Diplo accused of distributing revenge porn in new lawsuit
A federal lawsuit filed in California on Thursday by a woman identified as Jane Doe accuses the DJ and producer Diplomatic for distributing revenge porn. According to the lawsuit, Doe began communicating with Diplo, born Thomas Wesley Pentz, on Snapchat in April 2016, when she was 21, and they exchanged sexually explicit images for two months. According to the lawsuit, Doe and Diplo began a sexual relationship and their relationship continued until October 2023, a month before Doe learned that Pentz had distributed images and videos of their sexual encounters without her knowledge or consent.
Doe’s lawsuit is the second revenge porn lawsuit filed in recent years against Pentz, whose globe-trotting lifestyle has become the basis for his prolific social media presence. According to her account, she told Pentz that she did not want him to record their sexual activities without her consent or distribute the images or videos to third parties. Last November, Doe claims, another woman she did not know at the time contacted her and said she had images and videos of Pentz and Doe having sex. The woman told Doe that she received the material from Pentz via Snapchat in October 2018. The lawsuit alleges that Diplo continued to distribute Doe’s private images and videos to this day.
On November 7, according to the lawsuit, Doe reported Pentz to the New York Police Department and a warrant was issued for his arrest. The NYPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and it is unclear whether Pentz has been in New York since November.
Pentz’s representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Pentz achieved musical acclaim and prominence in the 2000s, but in recent years he has developed a public reputation easily tied to his widespread social popularity. . A staple of red carpets and A-list sporting events, his winking presence tends to become a Waldo-like trope.
That character suffered through a separate sexual misconduct case that made headlines for a period starting in late 2020. In October of that year, a woman named Shelly Auguste alleges that Pentz sexually assaulted her, recorded their sexual activity without consent, and distributed revenge pornography. The following year, after Pentz and Auguste sued each other, he refuse her statement in a detailed slideshow on Instagram, calling her a “stalker” trying to blackmail him. In September 2022, an arbitrator awarded Pentz $1.2 million after finding that Auguste’s social media posts violated the mutual restraining order she signed with Pentz.
Auguste is currently suing Pentz on claims including sexual assault and defamation; a civil trial is scheduled for January 2025. In November, according to Pitchfork reportThe Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office began looking into Auguste’s revenge porn allegations after she filed a police report. (The office did not return a request for comment on the status of that review.) “For over three years,” Pentz’s attorney said. Bryan Freedman “Shelly Auguste has orchestrated a continuous smear campaign against Wes—and this is just one of those campaigns,” she told the outlet.
Doe is seeking damages from Pentz for violating revenge porn laws. “Tragically, this is not the first time the defendant humiliated and violated a woman by distributing private images without her consent,” Helene Weiss, an attorney for Doe, said in a statement. “Diplo’s alleged illegal conduct illustrates the harm he has caused Jane Doe and other young women like her.”
