Diddy Loses $100M Sexual Assault Judgment To Incarcerated Plaintiff
Over the past year, Sean “Diddy” Combs has faced an avalanche of sexual misconduct lawsuits, and now he’s been ordered to pay a $100 million summary judgment to Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, a currently incarcerated man who claims that Diddy drugged and sexually assaulted him in 1997. The Detroit Metro-Times reports that Diddy failed to formally respond to Cardello-Smith’s lawsuit, so Lenawee County Circuit Court Judge Anna Marie Anzalone awarded a $100 million default judgment to the plaintiff, the amount that Cardello-Smith sought in his lawsuit. That’s potentially the largest default judgment ever granted to a non-attorney and a currently incarcerated person.
Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, who is currently serving time on an unrelated sentence in Muskegon Heights, Michigan, claims that he met Diddy while working as a Detroit restaurant and hospitality worker in the ’90s. According to TMZ, Cardello-Smith’s lawsuit claims that he and Diddy were drinking and smoking marijuana together in 1997, and they got into a sexual situation with some women. Cardello-Smith alleges that he felt Diddy’s hand on his rear end and that he then passed out after accepting what he believes to be a spiked drink from Diddy. When Cardello-Smith woke up, he alleges that he saw Diddy having sex with a woman and that Diddy told him, “I did this to you, too.”
Talking with the Metro Times, Cardello-Smith shows that Diddy’s name is logged into prison visitation records. At an August hearing, Cardello-Smith testified that Diddy offered him $2.3 million to drop the lawsuit and that he rejected the offer. In its report, TMZ includes a statement from Diddy’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo:
This man [Cardello-Smith] is a convicted felon and sexual predator, who has been sentenced on 14 counts of sexual assault and kidnapping over the last 26 years. His resume now includes committing a fraud on the court from prison, as Mr. Combs has never heard of him let alone been served with any lawsuit. Mr. Combs looks forward to having this judgment swiftly dismissed.
Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith reportedly taught himself criminal and civil law while incarcerated, and he’s also filed sexual abuse lawsuits against the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Detroit. In her judgment against Diddy, Judge Anzalone did not rule on whether the alleged 1997 assault was within the statute of limitations. Unless that judgment is overturned, Diddy will owe Cardello-Smith payments of $10 million per month.
If you or someone you know is undergoing sexual abuse, please visit rainn.org or contact the National Sexual Assault Helpline at 1-800-656-4673.