BY: Walker
Published 2 days ago
Back in 2021, Diplo faced multiple sexual assault allegations (of which he has denied). Eventually, one of the cases was quietly dropped.
In a ruling this week, U.S. District Court Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani said the woman did not meet the requirements to proceed anonymously, either in terms of privacy concerns or potential danger. Lawyers for Diplo, born Thomas Wesley Pentz, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling. “Plaintiff has not made a sufficient factual showing as to the severity and reasonableness of threatened harm and her vulnerability to justify the need for anonymity,” the judge said in her decision. “The court appreciates that plaintiff’s allegations in her complaint are ‘sensitive and [of a] highly personal nature,’ [and] that she may face some public scrutiny if she were to proceed in her own name because Pentz is a public figure. However, absent a demonstrated need for anonymity, there is a prevailing public interest in open judicial proceedings.”
Jane Doe’s lawyers said Friday that they plan to appeal the decision. “Especially where the defendant is famous, the forced disclosure of a victim’s name can open the door to public smear campaigns and abusive fear tactics against them. This can cause irreparable harm to a victim’s mental, physical, and financial health, as well as chill access justice for all survivors. Jane Doe intends to request that the court reconsider this ruling and if necessary to appeal this order for another chance at saving herself from harm and protecting her privacy, dignity, and mental health,” attorney Micha Liberty said in a statement sent to Rolling Stone.
In her lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles, the woman alleges she was 21 years old in April 2016 when she began communicating with Pentz, who was 37 at the time, over Snapchat. According to the woman, she and Pentz went on to engage in an intimate relationship that lasted several years. She acknowledges that occasionally she allowed Pentz to record them having sex, but claims she “never gave him permission to distribute those images and videos to third parties.” She alleges that between 2018 and 2023, Pentz recorded himself having sex with her and then shared the video with others over both text messaging and Snapchat. The woman claims that a different woman contacted her in November 2023 to say Pentz had shared some of the “intimate material” with her on Snapchat on Oct. 14, 2018.
via: Rolling Stone
