After years of battling in court, Diddy has finally settled a multimillion dollar civil lawsuit with three people injured in an infamous 1999 club shooting involving his former protégé, Shyne, and then-girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez.
According to Billboard, Debra Reiser, the attorney for shooting victim Natania Reuben, confirmed that the settlement occurred earlier this year, but failed to provide any further details due to a confidentiality agreement.
“I can confirm it happened, but I can’t say anything else because of the confidentiality agreement,” said Reiser.
The incident, which ended in the arrest of Diddy, Lopez and Shyne, occurred on December 2, 1999, at the now-defunct Club New York in Times Square. While partying, Shyne became involved in a shootout with a group of men and was charged with wounding two innocent bystanders as well as Reuben, who was wounded in the face by bullet fragment.
During his criminal trial, Shyne said that the shooting was in self-defense, claiming that the group of men with whom he and Diddy got into an altercation shot at him first. Despite his defense, Shyne was convicted of assault, weapons possession and reckless endangerment charges stemming from the shooting and served nine years of a 10-year sentence. Shyne was released in 2009 and was deported to his native country of Belize shortly afterwards.
Combs and his employee, Anthony Jones, were also facing weapons charges but were eventually acquitted.
According to the New York Post, Michael Bergos, the former owner of the nightclub, who didn’t sign the confidentiality agreement, claimed that Reuben received $1.8 million in the settlement and that the other two victims received $50,000 and $500,000.
Diddy is out of hot water for now, but considering his ties to the recently arrested music mogul James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond and Tupac Shakur’s 1994 shooter, Dexter Isaac, the Diddy-Dirty Money front man may soon be back in court. –nicholas robinson
