Pop star Dawn Richard waited years to tell her story of how Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs allegedly abused her while she was a member of the girl group Danity Kane.
On the latest episode of DailyMail.com’s podcast ‘The Trial of Diddy’, Richard’s attorney, Lisa Bloom, said the singer decided to come forward and file a lawsuit against Combs after watching the viral video of the music producer attacking former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
‘She’s an accomplished woman and she’s all about the music,’ Bloom said of Richard. ‘All she wants to do is make music and be a musician. And yet, she found herself in the position — after Cassie Ventura came forward — of saying, “I need to come forward too, in support of Cassie, and in support of others, to tell my own story.”‘
Richard claims in her suit that she suffered economic harm, physical injury, pain and suffering and serious psychological and emotional distress during her years working for the Bad Boy mogul.
Combs was indicted on charges including sex trafficking in September, months after video footage surfaced of him violently assaulting Ventura.
In her lawsuit, Richard claims she not only saw her former boss assaulting Ventura, but claims she also was subjected to Diddy grabbing and groping her bare buttocks and breast area while in her dressing room.
She also said Combs demanded her to strip down to her underware, while also calling her ‘lazy, fat, ugly and skinny’ in front of other people, including other producers, bodyguards and his friends.
The singer also claimed Combs made sexual advances toward her during an October 2010 trip to perform at Glasgow, Scotland.
Richard accused Combs of manipulating her for years with promises that he would push her music career.
Instead, the Bad Boy mogul allegedly did not pay Richard for her work, and was allegedly prevented from eating and sleeping because of the grueling work scheduled that the producer allegedly pushed on her.
Richard appeared on MTV’s reality series Making the Band in 2005
Combs’ has denied the allegations.
The producer’s representatives said Richard was ‘making and attempt to rewrite history’ and manufactured ‘a series of false claims all in the hoped to get a pay day — conveniently timed to coincide with her album release and press tour.’
Combs’ push for perfection was highlighted in the MTV reality series Making the Band in 2005, where Richard became a member of Danity Kane along with Aubrey O’Day, D. Woods, Shannon Bex and Aundrea Fimbres.
Combs famously fired all the women from the band except for Richard. He then formed Diddy Dirty Money in 2010 with Richard and Kelenna Harper, but that group broke up two years later.
Bloom said Combs still continues his threat tactics and pointed to prosecutors’ claims that the Bad Boy mogul had tried to recently contact Harper, who is one of the witnesses in Richard’s case.
Prosecutors said they recovered evidence that Combs has repeatedly tried to reach out to Harper – who was referred to as ‘Witness 2′ in court documents — during a sweep of Combs’ cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Prosecutors said among the notes found in his cell included ‘strong inference’ that Combs allegedly paid Harper after she posted a statement on Instagram.
Bloom said she was surprised Combs would reach out to one of the witnesses in her client’s case against him.
Prosecutors also alleged Diddy obtained other inmates’ phone codes and used them to allegedly influence witnesses.
‘I was shocked,’ Bloom said on the ‘Trial of Diddy’ podcast.
She added, ‘I think he was getting probably desperate. … He’s used to telling people what to do. He’s used to calling all the shots. So him reaching out to [Harper], you know, it would take a psychologist to explain that kind of thinking. But yeah, it was pretty shocking.’
Lawyers for Combs have shot back at prosecutors and accused the government of committing ‘egregious, willful and harmful breech of attorney client privilege’ after papers were seized from his jail cell.
Bloom said she looks forward to deposing Combs.
‘One of the biggest moments will be when I get to take Sean Combs’ deposition, which will probably be in prison, and I’m very happy to go and take his deposition in prison,’ the attorney said. ‘I’ve been to prison for various cases many times, so it doesn’t bother me, doesn’t scare me. And we’ll see what he says about Dawn, and we’ll see what his story is.
‘We’ll see whether it matches up with the documents and information and other witnesses. We’ll see what he has to say for himself.’