te as they speak as many of you know our Law Firm has been at the Forefront of some of the most important litigation in the United States we like the tough cases we thrive in the complicated cases we've handled over the last 25 years some very very big and very important cases I believe that this one may surpass them all there are many facets to this the conduct we will describe today occurred over more than 20 years there are many people and many entities involved and we're going to follow this evidence wherever it takes us
we will find the silent accomplices we will expose The enablers Who enabled this conduct behind closed doors we will pursue this matter no matter who the evidence implicates these Brave victims who have stepped forward deserve nothing less the biggest secret in the entertainment industry that really wasn't a secret at all has finally been revealed to the world the wall of Silence has now been broken and Vic victims are coming forward our team has had at this point more than 3,285 individuals contact us with people claiming people claiming to have been victimized by Shawn combes after
vetting we now represent 120 individuals who intend to bring civil claims in civil court against Shawn Diddy combes as well as claims against many other individuals and entities that we will name as defendants as we file these individual cases and you should know to the extent the clients feel comfortable we also intend to make these individuals available to the authorities specifically to the FBI and you should also know a few of them have already been spoken to by the FBI now before we discuss the nature of the claims and claimants themselves let me comment on
the large volume of Cl calls we have received since our first announcement even before the indictment of Shan combes we had received a small volume of calls and had screened a handful of cases after the indictment of Shan combes and the announcement that we were pursuing these claims the floodgates opened people who wouldn't otherwise for a variety of reasons are now stepping forward to make their voices heard and to pursue justice but no most of these people are scared they fear backlash in their communities they fear backlash in their own families they are afraid of
retaliation from the perpetrators and their associates they are rightly afraid for their own personal safety I expect that through this process many powerful people will be exposed many Dirty Secrets will be revealed we know what we are potentially up against and as is always the case in situations like this when a celebrity is involved people can be downright mean and nasty you would be shocked at the length fans will go no matter the evidence to the contrary to defend celebrities they love I mean there's a reason for this word fans they're Fanatics I've personally already
been threatened multiple times on social media and when I agreed to pursue this I expected as much this isn't my first Road but victims who step forward to have their voices heard should not be subjected to that kind of conduct they should not be targeted I want to say this and I want to be clear about it although we are vetting each call as stringently as we can I always start with a mindset that I believe victims I believe victims because I understand the tremendous courage it takes to step forward so if you're if you're
watching this please hear me if you are out there and you have been victimized You Are Not Alone there is a great strength in numbers you can seek redress you can obtain Justice we can help you and we will help you that being said as stated we are vetting every call that we receive we have had to turn away some for each we ask for corroboration for each we ask for the identity of witnesses we also have collected pictures videos texts we check venues we check dates we want to corroborate that the claims being made
have legitimacy and Merit we have on staff now a former detective from the major offenders unit of Houston Police Department who is helping us vet each claim we're using our Common Sense we're being stringent because as I said these are not easy cases they're very tough the process is hard and in some cases the process is very lengthy these cases are hard to prove many times it's a victim's word against the alleged perpetrator each of these victims will no doubt be publicly attacked by the alleged perpetrators and in some cases the general public the factless
and C cardly keyboard Warriors love to attack we know what we're up against we did not enter this fry blindly I wish it was my last such fry I wish this type of behavior wasn't so pervasive but it is what it is so we will press on as I said our law firms have been retained by 120 individuals at this point to pursue cases in civil court against Shawn Diddy cones you should know in this group it is evenly divided between males and females there are 60 males and 60 females who have joined us to
pursue these claims as plaintiffs in this group 62% identifies African-American 30% are white and the remainder Hispanic or Asian the victims are from more than 25 States the majority are from California New York Georgia and Florida and I want to focus on the ages of these victims when we talk about the ages of the victims when the conduct occurred it's shocking our youngest victim at the time of the occurrence is was 9 years old we have an individual who was 14 years old we have one who was 15 25 of the 120 individuals who are
plaintiffs in these cases were minors at the time time of the acts complained of the time frame of the acts complained of is very wide the conduct that issue spans from the years 1991 all the way till this year 2024 if you wonder why there are so many alleged victims that's your answer we're talking about more than 25 years of this type of conduct now although most of the victims who have stepped forward were victimized after 2015 this has been going on for a very long time now when you think about the fact that some
