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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The world came to know Sean Combs as Puff Daddy in the 90s. And then, before long, he was P. Diddy, which then got shortened to just Diddy. And then, for a moment, he tried to get everyone to call him love. But it's doubtful anyone's going to call him that now that the singer Cassie has sued Sean Combs for rape and abuse.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Ventura alleges that Combs not only raped her, but over the course of a decade, physically abused her, as well as, quote, lured her into a drug-fueled lifestyle. But almost immediately after we heard about those charges, they sort of disappeared. Moments ago, word coming out that Combs and R&B singer Cassandra Ventura have settled the lawsuit.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Both sides releasing statements moments ago saying they agreed to resolve the matter amicably. And it's not just the charges. The very law that allowed Cassie to sue Diddy expires this week. All that's coming up on Today Explained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Obviously, anyone in any department can focus on the work that matters most. I've never met an AI agent. Learn how ServiceNow puts AI to work for people at servicenow.com.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: To hear more about Cassie and Diddy, we reached out to Sydney Madden. She reports on hip-hop and R&B for NPR Music.
--:-- Sydney Madden: We started with Sean Combs. Diddy has been a name in the hip-hop space, in the music space, in just the fabric of American pop culture for more than three decades at this point. He's credited with shaping the careers of Notorious B.I.G. It was all a dream. I used to read Word Up magazine. Salt and pepper and heavy D up in the limousine. Mary J. Blythe. Carl Thomas. All of these really big names in music.
--:-- Sydney Madden: He's also a mogul in many other industries as well. But in the specific case of he and Cassie's career and relationship, it dates back to the early 2000s. So according to the civil suit, the two met in 2005 when Cassie was 19 and Diddy, who was already a solidified music mogul, was 37 years old.
--:-- Sydney Madden: And Cassie was at the very, very beginnings of her career. And she was actually signed to a different label at the time. But Diddy's label, Bad Boy Entertainment, partnered with her current label to release her debut singles and her debut album.
--:-- Sydney Madden: So from the time they met, he was effectively her boss. In 2006, that was Cassie's debut single called Me and You. If anybody knows early 2000s hip-hop and R&B, it was a big hit. It rose to number three on the Billboard Hot 100.
--:-- Sydney Madden: And according to the paperwork of the lawsuit, after advancing on Cassie a few different times from the moment they met, Diddy showed up uninvited at her 21st birthday party in Las Vegas, and he forcibly kissed her.
--:-- Sydney Madden: And that's really where the cycle of their romantic relationship and the cycle of abuse started. So effectively, these allegations span the entirety of their romantic relationship and the entirety of Cassie's music career.
--:-- Sydney Madden: And it really puts Cassie's music career in a whole new light. Now that you see she's only dropped a few singles over the years, she's only been able to put out one album.
