(The Center Square) – Former Las Vegas Police Capt. John Pelletier was named a co-conspirator this month in a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The Diddy case gained international attention last year. The former billionaire and well-connected rapper and music executive now sits in a Brooklyn, New York jail awaiting trial for several alleged crimes, including sex trafficking.
The lawsuit against Combs was filed in October in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. But the suit did not name Pelletier until it was amended this month. Currently the Maui chief of police, he has denied connection to any of the people or crimes listed in the suit.
“Let me be clear: The allegations made against me are completely false, and I have not been formally served with any legal paperwork,” said Pelletier in a statement.
He has since been placed on administrative leave from the Hawaiian position.
“While the allegations in the amended complaint remain unproven, they are serious in nature and involve claims of alleged criminal conduct,” said Maui County Mayor Richard Bessen in a statement. “As with any such legal matter, due process must be observed, but the existence of these allegations alone presents concerns regarding public trust and the effective functioning of the department.”
The lawsuit, brought on by California resident Ashley Parham and two unnamed plaintiffs, alleged that Pellier impersonated the sheriff from California’s Contra County in 2018. Pelletier was a captain in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department at the time.
It is alleged in the lawsuit that Pelletier worked for Combs and that after Parham ran from a gang rape, he posed as the Contra County sheriff and told her to “find a way to get home,” from the neighbor’s house she had run to, without offering any help.
The lawsuit said Pelletier handed an envelope to the neighbor, who went into a nearby room and quickly returned empty handed.
The Contra County Sheriff’s Office received a police report from Parham that night, according to the suit.
The two unnamed plaintiffs in the case, a mother and son, alleged that Pelletier kidnapped them at gunpoint in a separate incident.
The lawsuit said Pelletier took the two plaintiffs to what they believed was his home on Bay Street in Las Vegas, where they were physically restrained in a living room. They were then allegedly taken to a different home in California where Combs was. There, according to the lawsuit, they were the victims and witnesses of horrible crimes, including, the suit said, the gang rape of Parham.
Defendants in the lawsuit include the high-profile names of comedian Drew “Druski” Desbordes and NFL wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.
The lawsuit, which demands a jury trial, is still unresolved.
