Hip-Hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs will stand trial in May for allegedly assaulting outside of an Oscar party last February.
Gerard Rechnitzer claims Combs assaulted him on February 25, Feb. 25, 2007 in a parking lot at The Roosevelt Hotel after the Academy Awards, one of the entertainment industry’s biggest nights.
Rechnitzer claims that he questioned Combs for talking to his fiancée as they were leaving Teddy’s nightclub in Hollywood.
According to Rechnitzer, he confronted Combs and the mogul responded: “what the f**k you looking at dude? I’ll smack flames out of you’re a**!”
Rechnitzer, who filed the lawsuit in March of 2007, claims Combs made good on his threat and punched him in his face without warning, causing him to fall into a taxi cab parked nearby.
Rechnitzer is seeking an undisclosed amount of punitive damages stemming from the assault, in which Combs is also accused of shoving the man’s girlfriend.
The man suffered minor injuries and had to visit a dentist, as well as a hearing expert. Combs’ attorneys have dismissed the lawsuit.
Combs himself claims that Rechnitzer lunged toward him and that “any contact was caused by his forward motion against my open hand.”
According to the Associated Press, the mogul won a round in court yesterday (Feb. 27), when Superior Court Judge Robert L. Hess ruled that Combs did not have to turn over financial information to Rechnitzer’s lawyers until the trial was underway.
Combs’ defense attorneys possess a video tape from hotel security, which they claim proves Rechnitzer made the first move, but the judge declined to view the tape due to the poor quality of the footage.
