DeVante Swing, a member of the R&B group Jodeci, has been named as a co-defendant in a sexual abuse lawsuit involving Sean “Diddy” Combs, according to Rolling Stone.
The lawsuit, which originally accused Combs and singer Aaron Hall of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in 1990, has been updated to include Swing—real name Donald DeGrate—as a defendant. The plaintiff, Liza Gardner, claims the incident took place at Hall’s New Jersey home while she was highly intoxicated. Gardner says she was traumatized by the assault, which allegedly involved Combs.
The amended complaint alleges that Swing was in the room during the attack but did nothing to stop it. According to a sworn statement submitted in May by another woman who says she was with Gardner that night, Swing stood by, leaning against furniture, while Combs assaulted Gardner.
Gardner claims she traveled from her hometown in North Carolina to New Jersey with Swing and friends, staying at a property reportedly subsidized by Uptown Records, Jodeci’s label under MCA at the time. Combs, who was an A&R executive at Uptown responsible for developing Jodeci, allegedly met Gardner at an MCA event in Manhattan. After the event, Gardner and her group went to Hall’s residence in New Jersey.
According to Gardner, while she was trying to recover from the initial assault by Combs, Hall entered the room, pinned her down, and also assaulted her. The amended complaint includes a photo showing Gardner and Hall together in a kitchen on the day of the alleged incident.
Gardner further alleges that the following day, Combs entered the house where she was staying and choked her until she lost consciousness, seemingly in an attempt to keep the incident hidden from his then-girlfriend.
The case is set for trial in 2025. Combs was recently arrested in New York on charges including sex trafficking, racketeering, and transporting individuals for prostitution, to which he pleaded not guilty.
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