A former stylist for Sean “Diddy” Combs — who testified against the disgraced music mogul in his federal criminal trial earlier this year — filed a lawsuit Wednesday accusing Combs of sexual abuse and violence while he was in Combs’ employ.
The 37-page lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court on behalf of Deonte Nash against Combs and Combs’ label, Bad Boy Entertainment, also accuses Combs of sexual battery, human trafficking and false imprisonment.
According to the lawsuit, Nash said he was hired to be Combs’ stylist around 2008, at the age of 21, and worked for him until about 2018. Nash said that during that time period, he also worked as a stylist and creative director for Combs’ then-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassandra Ventura, who also accused Combs of sexual abuse in a 2023 lawsuit and gave graphic testimony against him in his trial.
“Nash personally experienced sexual, physical, mental, and emotional abuse at the hands of Defendants during his ten-year employment,” including “forced tests of loyalty and manipulation, sexual harassment and sexual assaults, physical violence and manhandling, labor trafficking, threats of harm, and threats of death,” the lawsuit against Combs reads.
The lawsuit alleges that Nash was sexually assaulted by Combs on “multiple occasions.”
Nash said the alleged abuse prompted him to resign in 2018, but Combs “continued to threaten Mr. Nash after his employment ended.”
CBS News has reached out to Combs’ attorneys for comment on the lawsuit.
In one incident that Nash claims occurred in 2013 or 2014, Combs discovered that Nash and Ventura had gone out to dinner in L.A. without Combs’ permission. The following day, the lawsuit states, Combs “threw” Nash “onto the car and violently strangled him.”
On another occasion in 2014, Combs and his security team allegedly entered Nash’s home without permission, during which they “confiscated Mr. Nash’s keys and phone while they forcibly searched the house” for Ventura, the lawsuit says.
“After enduring years of abuse, I finally found the courage during the criminal trial, and I am now ready to take action,” Nash said in a statement. “Sean Combs has never taken accountability for the years of harm he inflicted on me and so many others.”
In July, following a lengthy trial, the 55-year-old Combs was found guilty of two counts of prostitution-related charges, but acquitted on more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 3.
During the trial, Ventura testified that she was repeatedly physically and sexually abused by Combs over the course of their relationship. She testified about a 2016 incident, which was caught on surveillance video, that showed Combs violently assaulting her in the hallway of a California hotel.
Nash also testified in the trial that Combs threatened Ventura and that he “would beat her.”
Nash testified about a time when Combs allegedly grabbed a sleeping Ventura by the hair and started hitting her “pretty hard.” Nash said Ventura’s head hit a bed frame and started bleeding, and Combs then told her, Nash and an assistant, “Look what y’all made me do.”
Nash testified he dialed 911 but was told to hang up. He said he feared retaliation but did tell some of Combs’ employees about the alleged abuse and told jurors Combs got physical with him a few times.
During the trial, Combs’ attorneys denied the sexual abuse allegations brought by Ventura against their client, and argued that while evidence showed Combs may have lived a party lifestyle, they claimed he did not engage in racketeering conspiracy or sex trafficking.
Nash’s lawsuit seeks both compensatory and punitive damages and demands a jury trial.
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