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A Michigan inmate has been granted $100 million in a default civil suit judgment filed against Sean “Diddy” Combs for an alleged 1997 sexual assault.
Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, who filed the civil suit against Diddy, 54, in June, was granted the award at a hearing on Monday in a Lenawee County Circuit Court in Michigan, according to documents obtained by USA TODAY Tuesday.
A default judgment is made when either party in a case fails to take action, either by not responding to a summons or failure to appear in court. According to the court documents, neither appearances nor answers have been filed on behalf of Diddy in the case.
“This man is a convicted felon and sexual predator, who has been sentenced on 14 counts of sexual assault and kidnapping over the last 26 years,” Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo wrote in a statement to USA TODAY Tuesday. “His resume now includes committing a (sic) 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.”
Cardello-Smith, 51, is representing himself in the case. The inmate is serving up to 75 years for 2008 and 2019 first-degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping charges at Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility in Muskegon Heights, Michigan. Cardello-Smith was convicted on separate third-degree sexual conduct charges in 1998.
According to court documents, Cardello-Smith claimed he met Diddy at an after party at a Detroit Holiday Inn in June 1997. He drank with the music mogul and female guests, at first thinking the producer was a “really decent normal guy.” Cardello-Smith later joined Diddy and two women in private hotel room flanked by two guards, he alleged.
Cardello-Smith claimed he began to have sex with one of the women when he felt Diddy touch his buttocks. The interaction led Cardello-Smith to disengage, and when the rapper noticed, he allegedly offered Cardello-Smith a drink.
“I stayed sitting there and began getting drowsy and started to pass out,” he wrote in his June complaint. “Then Sean Combs said to me ‘I added a little something to it for you. I will get that from you anyway, one way or another.'”
Cardello-Smith alleged he woke up to find himself bleeding and in pain. “I ran out and left and never went back,” he wrote. The inmate claims he filed a police report, later alleging the producer “paid Detroit and Monroe Police Officers to keep it hidden.” He claimed he “shut down” because he “knew that I was never going to be able to tell anyone about this.”
Cardello-Smith said he went through “years of Therapy in Prison” to understand that he is “not responsible for what happened to me.”
Cardello-Smith provided a copy of a 1997 “agreement of silence and confidentiality” allegedly signed by Diddy, himself and others, including Michigan officials and police officers.
Among the handwritten agreement’s terms are “to not have Sean Combs prosecuted for the drugging, rape, physical assault and the many other acts of violence …” and that a Michigan official “agrees to keep the cases quiet and will order her connections to not prosecute.” It is unclear who wrote the alleged 11-page agreement.
At an Aug. 7 motion hearing, Cardello-Smith testified Diddy visited him in prison once and separately sent a financial advisor to meet with him on Diddy’s behalf. He said Diddy offered $2.3 million to drop his lawsuit, which he rejected.
Diddy is facing several sexual assault and related lawsuits, including from producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones Jr., former model Crystal McKinney, and Joi Dickerson-Neal, who was a college student at the time of her alleged assault.
Combs has denied all accusations against him, although he has since apologized to ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura after a surveillance video obtained by CNN earlier this month depicted him physically assaulting her at a hotel in 2016.
