The snowball effect has really been thematic in the Diddy federal racketeering/ sex trafficking saga, and now more accusations are piling up with other Bad Boy artists attached to the drama.
Jodeci member/producer Devante Swing has been accused in the rape of a 16-year-old in which Diddy and Guy frontman Aaron Hall has already been implicated earlier this year. The rape charge, which allegedly occurred in 1990, has has added Swing to the list of defendants for being in the same room.
The suit, which Rolling Stone obtained, states, “Unbeknownst to Ms. Gardner at the time, Defendant Swing was in the room when this assault took place and did not take any steps to prevent this abuse from occurring.” A sworn statement given by a witness also states that Swing was “leaning against the wall or furniture or something, watching whatever Puffy was doing to Liza.[Gardner].”
The R&B producer was reportedly Gardner’s co-guardian at the time of the alleged rape.
The lawsuit claims Swing “had a duty to protect [Gardner] as her parents entrusted him with her safety. He trafficked and or coerced the child [to] travel across state lines from North Carolina to New York and New Jersey with the hidden intention of providing the child with alcohol, and marijuana and prostituting the child to his A&R Combs [Diddy].”
Swing nor any of his representatives have responded to these allegations.
Liza Gardner was one of the first people to file rape charges against Diddy following the very public lawsuit filed by Cassie, which has spawned into the Bad Boy mogul’s current rape, racketeering, and sex trafficking charges that he has faced in federal court.
“At the time Combs assaulted Ms. Gardner, she recalls feeling the side effects of the alcohol. She recalls Combs mounting her, and forcing up her skirt, pulling her underwear to the side and forcefully penetrating her,” her lawsuit says.
Diddy’s attorneys have denied these claims and scoffed at them as a mere “money grab.” Diddy’s trial date has recently been forecasted to take place in April or May 2025.