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50 Cent and Netflix are facing a lawsuit from a former sex worker who appeared in the hit docuseries about Sean "Diddy" Combs for allegedly "distorting" his perspective.
According to a report Billboard published on Wednesday, January 28, Clayton Howard, a sex worker whom Combs allegedly hired to participate in his “freak off” parties with Casandra "Cassie" Ventura, alleges the producers made a “calculated misrepresentation” of his version of the story. He points to one instance where Ventura was portrayed as a victim when he alleged she enabled Combs' alleged abuse. In a previous lawsuit, Howard alleged he was “drugged, manipulated, and traumatized” by both Ventura and Combs.
“Defendants deliberately edited, distorted, and misrepresented plaintiff’s account to portray Cassie Ventura — plaintiff’s primary trafficker — as a victim, while omitting and suppressing plaintiff’s testimony that he was sex trafficked by Ventura, thereby inflicting severe harm upon plaintiff’s reputation,” Howard wrote in the new lawsuit.
Howard's lawsuit alleges fraudulent inducement, defamation, and more wrongdoing. He alleges 50 Cent and Netflix tricked him into participating in the docuseries after they promised him that his “complete and truthful account would be told." Clayton Howard's attorneys filed his case last month in state court, but lawyers for the defendants motioned to transfer it to a federal court. He’s seeking at least $20 million in damages.
This is just the latest legal issue to pop up following the release of 50 Cent and Netflix's Sean Combs: The Reckoning. Before the docuseries dropped, Combs' legal team issued a cease-and-desist while claiming the program used "stolen footage." As of this report, Combs has yet to filed a formal lawsuit.