Sean Combs arrives in the press room at the 2023 MTV Video Music Awards in 2023. Howard University cut ties with the rapper Friday after a view surfaced showing what appeared to be him attacking R&B singer Cassie. File Photo by Jason Szenes/UPI |
License PhotoJune 9 (UPI) — Howard University in Washington, D.C., has cut ties with rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, rescinding an honorary degree awarded to him and ending a scholarship program in his name after a video surfaced showing him allegedly attacking R&B star Cassie.
The 2016 video appears to show Combs in only a white towel beating and kicking Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Elizabeth Ventura, in the ballroom of a Los Angeles hotel. She was his longtime girlfriend at the time.
The footage also shows Combs shoving and dragging Cassie and throwing a vase toward her. She filed a lawsuit in November alleging years of violence and sexual abuse by Combs.
“Mr. Combs’ behavior as captured in a recently released video is so fundamentally incompatible with Howard University’s core values and beliefs that he is deemed no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor,” the university’s board of trustees said in a statement.
Ventura’s lawsuit alleges Combs paid the hotel, the InterContinental Hotel in the Century City area of Los Angeles, $50,000 for the video, but CNN obtained images that it said were publicly available that showed largely the same thing.
This was the latest allegation in a series of public allegations and revelations of physical and sexual violence from the hip-hop star. He apologized and took responsibility for his actions against Cassie.
Ventura’s lawsuit was settled the day after it was filed, but intense scrutiny of Combs has followed, and several more lawsuits were filed in the ensuing months, along with a federal criminal sex-trafficking investigation that led to a raid of Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office said it was aware of the video but that it had not been presented with a case, and if a case was presented, the statute of limitations has already been surpassed and no legal action could be taken.
“If the conduct depicted occurred in 2016, unfortunately we would be unable to charge as the conduct would have occurred beyond the timeline where a crime of assault can be prosecuted,” the office said.
The statement from Howard University said Friday the board accepted the return of the honorary degree Combs received in 2014.
“This acceptance revokes all honors and privileges associated with the degree. Accordingly, the Board has directed that his name be removed from all documents listing honorary degree recipients of Howard University,” it said.
