(NewsNation) —Sean “Diddy” Combs has been hit with a massive $100 million default judgment after failing to dispute sexual assault allegations made in lawsuit by a Michigan inmate.
Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, 51, filed a lawsuit accusing Combs of drugging and sexually assaulting him at a party in Detroit in 1997.
Cardello-Smith worked as a restaurant and had been a hospitality industry employee when he met the music producer, the suit alleges.
Combs was due to appear in Lenawee County Circuit Court for a virtual hearing on Monday but when he failed to show up, a judge awarded Cardello-Smith a multi-million default judgment.
Default judgments are issued when a defendant fails to respond to a court summons or appear in court.
Combs’ attorney denied that the music mogul knows Cardello-Smith in a statement to NewsNation.
“This man is a convicted felon and sexual predator, who has been sentenced on 14 counts of sexual assault and kidnapping over the last 26 years. His resume now includes committing a fraud on the court from prison, as Mr. Combs has never heard of him let alone been served with any lawsuit. Mr. Combs looks forward to having this judgment swiftly dismissed.”
Cardello-Smith included prison facility information in his suit which showed Combs’s name logged into the visitation record and said the visit was to offer him $2.3 million dollars to dismiss the lawsuit, which the inmate rejected.
Cardello-Smith is incarcerated at the Earnest C Brooks correctional facility after multiple previous convictions of criminal sexual misconduct as well as one of kidnapping.
The Detroit Metro Times has described Cardello-Smith as a “self-taught student of civil and criminal statutes” and “a Michigan inmate known for his long history of challenging the judicial system with civil lawsuits.”
The judge set out a payment schedule of $10 million per month, starting October 1.
The latest suit comes in a long line of legal woes the music mogul is already facing.
Department of Homeland Security agents conducted the raids on March 25 at Combs’ multimillion-dollar mansion in Los Angeles and his Miami waterfront home.
Diddy’s legal team was notified earlier this summer that he was the subject of a federal criminal investigation.
The producer also faces a mounting list of civil lawsuits that allege abuse and sexual assault by multiple victims spanning over 30 years.
In May, video surfaced of the rapper attacking ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016. Combs previously denied violence toward Ventura when she sued him last year, but he later apologized on social media when the video leaked.
Combs has denied all the allegations.
