The Daily Beast reports that a young, unidentified woman has filed a restraining order against EDM artist Diplo after accusing him of filming and distributing revenge porn. Attorney Lisa Bloom, who is representing the anonymous plaintiff, confirmed the filed complaint with the outlet, alleging that Diplo—whose real name is Thomas Wesley Pentz—filmed a sexual encounter with the woman without her consent and that they intend to block distribution “designed to humiliate her and to scare other women out of coming forward.”
Last month, per The Daily Beast, the alleged victim posted a series of tweets stating that Diplo groomed her and hired a private investigator to follow her after the two had a fight. She then said that the investigator vaguely threatened her and her parents in an attempt to scare her out of possibly sharing “the disgusting details” that she was privy to: “The private investigator stated to me that he knew my address, he knew my parents address, he knew my place of work as well as my parents place to work. Take that as you may but most people will take that as a threat.” In the same thread she noted that she “had SPECIFICALLY asked him not” to film one of their encounters, to which he responded, “fuck it. I’m recording this.”
As the thread gained attention, The Daily Beast says that a user responded to the tweets with a nude picture of the woman, which Bloom suggests was a burner account operated by Diplo himself or one of his associates. Since the court filing, Diplo has released a statement to Pitchfork via his legal representation, Bryan J. Freedman: Unfortunately, this individual has been harassing my client and his family for more than a year and has repeatedly refused to stop doing so. To be clear, in no way has my client violated any law. In fact, he has repeatedly made it clear that he wants nothing whatsoever to do with this person—and simply needs her ongoing harassment of his family to end.”
The woman, however, says that her intent was to potentially put an end to what she feels is a pattern of disturbing behavior. “I never had the will or intention to expose Diplo being that I did not want all the years I invested into speaking & hanging out with him to go in vain….or end nasty,” the woman wrote on Twitter. “But I slowly started to realize he is a huge manipulating liar / gaslighter who PREYS young women of ALL races (to be honest) but primarily young naive women of color.”