Jay-Z and his lawyer are still fighting the Jane Doe claims.
Jay-Z and Sean “Diddy” Combs are currently accused of drugging and sexually abusing a 13-year-old together over 24 years ago. Jay-Z and his lawyer, Alex Spiro, now want to further refute the rape allegation.
Attorney denies GMVA claim
“Plaintiff cannot assert her sole claim under the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act (GMV Act) because the law does not apply retroactively,” Spiro wrote in a two-page letter on December 30, according to Deadline to Judge Analisa Torres. The GMV law applies to victims who have been harmed by a “gender-motivated violent crime”. So through an act committed because of a person’s gender.
Spiro continued: “Plaintiff alleges a violation of the GMV Act for conduct that allegedly occurred in September 2000. However, the GMV Act was only enacted on December 19, 2000, three months after the FAC alleged the conduct occurred, and cannot be applied retroactively to create a cause of action that was not available to the plaintiff at the time in question.”
Thus, the attorney attempts to challenge Jane Doe’s lawsuit on the grounds that her rape claim occurred too many years ago. Furthermore, this claim cannot be retrospectively revived under New York City’s Gender-Based Violence (GMV) Victims Protection Act.
The deadline for filing a lawsuit has already expired
In addition, the musician and his lawyer went one step further: Jane Doe’s ability to file a lawsuit “expired in August 2021 at the latest.” The artist cited New York’s Child Victims Act (CVA) as the reason for this. This law would allow victims of child sexual assault to file a civil lawsuit until their 55th birthday. But, according to Spiro, “any viable claim under the GMV Act is barred under the New York Child Victims Act (CVA), which takes precedence over the plaintiff’s claim under the GMV Act.” That means Jane Doe and her attorney Tony Buzbee have three years late.
Citing the case of Jeanne Bellino v. Steven Tyler
Spiro also referred to an earlier decision by another federal judge from the Southern District of New York. He rejected a lawsuit for sexual assault by child model Jeanne Bellino against Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler. The reason: Bellino and her lawyer tried to use the GMVA “Revival Window”. Typically, the GMVA allows a period of seven years after the violent act to file a civil lawsuit against the perpetrator. Thanks to a change in the law in January 2022, it became possible to file a lawsuit within a two-year retroactive period after the claims had expired. This means that the original statutory deadline for filing a lawsuit would be extended to nine years. A deadline that was apparently missed in the Bellino case and the Jane Doe case.
The alleged rape of the then underage Jane Doe is said to have been carried out on September 7, 2000 by Combs, Jay-Z and another, as yet unnamed, prominent woman. All this during Combs’ “Freak-Offs” party after the 2000 MTV VMAs.