources are spent by the Court and UMGR. Accordingly, UMGR respectfully requests that Mr. Blackburn’s extension request be denied.”
Gardner initially filed a lawsuit accusing Combs and his friend Aaron Hall of rape in November, before filing an amended complaint on March 12 in New York County Supreme Court. There, she claimed that the age of sexual consent in 1990, when the alleged assault took place, was 17 years old. Regardless, she was 16 years old at the time she alleges that Combs and Hall took turns raping her and a friend after meeting them at MCA Records’ office in New York.
The original complaint said that Gardner was “coerced” into having sex with Combs, but the amended version reads that she was “physically forced into having sex with” him “against her will.” Further, she asserts that because she was a minor, she was not able to consent to drinking the alcohol allegedly given to her during the incident.
The lawsuit also claims that Combs was violent in the days following the alleged assault, and further assaulted and choked Gardner until she passed out. As with the five-plus other sexual assault lawsuits filed against him in the past year, Diddy’s lawyers have staunchly denied all allegations on his behalf, calling Gardner’s filing “nothing but a money grab.”
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