Miami Beach rescinds 'Sean Diddy Combs Day' as lawmaker says 'woman beaters have no place here'
Miami Beach will no longer be celebrating Sean 'Diddy' Combs Day, officials announced.
The city of Miami Beach's mayor and commission rescinded the October 13 proclamation on June 26, as reported by NBC Miami.
Miami Beach Commissioner David Suarez said in a statement: 'As long as I am a City Commissioner of Miami Beach, women beaters, sexual predators and pedophiles will have no place in our city.'
The decision by the city government comes two months after the music mogul's Miami mansion was raided by the FBI as part of a sex trafficking probe.
It also comes after footage emerged of Diddy, 54, assaulting his ex-girlfriend Cassandra 'Cassie' Ventura.
Miami Beach will no longer be celebrating Sean ' Diddy ' Combs Day, officials announced
Diddy had received the honor in 2016 - the same year he was filmed hitting Cassie.
The rapper's reputation has been sullied following several lawsuits filed late last year that raised allegations of sexual assault and rape on the part of one of hip-hop’s most recognizable performers and producers.
In November, he was sued by R&B singer Cassie, who said he subjected her to a yearslong abusive relationship that included beatings and rape.
The suit said he plied her with drugs, forced her to have sex with other men, and raped her in her home as she was trying to end the relationship in 2018. Diddy, through his attorney, 'vehemently denies' the accusations.
Diddy, however, apologized after video emerged showing him brutally assaulting Cassie in the hallway of a hotel.
The legal challenge by Cassie was settled the next day, but spurred intense scrutiny of Diddy, with several more lawsuits filed in the following months, along with a federal criminal sex-trafficking investigation that led authorities to raid Combs' mansions in Los Angeles and Miami.
Miami Beach Commissioner David Suarez said in a statement: 'As long as I am a City Commissioner of Miami Beach, women beaters, sexual predators and pedophiles will have no place in our city'
Diddy received the honor in 2016 from then-Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine
Combs' sons, Justin and Christian 'King' Combs, were handcuffed during the raid at their father's residence in Los Angeles.
Two more women accused Diddy of sexual abuse in lawsuits filed on the eve of the expiration of the Adult Survivors Act last November, a New York law permitting victims of sexual abuse a one-year window to file civil action regardless of the statute of limitations.
The lawsuits, filed by Joi Dickerson and another woman who was not named, allege acts of sexual assault, beatings and forced drugging in the early 1990s by Combs, then a talent director, party promoter and rising figure in New York City's hip-hop community.
In December, another woman alleged in a lawsuit that in 2003 when she was 17, Diddy and two other men raped her.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Manhattan says she was living in a Detroit suburb and was flown to a New York studio, where she was given drugs and alcohol that made her incapable of consenting to sex, and the men took turns raping her.
The mother of two of Diddy's sons, Misa Hylton, shared footage of the raid in the rapper's Los Angeles mansion
The rapper's reputation has been sullied following several lawsuits filed late last year that raised allegations of sexual assault and rape
The same day, Diddy posted a statement on Instagram broadly denying all the allegations in the mounting series of lawsuits.
'I did not do any of the awful things being alleged,' the post says. 'I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.'
In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Diddy coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them.
The lawsuit gives a long list of potentially illegal activities dealing with drugs and sex that the producer says he witnessed. A lawyer for the rapper called the allegations 'pure fiction.'
The rapper is among the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades.
Formerly known as Puff Daddy, he built one of hip-hop's biggest empires, blazing a trail with several entities attached to his famous name.
He is the founder of Bad Boy Records and a three-time Grammy winner who has worked with a slew of top-tier artists including Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lil Kim, Faith Evans and 112.
