Diddy has enlisted the services of a notorious criminal defense attorney in his efforts to fight his current sexual assault case.
On Thursday (February 15), attorney Bobbi Sternheim filed a Notice of Appearance in the Southern District of New York as she is now in charge of the hip-hop mogul’s case after previous counsel Jonathan Davis parted ways with the defense team.
Sternheim is well-known in the legal circuit as a shrewd and fearless attorney who isn’t afraid to take on controversial clients. In addition to most recently representing Ghislaine Maxwell, the socialite confidant of Jeffrey Epstein accused of helping his sex trafficking of minors, the New York City-based attorney has also defended Khaled al-Fawwaz, a henchman for Osama bin Laden, who went to trial in 2015 to face charges of killing more than 200 people in a 1998 U.S. Embassy bombing in Africa.
A woman remaining anonymous as “Jane Doe” filed suit against the Bad Boy Records founder this past November, claiming that Diddy and former label president Harve Pierre raped her in 2003 when she was just 17 years old. According to court documents obtained by HipHopDX, the woman claims she met Pierre and another man at a Detroit lounge before speaking to Diddy on the phone and flying via private jet to his recording studio in New York that same night.
Doe claims she was immediately given drugs and liquor after getting to Diddy’s studio and then raped successively by Diddy, the unnamed man, and Pierre. After being left in a “fetal” position in the bathroom, the anonymous woman says she was then taken to a waiting car and flown back to Detroit. A photo from the night in question of the young lady sitting on Diddy’s lap in the studio was also entered into evidence.
“Ms. Doe has lived with her memories of this fateful night for 20 years, during which time she has suffered extreme emotional distress that has impacted nearly every aspect of her life and personal relationships,” her lawyer says in the initial lawsuit. “Given the brave women who have come forward against Mr. Combs and Mr. Pierre in recent weeks, Ms. Doe is doing the same.”
