Getty Image
Last week, a judge awarded a prisoner currently being housed in the Earnest C. Brooks Correctional Facility in Michigan, Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith, 51, a default judgment of $100 million in a lawsuit he filed against Sean Combs, AKA Diddy.
Cardello-Smith claimed Combs drugged and sexually assaulted him at a party in Detroit in 1997, and in a preliminary court hearing, added that Diddy offered him $2.3 million dollars to dismiss his lawsuit.
When Combs failed to show up for a virtual hearing on the lawsuit on Monday, Sept. 9, Lenawee County Circuit Court Judge Anna Marie Anzalone had no other choice but to issue a default judgment and award the full $100 million to Cardello-Smith. She even went so far as to a payment plan: 10 monthly installments of $10 million each beginning on Oct. 1.
Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo, in his client’s defense, stated after the judgment, “This man is a convicted felon and sexual predator, who has been sentenced on 14 counts of sexual assault and kidnapping over the last 26 years. His resume now includes committing a fraud on the court from prison, as Mr. Combs has never heard of him let alone been served with any lawsuit. Mr. Combs looks forward to having this judgment swiftly dismissed.”
On Thursday of last week, Agnifilo filed an emergency motion to set aside default and default judgment and a motion to dissolve temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction.
This week, another one of Diddy’s attorneys, David Fink, successfully got the judgement set aside, according to TMZ, on the grounds that Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith failed to prove he effectively served the lawsuit in accordance with Michigan law.
Judge Anzalone also removed the temporary restraining order that she had placed on Diddy, stopping him from selling any assets that could have been used to pay damages awarded to Cardello-Smith.
So, unlike the 10-page letter Diddy and his attorneys presented to the judge in New York, desperately trying to keep him out of jail, this legal effort actually succeeded.
Now, Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith’s lawsuit against Diddy can proceed without any judgement having been passed. The music mogul’s next move in this case will probably be an attempt to get the lawsuit dismissed completely.