Sean “Diddy” Combs was ordered to pay a $100 million default judgment from a civil lawsuit filed by a Michigan inmate who says the music mogul drugged and sexually assaulted him during a 1997 party in Detroit.
A Lenawee County Circuit Court judge ordered the award to be paid in $10 million monthly installments beginning Oct. 1, according to the Detroit Metro Times. The default judgment came after 51-year-old Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith successfully filed a restraining order.
Default judgments are awarded to a plaintiff when the defendant fails to formally respond to legal proceedings. Combs did not appear at a virtual hearing Monday, which triggered the default.
Cardello-Smith, “a self-taught student” of law who is serving an unrelated sentence in a Michigan prison, has a history of filing civil lawsuits. The judgment is just one of Combs’ many legal challenges after multiple people have come forward with sexual assault and misconduct claims.
The plaintiff produced prison visitation records showing that Combs came to see him, saying he was offered a more than $2 million settlement, but rejected it. Representatives for Combs did not immediately respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Cardello-Smith’s lawsuit claims the hospitality worker encountered Combs in a Detroit-area restaurant and the two partied that night with a group of women. He says Combs offered him a drink that caused him to pass out and that the rap mogul assaulted him while he was unconscious.
Combs has denied nearly all the sexual misconduct claims against him, but admitted to assaulting then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura after video leaked of their altercation in a hotel hallway.