--:-- Sydney Madden: So it's really changing the conversation around where her star might have been dimmed and where it might have been cut short in the music industry because of her relationship with Diddy.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So these allegations come out last week. What exactly does Cassie accuse Diddy of? A lot. It's a 35-page civil suit, and it details decades of physical and psychological abuse, coercion, sex trafficking, an instance of rape in her own home, forcibly held her against her will, kidnapped her and sent her on paid vacations.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And I'm using that very liberally when she was sent to places to recover from all the injuries that he invoked on her. One of the allegations that was outlined in the suit was a time when Diddy and Cassie were kind of on a break in their relationship and Cassie engaged in a new relationship with the rapper Kid Cudi.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I've been trying to make you love me. And this infuriated Diddy so much that he threatened to blow up Kid Cudi's car while Cassie and Diddy were at Paris Fashion Week.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And in a report from the New York Times, they got a confirmation from Kid Cudi's camp that, yes, his car did blow up in his driveway around that time. Just bananas. Yeah, it's something, it's like something out of a movie, but it's almost too horrific to make up at the same time.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So it really just paints a picture of decades of his power, influence, and ultimately her oppression in the relationship. If you're going to compare this to something like what we saw with R. Kelly, for example, there were signs along the way for many, many years that R. Kelly had a lot of demons in his closet.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Were there signs with Diddy? Did people have any sense of this troubled relationship that Cassie's portraying? Well, I will say Diddy does have a public history of violence.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: In the 90s, Interscope exec by the name of Steve Stout, he reported that Diddy and some of his associates, some of his accomplices burst into his office at the record label and attacked him and busted up his whole office.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He pled guilty and was ordered to serve a single day of anger management class. In 1999 Diddy was charged with gun possession for a nightclub altercation that had the mugshots of him and his then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez all over the news.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Prosecutors say one of Combs' associates opened fire, while Combs reportedly pulled out a pistol of his own. Combs and Lopez fled the club, speeding away in his chauffeur Jeep.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I don't want to deal too much in rumors. There have been conversations and whispers about his level of influence and control on the women he's romantically involved with for a long time.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: In the wake of this lawsuit coming to light last week, there's been a lot of people digging up old interview quotes. Camorley Simmons said in a 2004 interview that Diddy threatened to punch her while she was pregnant.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: There have been former romantic partners of Diddy's coming forward saying that they were also physically and psychologically abused.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: I don't know it really feels like a chicken's coming home to roost type moment for for kind of the layer and underbelly of his personality and his behaviors that so much of the public who's just casually seeing him you know live a luxurious lifestyle and prop up artists over the years that they probably did not know about.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So what did Diddy say initially when these allegations became public last week? Initially, when the suit went public and it was getting picked up by the news, Diddy's camp didn't really have that much to say.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: He spoke through his lawyer and Diddy vehemently denied all these allegations. His attorney calling them offensive and outrageous, writing in part, for the past six months, Mr. Combs has been subjected to Ms. Ventura's persistent demand of $30 million under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And then, of course, within a day or two, this thing gets settled? Yep. And I will say, in my time covering music news professionally and my time being a fan of this genre and this culture for my entire life, this is one of the fastest turnarounds I've ever seen.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So within less than 24 hours of the lawsuit going public and being picked up by all these news outlets, yeah, they settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Cassandra Ventura writing in a statement, I have decided to resolve this matter amicably on terms that I have some level of control. I want to thank my family, fans and lawyers for their unwavering support.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And for Diddy, through his representation, he said, just so we're clear, a decision to settle is in no way an admission of wrongdoing. It does not in any way undermine his flat out denial of the claims, but that he's happy that a mutual settlement came to fruition and he wishes Ms. Ventura the best.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: But I mean, once you hear the details and the specificity and just the insidious and mean-spirited motivations behind some of these acts in the civil lawsuit, It's hard to unhear. It's hard to unknow.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It's hard to pretend to unknow it, but the long-term effects of this are going to be substantial and probably seismic. For Diddy or for the industry? Or both? I would venture to say both.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The fact that this was settled within 24 hours means that his reputation, I don't know for any deals going on, I don't know for anybody's pockets, but his reputation is unequivocally changed.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: This has changed the trajectory of what people think of him, his legacy in the music industry and in pop culture.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: In terms of the industry, I think it's a bit too early to say. We've had moments of when people have called out powerful men in the music industry in the past. And it's not had the same type of culture-wide reckoning that it has in other industries.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: When it comes to the hip-hop space, there's been people like Russell Simmons, L.A. Reid, who've all been accused. And in the podcast that I host, Louder Than a Riot, we talk to a lot of people about this phenomenon that's specific to hip-hop.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We talk to Jamila Lumu, Tarana Burke. And they explain how there's an added layer of secrecy and suppression because in hip hop specifically, it's looked at as a betrayal to engage with America's judicial system to solve these issues because of the way that Black men have disproportionately been targeted by the judicial system in the past.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Black women are fearful and protective of our men because we don't want to be seen in that same tradition, right, of weaponizing sexual violence, even when it actually happened to us.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So you have Black women questioning themselves and sacrificing themselves even. So that's why a big suit like this against one of the most powerful and visible men in all of hip-hop, that's why this is a bombshell.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: A lot of these allegations are about things that happened years and years ago. Why is this all happening right now? Why is this all coming out now?
