A former Metropolitan Police Department captain named as a defendant in a federal lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs and others said he was in Las Vegas when an alleged sexual assault took place in California in 2018, and that he has documentation to prove it.
John Pelletier, now chief of the Maui Police Department in Hawaii, said in a statement emailed by the department Friday that he has “never visited the city of Orinda or Contra Costa County, California,” where the first of two alleged incidents is claimed to have occurred. That was on March 23, 2018.
“I can unequivocally account for my whereabouts on that date, with documented proof confirming I was in Las Vegas,” Pelletier said in the statement.
The lawsuit, filed by California resident Ashley Parham and two anonymous plaintiffs, alleges that Pelletier helped to cover up a 2018 California sexual assault and kidnapped two witnesses.
Federal prosecutors have accused Combs, the rapper and founder of Bad Boy Records who was indicted in September, of physically and sexually abusing women. An amended complaint was filed last week.
A Maui police spokesperson also provided personal account statements with Pelletier’s name that showed transactions in Las Vegas, roughly 560 miles from Orinda, on March 23, 2018. The records did not indicate the exact time the transactions took place or which financial institution provided the account.
A police spokesperson did not respond to a request for clarification.
Another record appeared to show that Pelletier made an in-person payment at a 24 Hour Fitness in Las Vegas that morning.
Pelletier served in the Metropolitan Police Department for 22 years, rising to the rank of captain, before he left and took a job in 2021 as chief of the Maui Police Department.
“Chief Pelletier has no connections whatsoever to any individuals named in the lawsuit,” Maui police said in a statement last week. “The allegations suggesting his involvement are entirely unfounded. We are confident that the evidence will demonstrate these claims to be false and will expose those who are deliberately trying to manipulate the legal system to spread misleading narratives.”
Combs’ legal team said “no sane person” would believe the lawsuit’s narrative.
“Mr. Combs was nowhere near Orinda, California, on the day Ms. Parham claims she was assaulted there, and the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Department has already confirmed Ms. Parham’s claims were determined to be unfounded following a thorough investigation,” the Combs legal team’s statement said.
A spokesperson for the Contra Costa sheriff’s office did not respond to a request for comment last week.
‘Completely false’
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen has requested that the Maui County Police Commission put Pelletier on leave, citing “concerns regarding public trust” in a letter to the commission.
Pelletier previously called the request “premature and unjust” and called the allegations “completely false.”
“I am deeply disappointed by the rush to judgment and the calls for me to be placed on leave within hours of a baseless civil accusation — one for which I have yet to be formally served,” Pelletier said in the statement sent Friday. “This was done without allowing me to present documented proof of my whereabouts on the dates of these alleged incidents — evidence that categorically disproves these claims.”
The man accused in the slaying of hip-hop icon Tupac Shakur said in a 2008 interview with law enforcement that Combs was involved in the fatal shooting.
Duane “Keffe D” Davis, whom prosecutors have accused of orchestrating Shakur’s slaying, alleged that Combs solicited him to kill Shakur and Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge” Knight for $1 million and that one of Combs’ associates gave him the gun used in the shooting.
The lawsuit alleges that Combs threatened Parham with a knife after she said she “believed (he) had something to do with the murder of rapper Tupac Shakur.”
Combs and other defendants raped Parham, court filings alleged.
Afterwards, court documents alleged Combs offered Parham money and told her “to say that the violent rape was consensual and that (she) was a sex worker.” He said if she accused him of rape, no one would believe her and her family would be harmed, court documents alleged.
According to the suit, “Defendant Diddy then made further threats that he had gotten off from bigger crimes than this and referred to Tupac again.”
Parham grazed Combs’ abdomen with a knife and was able to escape, the suit said.
Allegations against Pelletier
A neighbor called police and Pelletier responded, “posing as a Contra Costa Sheriff,” court filings alleged. Pelletier “was a co-conspirator,” the suit said.
Parham told Pelletier she had been “violently gang raped by Defendant Diddy and others,” according to the lawsuit. Pelletier told her police had received noise complaints and instructed her to go home without offering to help her, the suit alleged.
Pelletier also handed the neighbor what looked to be an envelope that may have contained cash, according to the suit.
The suit alleged Pelletier kidnapped anonymous plaintiffs who witnessed the sexual assault of Parham from their Las Vegas home while threatening to shoot them and suggesting he was extraditing them for non-existent warrants.
Pelletier took them to a house where they were restrained, the filings said, and would not let them call an attorney. The plaintiffs were “then trafficked from Las Vegas, NV to various locations throughout California,” the suit said.
Combs has a defamation lawsuit pending against Ariel Mitchell, who is one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the suit, claiming Mitchell has fabricated “outlandish” claims about Combs.
Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0399. Follow @BryanHorwath on X. Review-Journal staff reporter Noble Brigham contributed to this report.
