Dawn Angelique Richard v. Sean Combs et al.

(Complaint, filed Aug. 25, 2026) Dawn Angelique Richard alleges that from about 2004 through 2011 she worked under Sean Combs, first as one of five women chosen on MTV's Making the Band for the group Danity Kane and then as a member of Diddy – Dirty Money, and that he controlled her career, pay, schedule, movement and access to food and rest (¶¶ 2, 11-14). She alleges he routinely called her and other female artists derogatory gendered names and disparaged their bodies (¶¶ 16-17), threatened to make people “go missing” and to end careers (¶ 21), and that he and his bodyguards carried firearms in studios (¶ 26). She alleges she saw him assault Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in 2009 and again around 2010, which made his threats credible to her (¶¶ 22-24). Between about 2009 and 2011, she alleges, he repeatedly ordered her and another artist (“Witness 1”) to strip to their underwear (¶ 28) and, while preparing her for the Last Train to Paris tour at Daddy's House, entered her changing room while she was undressed, groped her bare buttocks and touched her chest near her breasts without consent despite her objections (¶¶ 30-34), then retaliated when she refused by removing her from songs, cutting her microphone and withholding pay and opportunities (¶ 35). She alleges he required multi-day recording sessions without adequate food or sleep (¶¶ 37-42), including after she was hospitalized in the summer of 2010 (¶ 43). In December 2010, before a Saturday Night Live performance, she alleges that after she objected to being called derogatory names in front of bystanders at SIR Studios, 520 West 25th Street, Manhattan, Combs swung his fist toward her face and Harve Pierre swung a hand toward her; a bodyguard removed her and locked her in Combs's Bentley (no interior door handles, her phone and coat left inside the studio), where she was left alone in the dark and cold until her father arrived hours later; and Pierre then locked her in a small room before releasing her, while Combs and Pierre warned her father to “think about your family” (¶¶ 45-61). She alleges lasting emotional, psychological and economic harm (¶¶ 64-65). The complaint is brought under N.Y.C. Administrative Code § 10-1104.1 (Local Law 50 of 2026, which revived claims for gender-motivated violence before Jan. 9, 2022) and, alternatively, CPLR § 205(a), after the S.D.N.Y. dismissed her city-law claim without prejudice on June 12, 2026, declining supplemental jurisdiction, in Richard v. Combs, 1:24-cv-06848-KPF (¶¶ 1, 8, 66-71). Combs and Does 1-25 are the named defendants; Pierre is described but not named. These are allegations in a complaint, not findings.

Compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial (emotional distress, pain and suffering, economic loss, loss of earning capacity); punitive damages; declaratory and injunctive relief as permitted by law; reasonable attorneys' fees and costs; pre- and post-judgment interest; and such other relief as the court deems just and proper. Jury trial demanded (Complaint ¶ 87).