(NewsNation) — Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sued by a member of his former band, Danity Kane, for sexual assault and years of “inhumane working conditions.”
Dawn Richard, a member of Diddy’s Danity Kane and Dirty Money groups, brought suit against the disgraced producer Wednesday.
In her suit, Richard says that Combs withheld her earnings and subjected her to “years of inhumane working conditions which included groping, assault, and false imprisonment, among other violations.”
Richard met Combs while auditioning for his MTV series Making The Band in 2004. Danity Kane was formed through the show.
“For nearly a decade, Mr. Combs manipulated Ms. Richard with mantras that submission to his depraved demands was necessary for career advancement, instilling in her the belief that such abuse and exploitation were required for female artists to succeed in the music industry,” the suit reads.
She accused her former boss of groping her on numerous occasions, even when she asked him to stop.
“Mr. Combs would grope Ms. Richard’s body, including her bare buttocks and her chest area near her breasts. With no legitimate purpose, and without Ms. Richard’s consent,” the lawsuit states.
Richard also alleges that she witnessed him brutally beating his former girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura.
“His persistent abuse included choking and strangling Ms. Ventura, striking her with his hands and with objects, slapping her, punching her, and throwing items at her, including a scalding hot pan,” the lawsuit said.
She tried to console Ventura after the abuse, telling her to leave him, but “each time, Mr. Combs learned of her efforts to help Ms. Ventura and became enraged, threatening Ms. Richard’s life with statements such as ‘you want to die today,’ ‘I make n****** go missing’ and ‘I end people,'” the suit alleged.
Richard’s lawsuit comes in a long line of legal woes the music mogul is already facing.
Department of Homeland Security agents conducted raids on March 25 at Combs’ multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles and his Miami waterfront home.
Diddy’s legal team was notified earlier this summer that he was the subject of a federal criminal investigation.
The producer also faces a mounting list of civil lawsuits that allege abuse and sexual assault by multiple victims spanning over 30 years, including Ventura.
In May, video surfaced of the rapper attacking Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016. Combs previously denied violence toward Ventura when she sued him last year, but he later apologized on social media when the video leaked.
Combs has denied all the allegations.
This is a developing story. Refresh for updates.
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