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: The suit details that their relationship went on for over a decade. She officially got off the label in 2019, so that means he wasn't her boss anymore also in 2019.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: And she filed this suit under New York's Adult Survivors Act, which has recently passed a bill that opens up a one-year look-back window, allowing adult survivors whose statutes of limitations maybe have expired on the event.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: It allows them the ability to file a civil suit against the accuser. And so in talking to advocates for this bill, for our reporting, the Survivors Act is really to account for how a victim of abuse may not be able to come forward right away for financial reasons or psychological reasons.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: You know, sometimes you can't see a bad situation until you're out of it or in some cases for fear of your very livelihood or your life.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Sidney Madden, NPR music, louder than a riot. When we're back on today, explained more on this law that led Cassie sue Diddy and why it's expiring this week.
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--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Today Explained, Ramis Firm, we wanted to find out more about the Adult Survivors Act and why this New York law that let Cassie sue Diddy is expiring.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: So we got in touch with a lawyer, Megan Goddard, founder of Goddard Law Firm in New York City.
--:-- Megan Goddard: The Adult Survivors Act has really flipped the script here in New York for survivors of sexual assault and for abusers who have had the luxury of getting away with sexual assaults for a variety of reasons.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Starting Thursday, the Adult Survivors Act will waive the normal deadlines for filing lawsuits over sex crimes. This one-year window will allow victims who suffered abuse years or even decades ago to file claims.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Any adult who was assaulted, sexually assaulted ever in New York, could sue over the last year.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Okay, and where did this Adult Survivors Act and this one-year window come from exactly? What's the backstory?
--:-- Megan Goddard: There's been a movement across the country and in some parts of the world even to recognize that survivors of trauma cannot act in the immediate aftermath of their attacks and assaults.
--:-- Megan Goddard: And following the Me Too movement, I think it was sort of widely recognized that the laws just didn't allow enough opportunity for justice.
--:-- Megan Goddard: They told us, you don't look like a victim. No one will believe you. You're too queer. Men don't get assaulted. And then they told us it was too late. Why didn't you say something sooner?
--:-- Megan Goddard: But now we have a chance. Because now we have the Adult Survivors Act.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Starting November 24, 2022, survivors who were 18 years or older at the time of their abuse and are currently outside of the statute of limitations can sue their abuser. Or the institution that protected them.
--:-- Megan Goddard: In civil court. No matter how long ago the abuse happened, survivors have one year to take action.
--:-- Megan Goddard: It doesn't matter if it was your coach. Your cab driver. Your doctor. Your prison guard, your boss. We all deserve a chance at justice.
--:-- Megan Goddard: This is for us. This is for all of us.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Give us a sense of what things looked like before this Adult Survivors Act and what things look like now, at least until the end of the week when it expires.
--:-- Megan Goddard: So actually, things look much better even after the act expires. In 2019, our governor, Governor Hochul, changed the statute of limitations for many sexual assaults.
--:-- Megan Goddard: And those limitations are for a number of different years, including up to 20 years for certain sex assaults. So things are much better now.
--:-- Megan Goddard: When it came to sexual assault, our laws were protecting the abusers more than not. Specifically when it came to something known as the statute of limitations, which sounds harmless.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Statute of limitations, what can be wrong with that? Except it was a barrier to justice for too long.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Some of the underlying civil laws still have shorter statutes of limitations. But I think in general, aside from just what the laws are, are going to be moving forward, I think that the Adult Survivors Act, even though it's ending, and created a lot of awareness and, to be frank, a lot of fear for assaulters.
--:-- Megan Goddard: And I think that it also put companies on notice and institutions on notice that they better protect the people on their properties and in their places of business and in their employment because they could be held accountable for the acts of individuals who are assaulting people.
