Diddy score another win after judge decided to dismiss five cases against him in $30M sexual assault lawsuit, by former associate Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones.
In a ruling on Monday, the presiding judge deemed some of the charges, including a RICO claim, legally deficient.
He also explained the reason behind his decision and gave a strong reprimand to Lil Rod’s lawyer for his underhanded legal tactics.
Diddy is currently under hot water following plenty of abusive and sex assault cases filed against him, his defense team are doing whatever necessary to clean him.
The rapper was sued by a former associate, Rodney’ Lil Rod’ Jones, who claimed that he was groomed, abused, and exploited by the embattled rapper during the time that they worked together.
Some of the charges that Lil Rod brought against Diddy have now been dismissed by Judge J. Paul Oetken of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in a 31-page ruling.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the judge struck out the racketeering accusation along with the breach of contract claim, which referenced Lil Rod’s claims that he was stiffed on $50,000 in payment, publishing shares, and royalties for his work on Diddy’s “The Love Album: Off the Grid.”
Three other claims related to infliction of emotional distress were also dismissed alongside another cause of action in the suit related to the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
In his ruling, Oetken extensively explained why he did not allow Lil Rod and his lawyers to move forward with the RICO charges.
“[Combs’] alleged refusal to honor the contract with Jones is not itself a RICO predicate act, even if the contract breach resulted from Jones’s refusal to participate in Combs’s alleged racketeering scheme,” he wrote.
The judge added, “In sum, whether or not Jones has adequately alleged the existence of a RICO enterprise, he has not tied the activities of that enterprise to defendants’ breach of contract, or any other’ business or property’ harm incurred by Jones.”
Oetken went further to explain why the breach of contract charge was also dismissed, claiming that Diddy and Lil Rod had no written payment agreement that compelled the embattled rapper to pay his former associate dividends and royalties.