The anonymous Jane Doe who sued Diplo last June for allegedly distributing X-rated footage of their sexual encounters to third parties without her consent, filed a notice of dismissal on Monday.
via: People
The unnamed woman who sued Diplo in June on allegations of revenge porn has dropped her lawsuit against the DJ and producer, two weeks after a California judge ruled she’d have to reveal her identity in order to move forward.
Attorneys for Jane Doe — who has alleged that Diplo sent sexually explicit photos of her to third parties — filed a notice of dismissal on Monday, Jan. 13, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE. It remains unclear if she plans to file again, and her attorneys did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
The dismissal came two weeks after Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani denied Doe’s motion to continue pursuing her case against Diplo, 46, anonymously. Though she’d argued the pseudonym was to “shield herself from retaliation,” Almadani said Doe’s case didn’t meet the “clear-cut, high-risk situations” requirement needed to stay anonymous.
"The court appreciates that plaintiff's allegations in her complaint are sensitive and of a highly personal nature and that she may face some public scrutiny," Judge Almadani wrote on Dec. 31, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE. "However, absent a demonstrated need for anonymity, there is a prevailing public interest in open judicial proceedings."
In a statement shared with Billboard, Doe’s attorneys called the “imbalance of power” in the case “startling.”
“In the digital age, being compelled to disclose one's name in such proceedings risks permanently linking a survivor to their trauma,” they said.
Reps for Diplo did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
In her complaint, Doe claimed she had an intimate relationship with Diplo — whose real name is Thomas Welsey Pentz — from 2016 to 2023, and that he recorded himself having sex with her on multiple occasions without her consent. She alleged he then “disclosed and/or distributed the images and videos to third parties through text messaging and Snapchat.”
The complaint said that while Doe gave the star permission to record them having sex on some occasions, she “never gave him permission to distribute those images and videos to third parties and reiterated that he was not to record them without her explicit consent.”
She claims to have been contacted by a third party for the first time in November 2023, and found that they allegedly were in possession of “intimate material” of her and Diplo having sex. Doe was allegedly told that the unnamed party received the explicit photos and videos, which depicted her "genitals, buttocks, and face," on Oct. 14, 2018.
She filed a police report shortly after, and within days “the NYPD issued a warrant for Defendant Diplo’s arrest for dissemination of intimate images and/or videos” of Doe, per the filing.
The NYPD wouldn't confirm if there was an active warrant for Diplo, but acknowledged there was an active investigation.
“There is a criminal complaint on file for unlawful dissemination for a suspect with the name of Thomas Pentz which is currently being investigated by NYPD detectives,” a Deputy Commissioner, Public Information (DCPI) spokesperson told PEOPLE in a statement in June.
The star was previously sued in August 2023 by Shelly Auguste, who reportedly accused him of distributing nude photographs of her without her consent, among other things — and who he had sued for stalking, trespassing and more. Earlier this month, the two reached a “resolution in principle” that let them avoid a trial, Rolling Stone reported.
In July 2021, Diplo was sued by a woman who claimed he wouldn’t let her leave the room at an afterparty in Las Vegas until she performed oral sex on him. He denied the incident and the woman dropped the lawsuit the following week, according to Rolling Stone.
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