- Joi Dickerson-Neal was a psychology student at Syracuse University, working at a restaurant in Harlem, when she met Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
- She claims that he put something in her drink, drugging her and then sexually assaulting her and filming the encounter to show people
- Dickerson-Neal filed a suit in New York on Thanksgiving seeking unspecified damages: she says the recent case brought by Cassie inspired her to file
A Californian woman filed a lawsuit on Thanksgiving accusing Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs of drugging and sexually assaulting her 30 years ago when she was a student.
Joi Dickerson-Neal said she was a psychology student at Syracuse University in 1991 when she met Combs.
She was working as a waitress at Wells’ Restaurant in Harlem – a now-shuttered historic chicken and waffles spot – and hoping to work in the music industry.
She claims that Diddy pressured her for a date, and then slipped something into her drink before taking her to an apartment, sexually assaulting her and filming it.
She alleges that the music mogul shared the video widely, and says she was told by Davante Swing, a member of R&B group Jodeci, that ‘everyone’ had seen the footage.
Dickerson-Neal says in her suit that she was traumatized by the encounter and dropped out of college, failing to complete her degree and abandoning her dreams of working in the music industry.
She is seeking unspecified damages.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, pictured in September 2022, is accused in a new lawsuit of drugging and assaulting a woman in 1991
Cassie said the music executive allegedly controlled and abused her for over a decade – as well as plying her with drugs, beating her, and forcing her to have sex with multiple male prostitutes while he watched and recorded
Cassie, seen in December 2018 at the GQ Men of the Year party in LA, settled with Diddy the day after she filed her case
Dickerson-Neal’s case was filed under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law that provides victims of sexual abuse a one-year window to file a civil lawsuit, even if the statute of limitations had expired.
Thursday is the deadline to file cases under the statute.
She said in her court documents that she was inspired to come forward by Diddy’s ex-girlfriend Cassie, who sued him in federal court on November 16, accusing him of rape and a decade-long pattern of abuse that began when she was 19 years old.
One day after Cassie filed the lawsuit – which was also under the Adult Survivors Act – she settled with Diddy out of court.
Dickerson-Neal, in her suit, says that when she met Diddy she was ‘whip-smart, beautiful, and aware that her good reputation was an important asset to be safeguarded.’
The Harlem-born rapper, now 54, was a talent director at Uptown Records at the time, working with musicians such as Mary J. Blige and Jodeci. In 1993 he would found Bad Boy Records, which would make his billion-dollar fortune.
She says that she had friends and acquaintances in common with Combs, and had appeared briefly in one of his music videos.
She claims that he pressured her to a date, so on January 3, 1991 she agreed to meet him at the restaurant where she worked, Wells’.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk