Evidence Against Diplo

TRIGGER WARNING: CONTAINS THEMES OF RACIAL FETISHIZATION, GROOMING, STATUTORY RAPE, NONCONSENSUAL FILMING AND DISTRIBUTION OF INTIMATE IMAGES AND INTIMATE VIDEOS.

UPDATE 01/09/24
Update to include a new resource for victims/survivors of gender-based violence as the author no longer believes the previous resource to be professional, trustworthy or a safe space.

UPDATE 08/30/21
Updated to include diplopetition.com, a trigger warning for racial fetishization, an updated definition of “intersectionality” and stylistic errors.

If you have experienced sexual violence and need support, please reach out to RAINN to be connected with an organization in your vicinity.
It is also important to note that we have referred to Shelly as a “victim” to represent how she currently feels in these dealings.
“I will feel more like a survivor when this is all over.”

The electronic music scene is no stranger to predatory producers, nor are we strangers to holding those abusers accountable. So, why haven’t we done anything about Diplo?

Two victims of the EDM producer have filed lawsuits against him for similar forms of sexual abuse in 2021.  

Born Thomas Wesley Pentz, Diplo was recently accused of coercing a woman to give him oral sex and filmed the encounter in 2019 at the Wynn in Las Vegas. Coercion is when someone feels manipulated, pressured or threatened to partake in an activity they would not have agreed to with their own free will. 

In addition to being too intoxicated to consent, the power dynamic between the multi-million dollar producer and young Asian woman created an additional barrier to her ability to say “no.”

On July 10, the Boston Orioles understandably dropped Pentz’s post-game performance in response to the public’s awareness of the lawsuit. Days later, on July 16, the Asian victim dropped her suit, too.

In a mutual general release, an agreed-upon quote from the victim stated, “In light of the evidence and after consultation with my attorneys, I have decided to withdraw my lawsuit. No payout was offered or requested. I regret filing the lawsuit.”

In a society that regularly partakes in victim-blaming and a court system that rarely grants justice for sexual assault victims, there is room to wonder what factors played a part in the victim’s decision to step down. The National Sexual Violence Resource Center shares that only 2% to 10% of reports of sexual assault are false.

Statistically, it would be more likely for Pentz to be a victim of rape than it would be for him to be falsely accused of it. It is even less likely that he would be falsely accused of rape twice.

One victim may “regret filing the lawsuit,” but a young black woman who goes by “Shelly” continues her legal battle. Shelly actively posts on her Twitter and Instagram about the abuse.

“He took advantage of my innocence, my naiveness and my inexperience,” said Shelly. “He was my first everything. My first time. My first kiss. The first person I ever sent nudes to and he knows this.”

Pentz’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, claims accusations against his client are “demonstrably false.” Now deleted tweets by the Mad Decent label founder demonstrate differently. He tweeted in 2010 at 5:27 a.m., in almost perfect grammar, “girls born in the 90s i hav to stop sleeping with u.” Any girl born in the ‘90s in 2010 would be approximately between the ages of 11 and 20. Pentz would have been 31 at the time.

Another unsettling from Pentz about R.Kelly’s sex cult in 2017 probably doesn’t help his case either.

These two women are not the first, nor the last, to make accusations against Pentz—despite efforts to paint victims as lone wolves and crazed fans to decrease their credibility.

Musician, activist and brown woman, M.I.A., was vocal about Pentz’s emotional abuse and cheating on her while they were together. In a now-deleted podcast episode, black female rapper Azealia Banks shared that she met Pentz on Myspace when she was 17 years old. She credited him for the jump start in her career but said she “had to give him some teenage pussy to do it.” 

In June, Shelly filed a 20-plus page lawsuit against Pentz with the Los Angeles County Superior Courts for sexual battery, gender violence, assault, defamation, infliction of emotional distress, fraud and more. 

This is Perfect Harmony has accessed the court documents through the County of Los Angeles, Central District.

To keep her identity concealed, Shelly filed the lawsuit as sealed. In retaliation, Pentz filed significantly shorter lawsuits, under ten pages. His suits revealed Shelly’s full name, nickname and made her identity available to the press. She believes it was to compromise her safety intentionally. 

With such a weak legal case, Pentz has turned to the only court he might stand a chance—the court of public opinion. 

In all reality, Pentz’s predatory behavior has been in question for almost a decade. To promote his E.P. in 2012, Pentz asked, and we quote, “ladies” to do the “Express Yourself Challenge” and post pictures of themselves twerking upside down. The winners would receive free tickets to Diplo and Major Lazer’s shows for life. Pentz shared, commented, and liked multiple videos of concern featuring very young girls—some obviously still in high school. 

I wonder if @diplo knows how many underage girls pics he RTs

— Branch Rickey (@SeanPotterKemp) July 28, 2012

Says the guy who fucks underage girls. Stop doing this to yourself, Thomas.

— Gato Mercado Ξ gato.eth (@gatomercado) February 7, 2017

Pentz even offered free tickets to his show to a group of 33 high school girls dubbed the “Twerk Team” who got suspended for recording, editing and uploading an “Express Yourself” video to Youtube on school property. 

Pentz has since removed videos and photos of girls twerking from his social media accounts. The images have also been removed from most all original poster’s social media accounts and from publications such as Complex and LA Weekly. 

More tweets that called him out are available here.

The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey in 2015 found that 81.3% of women first experienced rape or attempted rape before the age of 25. 43.2% of those victims experienced it prior to the age of 18. 

