CNN
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A federal choose stated a lady who accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of sexually assaulting her can’t proceed together with her lawsuit below a pseudonym after discovering the rapper has a proper to defend himself.
“The elemental query is whether or not Plaintiff has a ‘substantial privateness’ curiosity that ‘outweighs the customary and constitutionally-embedded presumption of openness in judicial proceedings,” Choose Mary Kay Vyskocil wrote in an opinion Wednesday, including, “Defendants have a proper to defend themselves, together with by investigating Plaintiff, and the individuals have a proper to know who’s utilizing their courts.”
The Tennessee lady filed a lawsuit as a Jane Doe towards Combs and others earlier this month, alleging he raped her in 2004 when she was 19 years outdated.
The Doe lawsuit is one among greater than a dozen filed since Combs’ arrest on intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy fees in September by John or Jane Does who’re represented by the identical attorneys. The circumstances are individually filed and earlier than completely different judges, however the ruling may impression a lot of these circumstances.
Choose Vyskocil dominated the girl has to file the lawsuit below her title by November 13 or the lawsuit will likely be dismissed.
Representatives for Combs stated, “We have now no formal assertion because the ruling speaks for itself.”
Combs has pleaded not responsible to the fees and has denied any wrongdoing.
CNN has reached out to representatives for the plaintiff for remark.
Legal professionals for the girl argued in court docket filings that the case ought to be allowed to proceed due to the girl’s worry that Combs would bodily hurt her.
The choose disagreed.
“As Plaintiff’s personal submissions clarify, nonetheless, Combs has had no contact with Plaintiff for the roughly twenty years for the reason that alleged rape and Combs is at the moment detained pending trial,” the choose wrote. “As such, counsel has not recognized any current menace of bodily hurt to Plaintiff,” she stated. Within the lawsuit, the choose notes there isn’t a allegation that Combs threatened this lady about going public together with her allegations.
The choose dominated that “public humiliation” will not be sufficient to warrant conserving the id secret and pointed to the a number of lawsuits filed towards Combs by individuals below their actual names.
“The Court docket appreciates that Combs is a public determine and, subsequently, Plaintiff is more likely to face public scrutiny if she proceeds in her personal title. The Court docket will not be oblivious to the potential toll of such scrutiny on any litigant. Nonetheless, Plaintiff’s curiosity in avoiding public scrutiny, and even embarrassment, doesn’t outweigh the pursuits of each Combs and the general public in ‘the customary and constitutionally-embedded presumption of openness in judicial proceedings,’” the choose wrote.
The choose stated that Combs is entitled to know her id to analyze her claims.
“Counsel’s assertions that Defendants needn’t know Plaintiff’s id to file a solution and conduct discovery pressure credulity,” she wrote.