Sean “Diddy” Combs has won the dismissal of another civil abuse lawsuit, this one filed by a winner of MTV’s Making the Band who claimed he harassed and assaulted her.

Danity Kane singer Dawn Richard sued Diddy in 2024, one of many allegations from dozens of accusers that ultimately culminated in his criminal trial and convictions last year. But in a ruling on Friday (June 12), a federal judge ruled her case was filed far past the statute of limitations.

“Mr. Combs’s conduct for which plaintiff sues — while indisputably odious — ceased in 2011 or 2012,” Judge Katherine Polk Failla wrote. “Plaintiff does not allege that Mr. Combs committed any tortious conduct against her again in the twelve or thirteen years before she filed suit.”

Richard’s lawyers argued that those time limits should be suspended, claiming Diddy and producer Harve Pierre had threatened her into remaining silent for years. But Judge Failla was unswayed, saying they technically would have needed to hide their alleged wrongdoing from her for that particular argument to work.

“Mr. Combs’s and Mr. Pierre’s threats were undoubtedly intended to discourage plaintiff from unveiling their misdeeds and holding them to account,” the judge wrote. “But the threats themselves did not conceal defendants’ misdeeds from plaintiff; if anything, they made her more aware.”

In technical terms, the judge dismissed 17 of the lawsuit’s 18 claims against Diddy; the judge did say Richard could refile one of her claims, under New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Act, in state court, if she so chose.

In a statement to Billboard, Richard’s attorney Arick Fudali vowed to do so: “We are encouraged and look forward to pursuing our primary claim filed under the gender motivated violence act in state court in New York City, per the judge’s decision. We intend to continue to fight for Dawn until justice is achieved.”

Combs spokesman Juda S. Engelmayer told Billboard that the hip-hop mogul and his team were “pleased” with the ruling. “For quite some time, allegations from this lawsuit generated headlines around the world,” Engelmayer said. “Today’s decision dismissing the case is an important reminder that allegations are not findings and that courts exist to evaluate claims under established legal standards.”

Richard was a contestant on the third season of Making the Band, a popular 2000s reality show featuring aspiring artists training under Diddy. She was eventually chosen for the girl group Danity Kane, which released two albums in the late 2000s. When the band broke up in 2009, Richard was a member of another band called Diddy-Dirty Money; she later rejoined Danity in 2013 and was a member of the group until 2020.

Her case against Combs, filed in September 2024, was part of a flood of similar litigation sparked by a high-profile November 2023 lawsuit filed by the star’s ex-girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura. By the end of 2024, Diddy had been indicted on federal sex-trafficking and RICO charges and was facing dozens of civil abuse lawsuits.

Diddy was convicted in June 2025 on prostitution charges and later sentenced to four years in prison, which he continues to serve as he fights an appeal. But the jury acquitted him on the most serious counts that could have sent him to prison for life, and several of the civil cases have since been dismissed.

In August, a federal judge tossed out a $60 million lawsuit filed by another Making the Band contestant named Sara Rivers, who claimed the star had harassed and groped her during the filming of the show. Later that month, a judge dismissed a different case accusing Diddy of drugging and sexually battering a 23-year-old man at an afterparty in 2015. Similar to Friday’s ruling, both lawsuits were dismissed over long-lapsed statutes of limitations.

Another case, filed by a woman named Ashley Parham, was tossed out in December after the judge said she had failed to litigate it. The star is still facing many other lawsuits, however, including a new one filed this month that accuses him of sexually assaulting a child actor in 2007.

In her ruling on Friday, Judge Failla at times sounded a sympathetic tone for Richard, noting that she was not ruling on the veracity of her accusations against Diddy and was merely compelled to dismiss the case because of the long delay.

“The court’s resolution of the instant motion exists independently of its disapprobation of the factual allegations, which, if true, are execrable,” the judge wrote. “The court is, of course, compelled to follow the law.”

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