of this conduct occurred 25 years ago and you wonder why would it take somebody so long to step forward I want to remind you that that many states in the United States have recognized that it's very difficult for a victim to step forward and to make these types of allegations when something very terrible has happened to them I'll use New York the state of New York as an example the state of New York has specific statutes in place that revive claims that are even claims that would typically be not able to be brought that revive
such claims and they can be brought even 25 to 30 years later because there's a recognition there in New York and California and other states that that it's very difficult for a victim to come forward and I would I would respectfully suggest the only reason many of these people are coming forward because they see other victims coming forward and it gives them some comfort that hey I won't be the only one and I expect more of this victims will come forward you know there an old saying it says a lie has great speed but truth
has endurance the acts complained of in these cases that we're going to file occurred primarily in New York either Manhattan or the Hamptons or occurred in California primarily in Los Angeles or in Florida primarily in Miami most of these events and incidents occurred at parties typically After parties our album release parties New Year's Eve parties Fourth of July parties something they called a puppy party all white party although several of these events occurred at auditions uh many times uh especially young people people wanting to break into the industry were were coerced into this type of
conduct uh in the promise of being made a star or in the promise of of having um Sean comes listen to their tape or even let them read for Shan Colmes you should know that some of this Behavior occurred at well-known venues in New York City some of this Behavior occurred at private residences of people that we all know some of this Behavior occurred at hotels that we're all familiar with you should know that more than 55% of the victims filed reports reported this conduct to either the authorities that is the police or to hospitals
we are in the process of collecting with our team assistance medical records uh reports that were made to the authorities and I've already said that some of the individuals in this group did in fact talk to the FBI you should know that that several of the individuals and when I say several I mean many uh who did in fact seek medical treatment were drug tested and drugs were found in their system weird drugs drugs that you probably never heard of one in particular that that continues to pop up is a drug called xylazine or Tran
which based on our research is known as a horse tranquilizer now there's been a lot of reports that we're filing a class action this is not a class action class actions when one or two people file a case on behalf of a group of people that's not this these cases will be individual cases each case will live and die on its own Merit these cases will be filed individually one plaintiff against whoever the defendants were involved in the case each case may be filed in one venue like California another case may be filed in New
York one case may Sue just Shan comes but multiple other people one case may sue a range of people sue a range of people I would expect most though to be filed as I said thinking or hoping or perhaps uh believing that I may start naming names that day will come but it won't be today the day will come when we will name names other than Shan coms and there's a lot of names um it's a long list already and of course I already know who some of these individuals are but because of the nature
of this case we're going to make damn sure damn sure that we're right before we do that uh but the names that we're going to name assuming that our investigators confirm and corroborate what we've been told are names that will shock you these are individual cases there are indeed other perpetrators involved they will be revealed when that particular individual case is ready to be filed they already know who they are and I'm talking here about not just the Cowardly but complicit bystanders that is those people that we know watched the Behavior occur and did nothing
and I'm talking about the people that participated encouraged it egged it on they know who they are I call them the facilitators of Foul Play willing participants in Vile conduct as we identify them each will be part of this case as defendants these defendants will not only include individuals but would also include corporate entities who ultimately profited off of this culture and behavior I'm looking at Banks pharmaceutical companies hotels we know that many of these individuals were paid cash we know that that many of these individuals involved whether they were the ones being assaulted and
abused or they're witnessing other people being assaulted and abused and then paid and threatened and told to leave typically paid 10 grand in cash and told to leave and then threatened as they were leaving so in addition to Shan comes you should know the defendants in these cases we're going to file will include anyone of course who engaged in the assault or exploitation anyone who participated in such in any way anyone who encouraged or facilitated this conduct anyone who was in the room and watched it happen but made no effort to stop it any venue
or venue owner who was aware of what was going on but failed to stop it any individual or entity who knew about the conduct and benefited from it but did nothing to report it or stop it and any individual or entity who covered it up or helped cover it up these people who know who they are should just come forward now I would imagine as we speak here there are a myriad of people who are very nervous you can't hide skeleton in the closet forever I would expect there are many people out there right now
