Music producer Diplo is once again being accused of distributing revenge porn.
Diplo, whose given name is Thomas Wesley Pentz, is under review by the Los Angeles city attorney's office after a woman filed a complaint to the city's police department, her second report to police over incidents that allegedly happened from 2019 to 2020.
Shelly Auguste, who has been embroiled in civil litigation with Diplo since 2021, filed the report with the LAPD in August, in which she accused him of distributing nude images of her without her consent and sexual assault. She had also filed a police report in July 2021. The LAPD passed the most recent report on to the attorney's office in November, according to Pitchfork.
In the police report, Auguste said she "believes that [Diplo] is distributing the nude photographs because he is mad at her for recently filing legal action against him. She stated that he wants to harass and embarrass her."
Auguste sued Diplo in 2021 for sexual battery, gender violence, intentional intrusion into private affairs, battery, assault, defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and fraud, as well as violation of the Ralph Civil Rights Act and violation of the Tom Bane Civil Rights Act. Their civil trial will proceed in April 2024.
Newsweek contacted Auguste by email for comment.
Diplo's attorney Bryan Freedman provided an exclusive statement to Newsweek about Auguste's latest police report.
"For more than three years, Shelly Auguste has been orchestrating an ongoing smear campaign against Wes—and this is just more of the same," he said.
"Her recent attempt to enlist a co-conspirator to shake down Wes in a bogus lawsuit fell apart within days when indisputable evidence disproved her story, and the case was dismissed.
"Now, Ms. Auguste is at it yet again. But Wes will defend himself, and, just as he has done every time Ms. Auguste has defamed, harassed and attacked him and his family, he will win."
Auguste had previously stated she met Diplo when he messaged her on Twitter when she was 17 and he was in his mid-30s. She described how they had intermittent communication over the coming years before meeting in person in 2018 and having sex for the first time in 2019 when she was 22.
She alleged that Diplo recorded that sexual encounter on his cell phone without her knowledge or consent and that he ejaculated inside her without permission.
They had sex again a few months later when Diplo invited her to his hotel and even though she was "highly intoxicated," Auguste declared that it was consensual.
But later in the evening she alleged Diplo penetrated her without consent and continued even though she "told [him] 'no' and tried to fight him off." Auguste eventually grabbed her clothes and ran out crying.
She claimed Diplo "appeared to get pleasure from putting down Ms. Auguste," and "he knew she was an impressionable and vulnerable young woman as he had groomed her since she was a teenager."
The pair's accounts of their subsequent interactions vary, with Auguste claiming she confronted Diplo at a nightclub accusing him of giving her an STI, which he said publicly was "not true." She also claimed he invited her to his house in early 2020 but then said he wasn't home. Diplo said Auguste just turned up at his house and he felt "uneasy" about the incident.
They then began a series of legal moves against each other including requesting restraining orders. They eventually signed a dual restraining order in July 2021 promising not to speak negatively about each other.
Diplo also filed a lawsuit of his own in April 2021 in which he accused Auguste of stalking, trespassing, and distributing private materials.
In September 2022, an arbitrator ruled in Diplo's favor and ordered Auguste ordered to pay him $1.2 million in damages and to cover legal costs.
"We are all extremely pleased for Wes [Diplo] and his family. What happened here is simple," Freedman told Newsweek at the time. "The arbitrator looked at all the facts. She evaluated the evidence impartially. And justice prevailed."
Update 12/7/2023, 10:35 a.m. ET. This story was updated to include Bryan Freedman's statement about the 2023 police report.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Shannon Power is a Greek-Australian reporter, but now calls London home. They have worked as across three continents in print, ... Read more
