Diddy Beats Case, Young Thug Gets His Stuff, Feds Target Taylor Swift Tickets & More Music Law

THE BIG STORY: Six weeks after Sean “Diddy” Combs was largely acquitted on federal criminal charges, he won another court victory dismissing most of a $60 million civil sexual assault lawsuit filed by “Making the Band 2” contestant Sara Rivers.

Rivers, who became a member of hip-hop group Da Band, sued Combs earlier this year – accusing him of sexually harassing and groping her during the filming of the 2000s MTV reality show. But a federal judge last week dismissed 21 of the 22 counts in her lawsuit, including racketeering, assault and battery, forced labor, and false imprisonment.

Even after his recent courtroom wins, Diddy is hardly out of the woods. He’s still facing dozens of other civil lawsuits from other alleged victims, accusing him of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment and various other forms of sexual abuse. And he’s still going to be sentenced in October on the lesser criminal charges on which he was convicted – counts that could still send him to prison for years. Stay tuned.

Other top stories this week…

CARDI COPYRIGHT CLASH – A pair of music producers suing Cardi B for copyright infringement over “Enough (Miami)” demanded an injunction that would prohibit the superstar from streaming or otherwise monetizing the track as the litigation moves forward. That includes barring her from putting the song on Am I the Drama?, her long-awaited sophomore album due Sept. 19 via Atlantic Records.

BOT CRACKDOWN – The Federal Trade Commission launched a crackdown on alleged scalpers, filing a lawsuit accusing ticket broker Key Investment Group of using “illegal means” to purchase more than 379,000 event tickets on Ticketmaster and then re-selling them at massively-inflated prices. More than 2,000 of those tickets were allegedly for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour – the poster child for the problem of bot-scalpers and eye-watering secondary prices.

FORFEITURE FIGHT – Young Thug won a court ruling ordering the return of property seized by law enforcement during his Atlanta gang trial, including nearly $150,000 in cash, several cars and numerous pieces of jewelry. The decision – the judge said prosecutors missed key deadlines to litigate the case – came a little under a year after Thug’s stunning release from jail after pleading guilty in the RICO case.

CARTEL SENTENCING – Music executive Ángel Del Villar was sentenced to 48 months (4 years) in prison following his conviction on felony charges of doing business with a concert promoter linked to Mexican drug cartels. Prosecutors alleged that Del Villar repeatedly arranged concerts with Jesus Pérez Alvear, a promoter with ties to Mexican cartels – even though he knew he had been sanctioned by federal authorities.

TORY’S APPEAL – Attorneys for Tory Lanez (Daystar Peterson) went before a California appeals court for a crucial hearing in his efforts to overturn his convictions for shooting Megan Thee Stallion. They told the panel that Lanez’s trial was “riddled with errors,” including misleading statements about DNA evidence and a key witness they were not allowed to properly cross examine. But the government was unconcerned, calling some of Lanez’s arguments non-sensical: “The evidence in this case was compelling.”

DISCOVERY DRAMA – Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge fired back at Drake’s demand to read his emails amid the ongoing defamation lawsuit over the Kendrick Lamar diss track “Not Like Us,” calling the request “farcical” and “ridiculous.” He told a judge that it “makes no sense whatsoever” that the boss of the world’s largest music company would play a role in the release of a single song and that Drake was trying to “waste my and UMG’s time.”

UNSURPRISING DIVORCE – Kate Bowman, the wife of founding Maroon 5 bassist Mickey Madden, filed for divorce, just two weeks after she sought a restraining order in which she accused the musician of beating her during a confrontation about disturbing and sexual texts he’d sent to teenage girls. Seeking spousal support and a separation of assets, Bowman cited “irreconcilable differences” with Madden as the cause for the split.

DYLAN’S REVENGE – Bob Dylan won legal penalties at a federal appeals court against two lawyers who filed — and then quickly dropped — a lawsuit accusing the icon of sexually abusing a child in the 1960s. seeking the sanctions against the duo (Daniel W. Isaacs and Peter J. Gleason), Dylan’s lawyers said they made “heinous and false allegations” without sufficient vetting and then repeatedly violated a court order by failing to get their client to turn over key evidence.

UGLY ACCUSATIONS – Priscilla Presley’s former business partners (Brigitte Kruse and Kevin Fialko) fired back at her recent allegations of elder abuse against them, filing a countersuit that included the shocking accusation that Elvis Presley’s widow “pulled the plug” on Lisa Marie Presley against her late daughter’s wishes. Priscilla’s attorney — veteran entertainment lawyer Martin Singer — quickly called the case a “disgusting publicity stunt” and “one of the most shameful, ridiculous, salacious, and meritless lawsuits I have seen in my practice.”

DEFAULT JUDGMENT – Jimmie Allen was judged liable for sexually assaulting and secretly filming a woman in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2022. Allen has denied those accusations, but a judge ruled that he had forfeited his right to defend himself by flouting multiple court-imposed deadlines and orders in the lawsuit. The case is one of two civil sexual assault lawsuits brought against Allen in 2023, derailing the singer’s promising career; the first was settled in 2024.

GEFFEN RESPONDS – Music and film mogul David Geffen filed his first response to a bombshell abuse lawsuit from his estranged husband Donovan Michaels, calling them “a ludicrous and contrived attempt to humiliate Geffen in the court of public opinion and extract an out-of-court settlement.” The case from Michaels, a former exotic dancer 50 years Geffen’s junior, claimed that the Hollywood powerhouse treated him as a “sexual commodity” for years.

KINGSTON SENTENCING – Sean Kingston was sentenced to 42 months (3.5 years) in prison and three years probation after being convicted of federal wire fraud over a scheme involving over $1 million in high-end cars, jewelry and other luxury goods. Kingston, who topped the charts with his 2007 “Beautiful Girls,” was convicted in March alongside his mother for essentially conning vendors into giving him merch – including a Cadillac Escalade and a massive LED television — by falsely promising payment.

FESTIVAL FRAUD – A new lawsuit claimed that a booking agent named Christopher Young lied about securing Doechii and SiR as headliners for a Baltimore music festival this summer, then snagged a nearly $200,000 deposit from the show’s organizer and pocketed the cash even after his scheme unraveled. The suit claims that Young “never spoke to anyone” about Doechii and had only “preliminary conversations” about locking down SiR for the festival.