who are who are desperately searching their memories as they delete their text and data now although these are in fact individual cases there is a common theme an Mo if you will typically the victim is lured into a situation where he or she is given a drink typically that drink reported by these victims is apparently late with something once that drink takes effect the perpetrators perform all kinds of sexual acts on the victims many times passing him or her around as other people watch and enjoy the show and then leave the victim ashamed confused injured
and wondering what happened when the victim reaches out he or she is told not to say anything sometimes there are threats of physical violence or financial repercussions or bodily harm the claims we intend to bring will include the following violent sexual assault or rape sexual abuse facilitated sex with a controlled substance false imprisonment compelling prostitution sexual misconduct dissemination of video recordings false imprisonment sexual abuse of minors given a large volume of cases and given our other docket obligations and given the fact that we want to be sure when we file these cases that they are
fully vetted I expect we'll start filing these cases against Sean comes and other perpetrators within the next 30 days now it's rare you know sexual abuse sexual exploitation uh these types of this type of activity is pervasive in our society and it's rare we get a chance where where uh we can really focus on this as a country and really focus on this about how pervasive this is and what we can as collectively can do about it so I thought I'd take this opportunity before I go into some of the individual cases and talk about
some of the individual claims being made and some of the so you'll get a get a sense of what this 120 people group looks like individually I want bring forward uh Carrie Paul she's a national victim Advocate uh who uh helps victims uh who have been um victimized uh by this type of conduct and she has some important words and I hope you'll you'll pay close attention I think it's important that you hear from her hello I'm Carrie Paul with the national victim advocate it's not easy for any Survivor to come forward our culture doesn't
believe survivors it blames and questions them instead of showing support many choose to enable abusers the media runs stories asking why it took so long for survivors to come forward instead of asking what barriers exist we also don't equi law enforcement with the ability to handle sexual assault crimes lack of funding translates to lack of training we have officers in the field that don't know what to say to a rape victim and also an alarming amount of backlogged untested rape kits prosecutors are are focused on what they can prove in a case and if so
how to do that at time of trial Advocates and staff are stretched thin with growing case loads in the criminal justice system most people don't know how the criminal justice Works in general there isn't enough staff or resources to adequately explain the entire process to every victim and Survivor our culture works against victims and survivors every day and abusers know this abusers work themselves into positions of power building a Public Image that is trusted and financially large enough to make people look away abusers are unfortunately very skilled at power and control the foundation of abuse
they seek victims who are vulnerable such as children their employees and their intimate Partners all who see a different version than the public does all who rely on the abuser in some way and for those that do come forward and aren't believed face questions like are you sure it happened that way were you drinking what were you wearing all of this creates an environment that enables abusers to continue abusing them and future victims to the survivors that have come forward despite not being believed at some point in time your courage is like nothing we have
seen before we thank you for coming forward for yourself and all survivors and lastly I want all survivors that are watching this to know we believe you and we support you thank you I want you now to hear from my co-counsel Andrew Van Arsdale um you know we've we've created a sexual abuse hotline and I want him to visit with us just a few moments about how that works and the kind of volume of calls we've received thank you Tony um like Tony said my name is Andrew van arale I'm the managing partner of B
Law Group we have offices in California Montana and North Carolina um to build off of what you just so well said it's very hard to come forward and given what we've experienced the past 10 days is really unprecedented in in my career at least we represent thousands of survivors of abuse and never ever in a 10day period have we seen over 3,000 people come forward or we've confirmed and decided to investigate and represent 120 people while we're continuing to work through another 100 plus cases to prove them up to validate what has happened here and
to hold those that are responsible accountable and so like Tony said we've set this up it's 1 800 2000 7474 I have a team of people standing by literally if you know that this happened to someone and you have information about it please contact us if this happened to you come forward there's attorney client privilege here what you tell us is in confidence yes we'll have to go out and build your case but we will protect you and the other thing that I want to say is the pattern and practice of this again is unprecedented
over 30 plus years of the same sort of events happening people thrust into the circle reportedly and horrible things happening to them as a result and from talking to these people that have come forward these past 10 days I can tell you unequivocally that because the federal government did what it needed to do and indicted this man that they put him in jail and a judge kept him in jail they tell me directly this validates my feelings for so long I thought it was my fault what is it about me that put myself in that
