What did Rodney Jones accuse Diddy of? Majority of claims made by music producer dismissed by the judge in s*xual assault case

A federal judge recently dismissed five of the nine claims that music producer Rodney "Lil Rod" Jones filed against rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs in his $30 million civil lawsuit in 2024. On February 26 of last year, Jones sued the rapper for sexual assault and harassment. Additionally, he claimed the rapper breached their contract by not compensating him for his work on Combs' 2023 LP The Love Album: Off the Grid.

Jones also accused Diddy of drugging him, groping him, causing him emotional distress, and possibly r*ping him on one occasion during the time he lived with the rapper between September 2022 and November 2023 while they worked on the album.

On March 24, 2025, Judge J. Paul Oetken dismissed five out of the nine claims mentioned in Jones' lawsuit against Diddy, which included "RICO, breach of contract, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and two separate counts of intentional infliction of emotional distress." The judge also dismissed a trafficking claim against Combs Global.

"Jones fails to address any of these arguments in his opposition brief, and while the Court prefers to decide issues on the merits, it should not be necessary to root around a 402-paragraph complaint to contrive novel arguments on Jones’s behalf,” the judge said during the ruling.

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Exploring Rodney Jones' allegations against Diddy

On February 26, 2024, Rodney Jones filed a 70-page lawsuit against Diddy in New York, accusing the rapper of sexual assault and harassment during the time he lived with him. According to court documents received by People Magazine, the lawsuit claimed Combs constantly "groped" Jones' private parts, adding:

“Throughout his time living with Mr. Combs, Mr. Jones was the victim of constant unsolicited and unauthorized groping and touching of his an*s by Mr. Combs."

Jones also named Diddy's son, Justin Combs, his chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, Motown Records, and Universal Music Group as fellow defendants. The lawsuit claimed that when Jones let Khorram know about Diddy's alleged behavior, she dismissed his concerns and dubbed the “groping of Mr. Jones' an*s and genitals as friendly horseplay.”

In the lawsuit, Jones claimed that he was forced to record Combs as part of his job, resulting in "HUNDREDS of hours of footage and audio recordings of Mr. Combs, his staff, and his guests engaging in serious illegal activity." Jones also accused the rapper of "forcing" him to recruit s*x workers and bring them to Combs' mansion.

The lawsuit also recounted an alleged incident that occurred in February 2023, where Jones claimed Combs heavily “drugged” him and that he woke up “naked, dizzy, and confused” in a bed with “two s*x workers and Mr. Combs.”

Jones also claimed he was not fairly compensated for his work on Diddy's project, stating that Combs allegedly paid him $29,000 for 13 months of work, instead of the $50,000 he was initially promised.

Diddy denied the allegations at the time, with his lawyer, Shawn Holley, accusing Jones of being a "liar" via a statement to People Magazine:

“Lil Rod is nothing more than a liar who filed a $30 million lawsuit shamelessly looking for an undeserved payday. His reckless name-dropping about events that are pure fiction and simply did not happen is nothing more than a transparent attempt to garner headlines. We have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies."

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Exploring the claims the judge dismissed

According to People Magazine, a New York federal judge dismissed five of nine claims mentioned in Jones' sexual assault civil lawsuit against Diddy. In August 2024, Combs' legal team filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

During his ruling on March 24, Judge J. Paul Oetken partially dismissed the lawsuit, including claims of breach of contract, RICO allegations, and emotional distress.

The judge dismissed the RICO violation after failing to find a connection between Diddy's alleged racketeering conduct via his companies and Jones not being compensated for his work on the rapper's album.

"The Court cannot identify any such causal link. Defendants' alleged s*x, drug, and gun trafficking activities ... did not forseeably or naturally preclude Defendants from honoring their recording contract with Jones," the judge wrote.

The judge dismissed Jones' allegations that Diddy caused him emotional distress, writing that the alleged victim did not "adequately plead" for said claim. He also dismissed Jones' breach of contract claims, stating that Jones and Combs had seemingly entered into an oral agreement rather than a written one, which is not covered under New York's statute of frauds.

The other dismissed claims include Jones' allegations that Combs Global violated the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which protects people from being forced or coerced "to engage in a commercial s*x act."

However, he did not dismiss Jones' accusations of s*xual assault and his premises liability claim (after the record producer claimed the alleged s*xual assaults occurred on Combs' properties) on the basis that "Combs had both possession and control of the premises."

The judge also reprimanded Jones' lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn, for his "unsettling" conduct in court, adding:

"Blackburn's filings are replete with inaccurate statements of law, conclusory accusations, and inappropriate ad hominem attacks on opposing counsel."

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Sean "Diddy" Combs had been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center since his arrest in 2024 on federal charges of "transportation to engage in prostitution, racketeering and s*x trafficking." Combs' trial is set for May 5.