NEW YORK (AP) — An Alabama girl who says she was raped by Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs when she was 13 can proceed anonymously, for now, in her lawsuit towards the rap moguls, a choose dominated Thursday.
In her written order, Decide Analisa Torres additionally chastised the lawyer representing Jay-Z for what she described as his combative motions and “inflammatory language” towards the plaintiff’s lawyer, calling them inappropriate.
The Manhattan jurist mentioned the girl can proceed anonymously at this early stage of the litigation, however she could also be required to disclose her identification at a later date, if the case proceeds. That may enable protection attorneys to gather details mandatory to arrange for trial. Torres additionally cited “substantial curiosity” from the general public.
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Combs stays jailed in New York awaiting a prison trial on federal intercourse trafficking expenses. He additionally faces a wave of sexual assault lawsuits, a lot of which have been filed by the plaintiff’s lawyer, Tony Buzbee, a Texas legal professional who says his agency represents over 150 folks, each women and men, who allege sexual abuse and exploitation by Combs.
The lawsuits allege many people have been abused at events in New York, California and Florida after receiving drug-laced drinks.
Combs’ attorneys have dismissed Buzbee’s lawsuits as “shameless publicity stunts, designed to extract funds from celebrities who concern having lies unfold about them, simply as lies have been unfold about Mr. Combs.” Jay-Z has mentioned in a press release that Buzbee is making an attempt to blackmail him to settle the Alabama girl’s allegations.
Buzbee mentioned in an e-mail that his agency doesn’t touch upon courtroom rulings.
In her lawsuit, the girl who says she was raped at 13 identifies herself as “Jane Doe.” She mentioned she was residing in Rochester in 2000 when she made her method to New York Metropolis and befriended a limousine driver who drove her to an after-party for the MTV Music Awards, the place she says she was ultimately attacked by Jay-Z and Combs.
Alex Spiro, a lawyer for Jay-Z, requested the choose to dismiss the entertainer from the girl’s lawsuit and he requested a listening to on the case for the day after he made his requests in writing on Dec. 18.
Citing an interview the plaintiff did on NBC-TV, Spiro wrote that the printed revealed “evident inconsistencies and outright impossibilities” within the plaintiff’s story. For one factor, the girl mentioned she traveled for 5 hours from Rochester to observe the music awards present on a jumbotron outdoors the VMA though permits and footage present there was no jumbotron on the occasion.
Spiro additionally famous that the girl’s father has mentioned he doesn’t recall driving from Rochester to choose his daughter up in New York Metropolis, as she says he did.
The girl has admitted inconsistencies in her story.
Torres wrote in her order Thursday that Spiro, who has been on the case lower than three weeks, has submitted a “litany of letters and motions making an attempt to impugn the character of Plaintiff’s lawyer, a lot of them expounding on the purported ‘urgency’ of this case.”
Referring to Jay-Z by his authorized final identify, the choose added: “Carter’s lawyer’s relentless submitting of combative motions containing inflammatory language and advert hominem assaults is inappropriate, a waste of judicial sources, and a tactic unlikely to learn his consumer. The Court docket won’t fast-track the judicial course of merely as a result of counsel calls for it.”
A message searching for remark from Spiro was left for him on Thursday.
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