scenario what was I wearing at the time what did I do to be subjected to such horrific treatment at these people that I was trying to trust when we we know now it was not your fault you were victimized by a group of powerful people that operated for 30 plus years taking advantage of their wealth and the power that they held Within the Music Industry so again thank you to every single person that has come forward and contacted our office over the past 10 days if you or someone you know suffered the same sort of
treatment please contact us at the number behind me and we will help you thank you I think it it speaks to how important this issue is uh in the United States and frankly internationally that we have uh reputable people here that want to provide kind of information that I think victims need to hear Witnesses need to hear the public needs to hear let me introduce to you now Olivia rivers from the Texas Association against sexual assault and let her visit with you a few moments about these types of cases thank you good afternoon everyone my
name is Q Olivia Rivers I am just served my um six year as the board chair for the Texas Association against sexual assault I'm also the CEO for the Bridge Over Troubled Waters which is a local Rape Crisis Center here in the Houston area so thank you for being here as we address these heinous crimes sexual assault is not just a crime of violence against the body it's an assault on the very essence of human dignity and safety it shatters lives it destroys confidence and all too often it leaves survivors feeling like they are voiceless
isolated and vulnerable the reality for many survivors is that coming forward to report their assault is one of the most difficult and daunting task that they will ever have to do and for some it may take days months or even years to speak up if they ever do the reasons for this have been mentioned but include the fear of being disbelieved being blamed or judged and of course retaliation the trauma of the assault itself being compounded by the trauma of the criminal justice process where survivors must relive their experience in order to seek Justice and
these feelings and fears are further exacerbated when the allegations are against prominent figures in the entertainment industry or Hollywood cases involving powerful figures often attract significant media attention which can deter victims from coming forward due to fear of public exposure or scrutiny the intense focus on these high-profile cases can make survivors feel that their personal lives are being put under a microscope causing further emotional distress these allegations mentioned here today as reported reflect deeply troubling claims that deserve thorough investigation and no individual regardless of their stature is above the law or public accountability sadly the
statistics paint a very disturbing picture according to the National sexual violence vience Resource Center one in three women and one in six men will experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetime in the us alone there are approximately 463,000 victims of rape or sexual assault every year and these numbers barely scratch the surface as sexual of violence remains one of the most underreported crimes but the numbers that follow tell an even more troubling story only about 23% of sexual assaults are reported to law enforcement of those just five % lead to an arrest and
even fewer less than 1% of reported cases ever result in a conviction which is a devastating gap between the crime and the justice that survivors deserve I want to briefly focus on our state here in Texas um according to the Texas Association against sexual assault 6.3 million Texans men and women will experience some form of violence that's every two minutes someone is sexually assaulted meaning during the course of this press conference around 60 individuals will forever be changed by this violence and those are just a few of the victims obviously this is unacceptable we cannot
allow this cycle of silence and an action to continue we have to create an environment where survivors feel empowered to come forward where they are met with empathy and respect and support not skepticism and blame we have to ensure that our legal system is equipped to handle these cases with the seriousness they deserve and that survivors have access access to the resources that they need beyond the legal courtroom we have to address the root causes of this epidemic prevention awareness and fostering environments where respect consent and safety are non-negotiable values additionally support for survivors has
to be holistic they have to have access to counseling Medical Services legal advocacy and of course Community Support regardless of whether they choose to report or not to every Survivor who has come forward your bravery is an inspiration to those who are still grappling with their decision know that you are not alone and that your voice matters your story matters we see you we believe you and we are committed to fighting for a future where sexual violence is no longer tolerated and where Justice is not the exception but the standard thank you I want to
visit with you real quickly before we close here about some specific instances without disclosing the victim's name you probably know that depending on the age of the victim um you can file these cases these individual cases uh under Jane do or John do uh each state is different in that respect uh typically there is a a balancing test like the Public's right to know the name of the of the victim in plain versus versus uh the confidentiality and the safety of the plist so we'll have to struggle with that with each one of these cases