People have also noticed that Pentz has a pattern of targeting girls and young women of color. Which, statistically, is not unheard of either. Young women are not only at a higher risk for victimization but women of color also experience higher rates of sexual violence. According to the Institute for Women’s Research and Policy Reform— black women are more likely than any other race of women to experience intimate partner violence, psychological abuse, death by men and sexual violence. 

Despite black women being more likely to be subjected to sexual violence and other crimes, black women are also less likely to receive justice in the courts.

Legal Scholar and lawyer Kimberlé Crenshaw summed up the unique experience of people with multiple or overlapping identities, especially black women, experience in the court system as “intersectionality.” The framework of intersectionality looks at how black women are victims of harm and discrimination at higher rates than, say, white women or black men. The more intersecting identities a person has, the more likely they are to experience harm and discrimination. Other examples of intersecting identities would be members of the LGBTQ+ community, physically disabled or mentally impaired individuals. 

In a judicial system and society that does not acknowledge intersectionality, black women and girls become the perfect victims. Their perceived vulnerability enables abusers, such as Pentz, to carry out their horrendous acts with little to no consequences.

Shelly’s active suit against Pentz is not the first time she has tried to take the sell-out DJ to civil court.

In October of 2020, Shelly applied for a temporary restraining order against Pentz. On the day of the hearing for her restraining order, December 8, 2020, Pentz filed for one against her. At the request of the Pentz legal team and the encouragement of her lawyer at the time, Lisa Bloom, Shelly and Pentz both disposed of their court filings and decided to settle internally with a private no-contact agreement. 

Since then, Shelly has changed legal representation. It was never been her desire to settle but to hold Pentz accountable for his abusive patterns that have gone unchecked for so long. 

In an unsurprising act of unethical reporting, TMZ falsely published on July 7, 2021, that Shelly had violated a restraining order filed against her by Pentz. Shelly, in fact, did not violate any court-ordered restraining order. Pentz had petitioned for one on January 12, 2021, but it was dismissed by the judge. Shelly has abided by all legally binding agreements between the two parties. 

This is the second time TMZ inaccurately reported about Shelly. A prior article claimed that Shelly had sent racist messages to the mother of Pentz’s child. In reality, both women of color had received racist messages from the same account. 

Similar to Azalia Banks, Shelly was 17 years old when “Diplo” followed her on Twitter in 2014. Pentz would have been approximately 36 years old. Shelly was a fan of Justin Bieber, and when she learned from her cousin that Pentz and Bieber collaborated—she followed him back. 

“Because of Diplo’s actions, I went into my adulthood with an unhealthy expectation of how a woman deserves to be treated when being courted by a man,” recalled Shelly.

Shelly shared on her Twitter account that Pentz has attempted to use his lawyers and private investigators to intimidate her. She shared that the private investigator told her over the phone that he knew where I lived, where my family lived and that she has a sister.

Diplo hired a Private investigator to contact me after an argument/fight that we had with each other in attempt to scare me into not speaking out on the disgusting details I know about him

— Shelly Auguste (@ThatsSoShellyy) October 26, 2020

 

Many of the allegations referenced in the lawsuit are available on Shelly’s Twitter. 

Shelly’s lawsuit claims that Pentz knowingly transmitted STDs to her after telling her that he gets checked as regularly as a “porn star.” When she inquired about the infection to Pentz, he would ignore her, deny it, or get angry. 

According to California’s Health and Safety Code 120290, it is punishable by law to transmit infectious disease willfully.

Shelly has also accused Pentz of distributing naked photos of her on the internet, filming their sexual interactions without her consent and more. The lawsuit also states that Pentz showed videos to Shelly of his sexual encounters with other women. He also asked her to engage sexually with a girl who appeared to be about the age of 16. When Shelly denied the three-some, he forcefully penetrated her with his penis.

Other efforts that Pentz has used to avoid accountability are threats to sue, pressure to settle out of court and to sign non-disclosures. On Shelly’s social media, she urges other victims and survivors of Pentz to seek representation and not be dismayed by the scare tactics. 

“If you’re a victim, don’t let people instill fear in you, discredit you nor shame you,” shared Shelly. “Stand in your truth. Stand up for yourself and stand up for others. You’ll have the support you need whether you believe it or not. Trust me.”

Check out Shelly’s Twitter for more evidence and screenshots. 

We have included resources to help victims access legal representation. Perfect Harmony also advises that victims utilize their crime victim rights to a community advocate from their local rape crisis center to help navigate the process. 

Lawyer Resources:

Find Law: A search engine for top lawyers.
Justia: A search engine for lawyers, legal aid and pro bono services.
David Hass worked on Britney Taylor’s case. He practices primarily in Texas and Florida. Genie Harrison Law Firm fought against Harvey Weinstein. The legal team is based out of Los Angeles and is made up of all women. They specialize in sexual assault and harassment.
John Vucmanovic with Delman Vukmanovic LLP specializes in civil cases. He practices in Los Angeles and Orange County and regularly does pro-bono work for low-income victims and charitable causes.
Law Office of Margaret A. Sedy particles in Los Angeles and specializes in technology and data privacy, civil litigation, business law, intellectual property, and personal injury. Taylor & Ring serves the greater Southern California area. The Attorneys specialize in sexual abuse, child sexual abuse, serious personal injury, wrongful death and police misconduct.
John C. Manley of Manley Stewart Finaldi Lawyers specializes in sexual assault cases. He served as Lead Counsel for victims of Larry Nasser, the former Olympic gymnastics doctor.
Nadine Khedry Esq. with Panish Shea & Boyle LLP speaks fluent Assyrian and practices in Nevada and California.