Diplo Could Be Facing Criminal Charges Over Sexual Misconduct Allegations

After an investigation into sexual misconduct allegations, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office is considering filing criminal charges against Diplo (legal name Thomas Wesley Pentz.) Buzzfeed News reports that the investigation into the DJ originated with a complaint made to the LAPD in October 2020, in which a 25-year-old woman accused Pentz of recording and distributing sexually explicit videos of her without her permission or consent, and knowingly giving her chlamydia.

In legal filings, the woman says that Pentz first reached out to her over private messages on Twitter when she was only 17 years old and that they eventually had sexual intercourse for the first time in 2018, when she was 21 years old. Although law enforcement declined to file charges over this allegation, the anonymous woman also told police that Pentz had raped her in his hotel room in Las Vegas after one of his concerts in 2019. Mere days later, she tested positive for chlamydia. She says Pentz had been her first and at that time her only sexual partner.

After requesting a temporary restraining order in late 2020, earlier this year the woman filed a civil lawsuit against Pentz for alleged sexual battery, defamation, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Her lawsuit accuses Pentz of being “a middle-aged white man who targets very young Black women and girls for sexual assault.” This is not the first time Diplo has been accused of preying on underage girls—specifically Black women and girls. Last year, Azealia Banks talked about her own alleged sexual relationship with Diplo on a podcast. “I used to have sex with Diplo when I was 17. Diplo definitely found me on fucking Myspace,” she said. “I always give him credit for fucking launching my career off, but yeah, I had to give him some teenage pussy to do it. He’s always been preying on young ethnic girls.” At the time, Pentz would have been in his 30s.

Unsurprisingly, Pentz’s lawyers don’t deny the two had the sexual relationship, but instead suggest that the woman was an obsessive fan who was stalking the DJ. After the woman came forward with the allegations about Pentz’s alleged sexual misconduct, he obtained a temporary restraining order against her and filed a lawsuit accusing her of stalking, trespassing, and distributing private materials. Buzzfeed News reports that although Pentz’s lawyers declined to answer specific questions, they sent a letter reiterating their previous denials of the allegations. They reportedly would not permit that letter to be quoted.