Vibe Magazine & PMC Named Diddy Sex Trafficking Lawsuit

[Source: Court TV]

Celebrity lawyer Christopher C. Melcher, who is ranked as a best family law attorney in California, explains why Vibe Magazine & PMC were named in a new lawsuit accusing Diddy of sex trafficking on Court TV.

Reporter:

Partnership and financial support as well as marketing and coverage of Combs’ white parties and made them party to the alleged actions. Now, the lawsuit says that the plaintiff asserts that the defendant Vibe and PMC’s involvement in this enterprise included providing defendant Combs’ resources like intentionally and falsely marketing and promoting defendant Combs’ white parties in its publication as a high profile networking and social event in an effort to disguise and deceive the real intent of this event.

Here with us to discuss all of these allegations, criminal defense attorney and former attorney for R. Kelly, Steve Greenberg is with us. Also the Editor in Chief of Magazine, Hip Hop Enquirer and celebrity photographer Dennis Byron is joining us, and celebrity analyst and trial attorney Christopher C. Melcher, who is also a partner in Walzer Melcher Yoda LLP (which was named as a best family law firm in California), is with us as well. Thank you all for weighing in on this topic. Steve, let me start with you. This case has some similarities when it comes to how the wording is in this lawsuit to some of the allegations that were against your former client R. Kelly, but there are some stark differences as well. Your reaction to a magazine being added as a defendant in this civil lawsuit and claiming that they were promoting these parties that many revered as something that was an event to be attended.

Diddy’s Lawsuit Similar to R.Kelly

Steve Greenburg:

Look, I’m always suspicious when I see these things because as much as everyone wants to believe these allegations and everyone does believe these allegations just because they’re made years later, in this case decades later, about parties that people were at, you see the list of guests that were at these parties and it’s very difficult to believe that some of these people… I saw Leonardo DiCaprio and other celebrities like that were at these parties, to believe that they were just idly sitting by while these things were going on. They add people in these lawsuits because they’re looking for as many deep pockets as they can to sue. That’s all that’s going on here, but these people come up with these allegations. Why do they wait so long if these are such awful things that have happened to them? I think what ultimately… Although R. Kelly got convicted of some crimes and I wasn’t involved by the time those cases went to trial, I think what you found out was that the smoke that was there was much worse than the fire. All sorts of people said there were all these awful things about R kelly, but when it came down to it, the allegations were actually far less salacious than what people thought they were going to be and that might be the case here too.

Reporter:

Well, this alleged victim, this accuser, in this lawsuit, she’s claiming that she didn’t come forward because of the cycle of abuse, how scared she was to be able to get away or for anyone to believe her, but she says multiple times in this lawsuit it’s because other people are coming forward that she feels emboldened to bring this lawsuit. Dennis, you’ve followed Diddy’s career for 30 years professionally. You attended another trial that he was involved in many years ago and followed him as a celebrity photographer. What can you tell me about these white parties and the legitimacy that they had because we’re seeing them in these pictures. I mean there are some heavy hitters that are attending them.

Activity at Diddy’s White Parties

Dennis Byron:

I’m going to have to agree with Mr. Greenberg in that, one, I probably attended several of the VIBE parties, a lot of the white parties, a lot of parties, the Cipriani‘s. I’ve covered him extensively over the years and I can tell you I’ve seen a lot at these parties. Some, not so nefarious. Some… People drink, they smoke at these parties, but I do know at all of Puffy’s parties there’s security and I’m walking the room, I’m shooting people. I have some of the most iconic shots of Puff. I don’t want to name drop, but there’s so many different celebrities to be at these parties and while you had to be on a guest list and you had to go through a screening process, I can tell you I have not ever witness anything egregious happen at Puff’s parties. I’ve seen some violence happen at parties, but not at Puff’s parties.

Also, when you name a magazine who essentially, like VIBE, they’re just promoting the party. I don’t know what he had going on during that time. I would have to check my archives. I probably have some of the photos in that magazine already, so I don’t know. I think the person or persons that are making these allegations, they have to prove this and then we have to go back in time to substantiate this. This is going to require a deep investigation as Mr. Greenberg knows as well as your panelists know. You just can’t just say someone’s done something. We learned this and I covered R. Kelly’s trial in Chicago and New York and what was put out in the press wasn’t what came out in both the New York trial and the federal trial in Chicago. So I think people should just wait until all the evidence is put on the table. Let’s not rush the judgment, and I’ll say this, there’s another high profile celebrity, I won’t say his name, but he was accused of something and they were suing for $20 million. Guess what? It was all bogus. He went on to get a major award this year. It was bogus and I played a role in investigating that.

Reporter:

Yeah, let me get Chris Melcher’s take on specifically Vibe Magazine because we’re going to keep talking about this, but there’s a picture, Chris that has been shown that the plaintiff put in this lawsuit, said that it was taken without her knowledge, it was used in the magazine and she’s saying during this time she was not necessarily trafficked while she was wearing the white, but once they in later times had her to wear black, then she was designated as this sex worker. Your thoughts on the magazine being named as part of this lawsuit.

Vibe Magazine & Diddy Lawsuit

Chris Melcher:

This seems to be opportunistic and I read the complaint, it’s over a hundred pages long, and it’s really not the normal type of legal complaint that we would see. This looks more like a press release and pushing up all these other allegations that have been made and it just seems like an opportunity for her to pile on and to make allegations now saying that she was offended or hurt by things that she appeared to have done willingly earlier on. So I agree with the other comments that this is easy for somebody with a computer to basically come out here and type this stuff up and file it in federal court. That’s not proof of anything and I think that the allegation against Vibe, there doesn’t seem to be any real basis for that.

Reporter:

I got to say it’s a detailed lawsuit and it has those pictures. It seems that they want to show that Vibe Magazine gave legitimacy to this and they’ve got the proof, but we are going to keep talking about this case.