Photo Credit: Jay-Z by Joella Marano / CC by 2.0
Jay-Z countersues the Jane Doe and her attorney who accused him of rape, despite them dropping their suit against him previously.
After a Jane Doe represented by attorney Tony Buzbee dropped her suit against Jay-Z with allegations of sexual assault, the rapper and music mogul is suing both for defamation and extortion. The suit comes just a few weeks after Jane Doe dropped her case against Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) and Diddy (Sean Combs), unwilling to reveal her identity.
According to the new filing, the initial allegations of rape were “knowingly false” and “malicious,” as well as “strategically and tactically calculated and timed to inflict maximum pain and suffering on Mr. Carter.”
Doe filed her suit in October — one of many filed against Combs over the past year under Buzbee — and refiled it two months later to include Carter as a defendant. In it, both men were accused of raping Doe in 2000 when she was a minor, after bringing her to an MTV Video Music Awards afterparty.
Carter has vehemently denied the allegations, and the case was dropped suddenly last month. But now, Carter and his attorneys claim the lawsuit was based on knowingly false information from the beginning. Before his name was publicly added to the lawsuit, Carter says Buzbee sent him an “extortionate” demand letter and an anonymous lawsuit. When he wouldn’t acquiesce, he says the lawsuit was refiled to publicly name him.
His attorneys insist Doe informed Buzbee that she had not been sexually assaulted, but that Buzbee “pushed [her] towards going forward with the false story against Mr. Carter” to extort them for a better payday. They also claim she “voluntarily admitted directly to representatives of Mr. Carter that the story […] was just that: a false, malicious story.”
Carter is suing for malicious prosecution, abuse of process, civil conspiracy, and defamation. He is seeking assumed and actual damages, as well as punitive damages.
“This [latest] filing asserts the same claims as another case Jay-Z’s team pieced together and filed,” said Buzbee in a statement to Variety. “Like the case in LA, this new case in Alabama also has no legal merit. Shawn Carter’s investigators have repeatedly harassed, threatened, and harangued this poor woman for weeks trying to intimidate her and make her recant her story. She hasn’t, and won’t. Instead, she stated repeatedly she stands by her claims.”
“These same group of investigators have been caught on tape offering to pay people to sue me and my firm,” he added. “After speaking with Jane Doe today, it appears that the quotes attributed to her in the lawsuit are completely made up, or they spoke to someone who isn’t Jane Doe. This is just another attempt to intimidate and bully this poor woman that we will deal with in due course. We won’t be bullied or intimidated by frivolous cases.”
