Jodeci Member Donald DeGrate Jr., also known as DeVanté Swing, was added as a co-defendant in a sexual assault lawsuit filed against Sean Combs.
In November, Combs, 54, and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall, 60, were sued for allegedly raping Liza Gardner when she was 16 in 1990. DeVanté Swing, 55, is now added as a co-defendant in that lawsuit.
Gardner amended her complaint to include Swing who she claims was present in the room and watched the incident as it occurred.
“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,” the lawsuit reads.
In May, a woman submitted a sworn statement claiming she was also a minor with Gardner that night. She claims she saw Swing “leaning against the wall or furniture or something, watching whatever Puffy was doing to Liza.”
In the new filing, Gardner accused Swing, who was 20 or 21 years old at the time, of “aiding and abetting” the alleged abuse. Swing served as Gardner’s “co-guardian at the time” because he invited her to the New York area with a group of her teenage friends.
The girls stayed with him in New Jersey, at a rental house allegedly “subsidized” by Uptown Records, the MCA subsidiary where Combs was working as an A&R executive.
The lawsuit claims Swing “had a duty to protect the child 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.”
Rumor has it that a plethora of lawyers are representing hundreds of women who claim they were assaulted by various bold name rappers, R&B singers, pro athletes and actors over the decades.
Many of those named in potential lawsuits have already paid hush money to settle out of court.
