(AllHipHop News) Rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs’ lawyers have slammed his former chef’s sexual harassment lawsuit as a bid to “extract a settlement.”
Cindy Rueda filed a complaint in Los Angeles County Superior Court in May (17) alleging she was asked to serve meals to the rapper and or his friends while they were having sex and was subsequently framed for theft and fired after she complained about it.
Lawyers for the 46-year-old music mogul have now formally responded to the lawsuit in a letter to her lawyers penned by his attorney Orin Snyder and filed with the court.
“Combs enterprises will not be extorted,” the letter, obtained by editors at the New York Daily News, reads.
Accusing Rueda’s suit of being, “infected with distortions, omissions and outright falsehoods” he added, “Your motives are clear: To threaten to slander and impugn the reputation of our client in the hopes of extracting a settlement. This smacks of bad faith – and worse.”
The chef, who worked for Combs from January 2015 until May last year, is suing the rapper for wrongful termination, sexual harassment, retaliation, defamation, failure to pay overtime and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other claims.
In her complaint, Rueda alleged that while employed by the rapper she had been, “regularly summoned by Mr. Combs to prepare and serve entrees and appetizers to him and his guests while Mr. Combs and/or his guests were engaged in or immediately following sexual activity.”
She claims her firing came after the music mogul’s executive housekeeper Iris offered her a watch she said had been found in the trash.
Having taken the timepiece Rueda says she was subsequently accused of theft and told she would not be prosecuted if she returned it and signed a legal waiver.
The chef states that she returned the watch but refused to sign the waiver and was subsequently fired.
In his letter Snyder called the allegation she was framed “particularly outrageous.”
Combs’ legal paperwork requested court officials schedule a hearing for August of 2017.