Suit dismissed against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, ex-Las Vegas police official

A federal judge has ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs and a former Las Vegas police official.

The suit had suggested that ex-Metropolitan Police Department Capt. John Pelletier helped to cover up a 2018 sexual assault and kidnapped two witnesses. Pelletier previously said documentation proved he was in Las Vegas when the suit said the assault occurred in California.

“I think the chief has been vindicated,” said Pelletier’s attorney Keola Whittaker in a Monday phone interview about the dismissal. “It shows that the complaint fell under the weight of its falsities, that none of it was true.”

Pelletier became chief of the Maui Police Department in Hawaii after leaving Metro in 2021.

San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Rita Lin dismissed the case Dec. 16 based on a “failure to prosecute.”

The plaintiffs did not provide formal notice of the suit to the defendants, wrote the judge, and after their prior attorneys left the case, the plaintiffs did not manage to replace them.

“(I)t has been over two months since Plaintiffs’ counsel’s withdrawal, and Plaintiffs describe consulting an array of potential counsel, who have each declined to take the matter,” Lin observed. “The barrier to obtaining counsel therefore does not appear to be Plaintiffs’ capacity to seek counsel, but the willingness of counsel to be retained in the matter. There is no indication that this barrier is likely to resolve.”

The suit initially was filed in October 2024 by Ashley Parham and was amended with additional allegations in March. Lin dismissed the case without prejudice, meaning it could potentially be refiled.

Court documents alleged that Combs and other defendants raped Parham and that Combs threatened Parham with a knife after she said she “believed (he) had something to do with the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur.”

Afterward, court papers further alleged, Combs offered Parham money and told her “to say that the violent rape was consensual and that (she) was a sex worker.” He said that if she accused him of rape, no one would believe her and her family would be harmed, court documents claimed.

Combs was convicted of prostitution-related offenses in July in New York and received a sentence of over four years in federal prison.

His legal team previously said in a statement that “no sane person” would believe the lawsuit’s narrative and that he “was nowhere near Orinda, California, on the day Ms. Parham claims she was assaulted there.”

The man accused in the 1996 Las Vegas slaying of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur said in a 2008 interview with law enforcement that Combs was involved in the fatal shooting.

Duane “Keffe D” Davis, whom prosecutors have accused of orchestrating the killing of Shakur, alleged that Combs solicited him to kill Shakur and Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge” Knight for $1 million and that one of Combs’ associates gave him the gun used in the shooting.

Pelletier also pushed back on the allegations against him.

He said he was in Las Vegas when the alleged sexual assault occurred and had never visited Orinda or Contra Costa, California.

“Chief Pelletier has no connections whatsoever to any individuals named in the lawsuit,” Maui police previously said in a statement. “The allegations suggesting his involvement are entirely unfounded. We are confident that the evidence will demonstrate these claims to be false and will expose those who are deliberately trying to manipulate the legal system to spread misleading narratives.”

The lawsuit referred to Pelletier as a “co-conspirator” and said he pretended to be a Contra Costa sheriff. Parham told Pelletier she had been “violently gang raped by Defendant Diddy and others,” but Pelletier told her to go home and did not offer to help her, the filing claimed.

It also alleged that Pelletier kidnapped anonymous plaintiffs who witnessed the sexual assault of Parham from their Las Vegas home while threatening to shoot them and indicating that he was extraditing them for non-existent warrants.

Pelletier took them to a house where they were restrained, the filings said, and would not let them call an attorney. The plaintiffs were “then trafficked from Las Vegas, NV to various locations throughout California,” the suit said.

Whittaker, Pelletier’s attorney, previously said the lawsuit appeared to be “a case of mistaken identity” and had “as much legal weight as a blog post or TikTok video.”

On Monday, the attorney said he does not anticipate the case being filed again, given the plaintiffs’ apparent difficulties finding attorneys and potential issues with the statute of limitations.

The case was “really tough on” Pelletier and his family, even though they knew the claims were false because Pelletier was with them on the days in question, Whittaker said.

“We’re so happy this is over, and we think that this clears the chief’s name,” he added.

Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BrighamNoble on X.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.