Judge Rules Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Accuser Must Reveal Her Name Or Rape Case Will Be Tossed

Topline

A Jane Doe plaintiff who accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of threatening to have her killed before raping her when she was 19 years old will have to publicly reveal her name if she wants her case to move forward, a New York judge said in a ruling that could impact more than a dozen anonymous accusers of the music mogul.

Key Facts

Lawyer Tony Buzbee, who has said he plans to file dozens of cases claiming sexual misconduct against Combs, on Oct. 14 filed a civil lawsuit in the Southern District of New York on behalf of an anonymous woman who said she was forced to drink and do drugs before Combs raped her in 2004.

Her case is one of 15 Buzbee has filed in the last three weeks, all alleging sexual misconduct by Combs over the last three decades—and all by anonymous plaintiffs.

This week, however, U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil ruled the accuser will have to come forward and publicly reveal her identity or the case will be tossed out, a decision that could echo across the cases of other accusers.

In an opinion filed Wednesday, Vyskocil ruled that the woman's lawyers did not make a strong enough case that she would face "significant risk of harm" if publicly named and that "public humiliation" is not enough of a reason to remain anonymous.

She said the Combs team has a legal right to investigate her claims—which would be substantially more difficult without knowing her identity—and that the public also has a prevailing interest in the "openness" of the court system.

Buzbee’s office did not respond to Forbes’ request to discuss the ruling—or its potential implications—Thursday.

Crucial Quote

“Defendants have a right to defend themselves, including by investigating Plaintiff, and the people have a right to know who is using their courts,” Vyskocil wrote. “Plaintiff has not carried her burden to show that she is entitled to the exceptional remedy of anonymity.”

What To Watch For

The plaintiff has until Nov. 13 to refile her complaint using her own name or the case will be dismissed.

What We Don’t Know

How this will impact other cases. The plaintiff filed her suit the same day as five other unnamed people, and another nine have had their cases filed by Buzbee since then (most were filed in federal court but some in New York Supreme Court). The allegations in the lawsuits span back as far as 1995 and the plaintiffs allege they were as young as 10 years old when Combs abused them.

Tangent

The federal cases filed by Buzbee have been assigned to multiple judges across the Southern District of New York, and they’ve taken different approaches to handling anonymity. Some have said the cases can temporarily proceed anonymously, others have said they’ll make a decision on the issue within 30 days of papers being served to defendants and Vyskocil is the only one to have so far ruled a plaintiff cannot proceed anonymously. Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor now practicing privately in New York, said there are several factors that could mean separate decisions in separate cases. Some of the victims, for instance, said they were minors when their alleged assaults occurred, which could strengthen their causes for anonymity. On the other hand, Epner said he also expects Combs’ defense team will cite Vyskocil’s ruling, which relies on the general idea that court proceedings are public unless there is an overwhelming reason for them not to be. The cases could move forward with different anonymity decisions—it is not a requirement that they operate under the same parameters—but judges often try to issue consistent rulings in similar cases, Epner said (all alleged minor victims could be treated similarly, for example, while adult victims could be treated differently than those plaintiffs but similarly to each other).

Contra

Vyskocil said in her ruling that the anonymous woman has not successfully argued she'd face "significant risk of harm" if publicly named, in part because she has had no contact with Combs since the alleged incident 20 years ago and because Combs is detained while he awaits federal trial on unrelated charges. Judges in that case, however, have argued he cannot be released to house arrest because the safety of the community cannot be ensured if he is freed.

Chief Critic

Allowing sexual and domestic abuse victims anonymity has long been a topic of discussion. Survivors advocates say to reveal a victim’s identity can open them up to more abuse, public scrutiny and embarrassment, and some states—like Florida and South Carolina—have laws that prohibit the publication of rape victims' names. Many media outlets maintain a policy of keeping victim names private, which Bruce Sanford, counsel to the Society of Professional Journalists, has said is a matter of “sense and sensibility."

Key Background

Allegations against Combs have been piling up since last November, when his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura sued him for $30 million in a lawsuit that claimed she was raped and subjected to a yearslong abusive relationship. That suit was settled the next day, but others claiming rape, sexual assault and gang rape followed over the next several months. In March, federal agents raided Combs’ homes in Florida and California in relation to a federal sex trafficking investigation and in September the mogul was arrested in Manhattan after being indicted by a grand jury. On Oct. 1, Buzbee, a Texas attorney, said he is representing 120 accusers who plan to file civil lawsuits across multiple states against Combs. He began filing those lawsuits on Oct. 14.

Further Reading