cases Our intention of course is to like we always do file these cases under a pseudonym uh until the court tells us otherwise but let me let me share with you a few a few just kind of give you a sense of the kind of cases and the kind of instances that people are calling and reporting that we are trying to cooporate vet uh and these are the ones that we've already corroborated vetted and collected evidence on um one individual who was 22 years at the time um she was assaulted said that um the the
typical Mo at one of these parties that have been widely discussed um in the Press was that when when you were handed a drink and now we know that the drink is laced with something if you refused to drink it you were kicked out of the party let that sink in for a minute I mean the admission to this party was that you had to drink this The Chosen drink that was handed to you uh and now we know that that in in most cases I would say 90% of the cases uh these individuals were
drugged with some sort of drug that that was kind of the mo another instance this individual who was 9 years old at the time uh was uh taken to a audition in New York City with Bad Boy Records uh other boys were there to audition as well all of them were trying to land a record deal all of them were miners uh this individual was sexually abused allegedly by Shan comes and several other people at the studio uh in the promise uh to both his parents and uh to him himself of getting a record deal
um another instance another minor uh told allegedly by Shan comes that he would make him a star but he needed a visit with him in private about it away from uh his parents once uh they were private area allegedly Mr coms made uh the victim uh perform oral sex upon him another incident uh an individual 15 years old at the time flown uh to New York City to attend a party uh was drugged and then taken into a private room uh allegedly in the presence of Mr coms uh where this uh female individual minor was
was raped and then other individuals took turns raping her another individual 26 at the time of the occurrence uh was picked up by allegedly by Mr Combs and several other people uh in a black SUV from the airport uh was given one drink in the SUV and then literally woke up the next day not knowing what had happened but with pain and damage to both her vagin Vina and her anus where she was then she then went to the hospital she was missing her underwear and her shoes another instance an individual uh this time not
a minor uh was attended a group dinner allegedly with Shan combs in Miami um she wasn't drinking because she was pregnant uh but she whatever she drank at the table apparently at least according to her was laced with something she black out and she woke up in the same bed again allegedly with Mr comes uh in his uh mansion in Miami her vagina and her anus were torn and sore um and I could go on I mean literally you you you're you're sensing a theme here it's it's the same theme uh and it all involves
uh some sort of drug um one instance an individual who was 20 years old at the time uh was asked to attend just saw her on the street asked to attend a party in a hotel um she was flattered went to the party was given one drink and doesn't remember anything else ultimately uh was so messed up was went to the hospital where they found um cocaine and this horse tranquilizer her in her blood system I want to give you a quote from a very young man uh who told us over the phone about his
experience and all the things that happened to him he says allegedly at the hands of Shan Diddy combes and his friends uh in the effort to try to sign a record deal this was kind of what he was told he would have to do his quote is had he not been in power I feel like I could have been something great I quit I quit the industry because of what Sean combes did to me and that's really what it comes down to we are pursuing this asking you to support this effort to encourage Witnesses and
victims to come forward and bring your evidence so we can continue to break down this wall of silence and we can continue uh to have these stories heard um this is the beginning of what I hope to be a national dialogue this type of sexual assault sexual abuse and sexual exploitation should never happen in the united St United States or anywhere else this should have never been allowed to go on for so long this conduct has created a mass of individuals who are injured scared and scarred if you are one of those individuals we ask
you to reach out if not to us to someone you trust if you are someone who witnessed any of these events we ask you to reach out your name can remain confidential with that um I'll take a few questions not many maybe two uh but if you have a question I'll be pleased to try to answer it perfect how many min are making accusations in total aare of the allegations of Min I don't know what the feds are aware of okay but I do know it's 25 out of this 120 Anton I will I will
say this to that point um we welcome the FBI or any Authority who wants to come to us and we're going to make that available to these victims because I think that's important um I my my suspicion is based on U talking with these folks is that that you know FBI is just not aware of these people uh the FBI has talked to some of these folks uh and I'm going to try to make encourage the victims uh to in fact talk to the FBI because I think they have some very important things to say
Tony were all of the children auditioning because they were musicians or were any of them uh kids of employees or anything like that all all seeking either TV or some sort of music career with Promises of you know we're going to make you a star instead basically did things to them such that they don't want to have anything to do with the entertainment industry ever again all right guys thank you very much for your attention we're going to go now thank you Tony do you anticipate any Houston cases any file here there's a few Planet
here but I don't anticipate filing here probably New York City thank you being kicked out of e e
