Diddy catches a break as judge tosses $100-million judgment

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs gets a break amid legal woes as judge dismisses $100-million judgment

Sean 'Diddy' Combs in a black blazer, black shirt and silver chains

Sept. 18, 2024 4:45 PM PT

Sean “Diddy” Combs may be facing the heat of a damning sex-trafficking indictment, but the disgraced music mogul also landed a legal win in Michigan.

A Lenawee County circuit court judge decided Wednesday to set aside the default judgment that required the Bad Boy Records founder to pay $100 million to a Michigan inmate who sued Diddy over a sexual assault. Last week, Judge Anna Marie Anzalone had ordered Combs, 54, to pay accuser Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith $10 million a month starting in October after the mogul failed to show for a civil court hearing.

Attorneys for Combs filed an 83-page motion on Sept. 13 to vacate the judgment, alleging that Cardello-Smith, 51, did not properly serve Combs in accordance with Michigan law. The motion also claimed that the rapper had learned about the lawsuit only from reports about the large default settlement.

A legal representative for Combs did not comment to The Times on Wednesday. The Times was unable to contact Cardello-Smith, who filed his case against Combs without an attorney.

This week, Combs’ defense alerted the court of alleged inconsistencies with Cardello-Smith’s proof of service, alleging he had altered documents necessary for the court to hand down the default judgment, The Times was told.

Cardello-Smith is serving time in the Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility for numerous criminal sexual offenses. He sued Combs in June, alleging he was drugged and sexually assaulted by Diddy during a June 1997 gathering at a Holiday Inn in Michigan.

In his complaint, Cardello-Smith alleged that Combs touched him on his left buttock and offered him a spiked drink. After he accepting the drink, Cardello-Smith said, he passed out. He alleged that when he came to, he saw Combs having sex with a woman. The rapper allegedly said, “I did this to you too,” according to the lawsuit.

Prior to filing this lawsuit, Cardello-Smith had been sentenced three times in Minnesota criminal court, each time after entering a plea agreement or pleading no contest. Charges against him run from criminal sexual conduct in the third degree to kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct in the first degree during commission of a felony. Five of the offenses occurred in September and October 1997, the same year as the alleged incident with Combs.

In last week’s motion, attorneys for Combs described Cardello-Smith’s allegations as “objectively unbelievable,” adding that the complaint provides a “narrative that is impossible to follow.” Prior to that, Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo dubbed Cardello-Smith a “convicted felon and sexual predator” in a statement shared with The Times.

In addition to the pricey default settlement, Anzalone also set aside a temporary restraining order that Cardello-Smith had requested in August against the embattled entrepreneur. A hearing for the case is set for next month.

Still, Diddy’s legal woes are far from over.

The rapper, whose alleged history of sexual assault has come to light in the last year, was arrested Monday amid a sweeping federal probe into allegations of sex-trafficking. He pleaded not guilty to all charges — three counts of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution — in a Manhattan federal courtroom on Tuesday.

Combs will remain in a federal jail in Brooklyn, N.Y., pending trial, despite his attorney’s requests for house arrest and bail on a $50-million bond.

Times staff writers Richard Winton and Hannah Fry contributed to this report.