A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Dawn Richard, a singer who once worked for Sean Combs, ruling that many of her legal claims alleging abuse and demeaning behavior against the music mogul were filed too late.
Ms. Richard was a former member of the now-defunct groups Danity Kane and Diddy — Dirty Money, which were both assembled by Mr. Combs. Her 2024 lawsuit against Mr. Combs described a work culture in which her boss would order her to strip down to her underwear, grope her, throw objects such as laptops and food, deprive her of sleep and at times fail to pay her for her work.
A lawyer for Mr. Combs, who is in prison after being convicted on prostitution charges, said at the time the suit was filed that Ms. Richard had “manufactured a series of false claims all in the hopes of trying to get a payday.”
In a ruling on Friday, Judge Katherine Polk Failla of Federal District Court in Manhattan tossed the majority of Ms. Richard’s claims because the statutes of limitations had expired.
“Mr. Combs’s conduct for which Plaintiff sues — while indisputably odious — ceased in 2011 or 2012,” the judge wrote. “Plaintiff does not allege that Mr. Combs committed any tortious conduct against her again in the 12 or 13 years before she filed suit.”
The legal claims that were dismissed involved allegations of assault, battery, employment discrimination and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Another copyright claim, involving a song that Ms. Richard said she was not properly compensated for, was also dismissed.
With all of the federal claims tossed, the judge left open the possibility for Ms. Richard to refile one of her claims in state court. That claim cites a New York City provision known as the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law, which established a two-year window in which plaintiffs can sue over older allegations. That law has be subject to legal challenges that are currently being scrutinized by the New York Court of Appeals.
Arick Fudali, a lawyer for Ms. Richard, said in a statement on Monday that they intend on pursuing the claim in state court.
“We intend to continue to fight for Dawn until justice is achieved,” he said.
Juda Engelmayer, a spokesman for Mr. Combs, did not immediately provide a response to the court’s ruling.
Mr. Combs is incarcerated at a federal prison in New Jersey after being convicted by a jury in New York last year on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He was acquitted of the most serious charges in the case, sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, and his lawyers are in the process of appealing his conviction and sentence.
Mr. Combs is also facing a cascade of sexual assault allegations in civil court, where dozens of lawsuits have accused him of abuse. Mr. Combs has denied all the accusations.
At Mr. Combs’s criminal trial, Ms. Richard took the stand to testify about witnessing her former boss’s physical abuse of his former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, the star witness in the case.
Ms. Richard’s claim under New York’s Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law include allegations that Mr. Combs would smack her behind and once cupped her breasts without her permission, suggesting that he would buy her a breast augmentation.
The law has been cited in many of the lawsuits against Mr. Combs and his lawyers have argued that the look-back window adopted by the New York City Council to enable older claims to be adjudicated was invalid.