--:-- Megan Goddard: As long as I've been practicing, if you wanted to sue for retaliation, sexual harassment related to a sexual assault under the New York City or New York State human rights law, you only had three years to do so.
--:-- Megan Goddard: So someone who was raped by their manager at a hotel in New York 10 years ago, if they called me and said, hey, 10 years ago, I was raped by my boss in a hotel room in New York. Is there anything you can do for me?
--:-- Megan Goddard: There wouldn't have been anything I could have done for them until this law came into existence, until this window was opened.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Was there like a flood of cases that were filed as a result of this law? Were you getting lots of calls? Did it feel like a game-changing moment in New York?
--:-- Megan Goddard: You know, I think that the community, meaning the plaintiff's sort of discrimination bar here in New York, thought that there would be a flood of cases.
--:-- Megan Goddard: But in retrospect, I think, you know, it's hard to be a plaintiff in a lawsuit. It's hard to talk about terrible things that have happened to you.
--:-- Megan Goddard: It's difficult to end up in the newspapers. Many of my clients who filed these cases ended up in the newspaper.
--:-- Megan Goddard: So in retrospect, I'm not as surprised that the cases were limited. There are lots of people who called and ultimately decided that filing a lawsuit wasn't the right move for them.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Often the abusers are dead. The companies are no longer in business. Some people thought like, well, it doesn't seem worth chasing, right?
--:-- Megan Goddard: And then there's other people who said, you know what? I don't care if I don't recover. I want my story noted in the history books, right? I want my abuser's family to know what he did. I want the world to know what this company allowed to happen or whatever it is.
--:-- Megan Goddard: I still think that every victim was better off and more empowered from this law being in existence because they got to decide.
--:-- Megan Goddard: But I don't think that suing is necessarily the right answer for everyone. But I think so far there's been approximately 2,500 cases filed altogether.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Tonight, nearly 750 women are getting ready to file lawsuits against the state of New York. They say they were sexually abused while they were inmates at state prisons and jails.
--:-- Megan Goddard: The victims claim the assaults stretch all the way back for decades.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Writer E. Jean Carroll taking the stand in the second day of her civil battery and defamation case against former President Donald Trump.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Are you looking forward to testifying The first question her attorney asked why she finally took her case to court.
--:-- Megan Goddard: I'm here because Donald Trump raped me.
--:-- Megan Goddard: It seems like this law has meant a lot to survivors of abuse. It seems like, as you said, it's scared a lot of powerful men. There's some tangible gains here.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Why is it expiring on Thanksgiving? Why is this window closing?
--:-- Megan Goddard: Well, I think probably that the legislative efforts to get this passed were huge. Right? But there were people who didn't want it to pass.
--:-- Megan Goddard: There were politicians who wouldn't vote to support it. You know, there are politicians who don't think that these kind of lawsuits are good for business, that holding institutions accountable for things that individuals did is good for business.
--:-- Megan Goddard: And so I think that the one year was a compromise between politicians.
--:-- Megan Goddard: So I think that the legislators and the activists who were fighting for this, you know, took what they could get.
--:-- Megan Goddard: There's far-reaching positive consequences. Who knows when the law will change again, right?
--:-- Megan Goddard: And I think that institutions, companies, schools, universities, hospitals are all on notice that they had better put parameters in place to protect people, to allow them to report, to stop bad actors when they get wind that there's someone who's abusing people.
--:-- Megan Goddard: Because often these people are serial abusers and often it's the company who looks the other way.
--:-- Megan Goddard: And so I think that this scared businesses from a risk assessment perspective and I hope that they'll make their environment safer and so that there's less abuse as a result of this window opening for a year.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Our program today was produced by Victoria Chamberlain and Isabel Angel.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: We were edited by Amina Alsadi and fact-checked by Laura Bullard.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: David Herman mixed this episode of Today Explained.
--:-- Sean Rameswaram: Thank you.
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