Howard University in Washington, D.C., has severed ties with rap mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, rescinding an honorary degree and discontinuing a scholarship program in his honor after a video surfaced showing him reportedly hitting R&B singer Cassie.
The 2016 video appears to show Combs in a white towel beating and kicking Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Elizabeth Ventura, in a Los Angeles hotel ballroom. At the time, she was his long-term girlfriend.
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The video also shows Combs shoving, dragging, and hurling a vase at Cassie. In November, she filed a complaint against Combs, alleging years of violence and sexual abuse.
The university’s board of trustees declared that 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 no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor.
According to Ventura’s lawsuit, Combs spent $50,000 for the footage at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles’ Century City neighborhood, while CNN obtained publicly available photographs that showed basically the same thing.
This was the latest in a slew of public allegations and revelations of physical and sexual assault against the hip-hop artist. He apologized and accepted responsibility for his acts against Cassie.
Ventura’s case was resolved the same day it was filed, but Combs has faced tremendous scrutiny, with numerous additional claims filed in the months since, as well as a federal criminal sex-trafficking investigation that resulted in a raid on Combs’ estates in Los Angeles and Miami.
The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office acknowledged the footage but said it had not received a case; if one had, the statute of limitations had already passed, making any legal action impossible.
“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 police department stated.
Howard University announced on Friday that the board had approved the return of Combs’ 2014 honorary degree.
“This acceptance voids all honors and privileges associated with the degree. The Board has therefore requested the removal of his name from all lists of recipients of Howard University honorary degrees.
