LEFT: Jodeci performs during the second night of the Cincinnati Music Festival at Paycor Stadium in downtown Cincinnati on Friday, July 21, 2023. RIGHT: Sean Combs, photographed in his NYC studio in 2001.
© Sam Greene/The Enquirer / © ROBERT DEUTSCH / USA TODAY NETWORK
(New York, NY) – As the legal woes mount for Sean “Diddy” Combs, a co-defendant has been named in a lawsuit that accuses the hip hop and music mogul of sexual abuse. The civil action alleges that DeVante Swing of R&B group Jodeci stood by and did nothing when a then-16-year-old girl was sexually assaulted in the early 1990s.
Swing, whose real name is Donald DeGrate, has been added to a lawsuit originally filed in 2023 that accuses Combs and singer Aaron Hall of sexual assault. The incident in question took place at Hall’s home in New Jersey. Liza Gardner, the alleged victim, says it happened when she was highly intoxicated. Her claims in that Hall and Combs were the active perpetrators and that DeGrate did nothing to stop the crime.
Gardner also alleges that the assault continued past the initial attack. She says Combs found her the following day where she was staying and choked her unconscious — Gardner maintains that was in order to hide what had happened from Combs then-girlfriend.
Meanwhile, Combs is currently being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Brooklyn, a notorious and poorly-maintained jail. He is awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking and other abuses. Combs has plead not guilty.
