The explosive lawsuit that alleges Sean “Diddy” Combs and R&B singer Aaron Hall took turns raping a highly intoxicated 16-year-old girl at a private residence in 1990 has added Jodeci member DeVanté Swing as a co-defendant.
In a new, amended complaint filed in federal court in New Jersey, plaintiff Liza Gardner alleges Swing, born Donald DeGrate, was present at Hall’s New Jersey residence in 1990 when Combs allegedly pulled Gardner’s underwear to the side and “forcefully” raped her, leaving her “shocked and traumatized.”
“Unbeknownst to Ms. Gardner at the time, Defendant Swing was in the room when this assault took place and did not take any steps to prevent this abuse from occurring,” the amended lawsuit obtained by Rolling Stone states. The new filing follows after a woman submitted a sworn statement in the case last May stating she was a fellow minor accompanying Gardner that night and allegedly saw Swing “leaning against the wall or furniture or something, watching whatever Puffy was doing to Liza.”
In the new filing, Gardner alleges Swing was 20 or 21 years old at the time, a few months older than Combs. She says she had traveled to the New York area with Swing and a group of friends from her hometown in North Carolina and was staying with him in his New Jersey housing allegedly “subsidized” by Jodeci’s label at the time, Uptown Records, a subsidiary of MCA. The lawsuit says Combs was working as an A&R executive at Uptown and was assigned “the task of developing” Jodeci when he met Gardner at an MCA event in Manhattan that night and traveled back to New Jersey with her group to Hall’s residence.
According to the amended lawsuit, a disoriented Gardner was trying to collect herself after the alleged rape by Combs when Hall purportedly “barged into the room, pinned her down” and raped her as well. She includes a photo in her amended complaint that allegedly shows her in a kitchen that day with a 26-year-old Hall extending his arms over her shoulders.
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Gardner claims that the day after the alleged assault, an “irate” Combs came to the home where she was staying and began choking her until she passed out. She says Combs wanted to prevent his girlfriend at the time from learning about what allegedly happened.
Combs and Hall are accused of sexual assault and battery in the amended complaint while Swing is accused of “aiding and abetting” the alleged abuse. The new filing claims Swing was Gardner’s “co-guardian at the time” because he invited her on the trip. “He had a duty to protect the child as her parents entrusted him with her safety. He trafficked and or coerced the child [to] travel across state lines from North Carolina to New York and New Jersey with the hidden intention of providing the child with alcohol, and marijuana and prostituting the child to his A&R Combs,” the lawsuit claims. Attempts to reach Swing were not immediately successful Wednesday.
Swing is also included with all the lawsuit’s defendants in causes of action alleging negligent infliction of emotional distress and violation of the Mann Act, which includes a claim for “transportation of a minor with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity.”
When Gardner first filed her claims in New York state court last November, Combs’ legal team said they were “fabricated” in the wake of Casandra “Cassie” Ventura’s bombshell rape and sex-trafficking lawsuit filed against Combs a week earlier. “This is nothing but a money grab,” they said of Gardner’s complaint. Hall has not responded to repeated requests for comment from Rolling Stone over the last 11 months and has not appeared in the lawsuit, either in New York or New Jersey.
Meanwhile, Combs has since been indicted on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges related to alleged activities dating back to 2008. The once powerful music mogul, 54, has pleaded not guilty and is due back in court Thursday.
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In her initial complaint, Gardner named MCA as a co-defendant, leading its successor company, UMG Recordings, to enter the case on its behalf. UMGR filed a motion for dismissal in April, arguing the lawsuit was beyond the statute of limitations in New York and that there was no evidence MCA could have predicted the alleged conduct. Gardner subsequently re-filed the lawsuit in New Jersey after her friend offered new details in her affidavit.
The friend, Monica Case, says in her May 15, 2024 sworn statement that she recalled “raising hell” at Hall’s residence after she allegedly saw Swing in the room with Combs and Gardner. She alleges Swing grabbed her and ushered her upstairs as she was threatening to call police.
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Gardner’s lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn, filed the amended complaint citing a New Jersey state law that extends the statute of limitations for certain sexual crimes against minors to within 37 years after the minor turns 18.
Blackburn also represents Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, the music producer suing Combs for sexual assault and harassment, as well as April Lampros, a former Arista Records intern who alleges Combs sexually assaulted her on three occasions between 1995 and 1996. Combs is facing several other lawsuits already underway and the specter of many more allegedly due to be filed.
