Jay-Z's lawyer has filed a new attempt to get a rape lawsuit against the rapper thrown out.
Earlier this month, the 99 Problems rapper was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl with Sean 'Diddy' Combs at a private afterparty following the MTV Video Music Awards in New York City in September 2000.
The hip-hop star, real name Shawn Carter, vehemently denied the allegations on social media and his lawyer, Alex Spiro, subsequently sued the woman's attorney for extortion and filed a request to unmask the accuser and dismiss her claim.
After his latter requests were denied, Spiro took a new approach on Monday by filing paperwork arguing that the claim doesn't qualify for revival under the "lookback" window associated with New York City's Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act (GMVA). He insisted that the GMVA wasn't enacted until 19 December 2000, three months after the alleged incident.
"(The GMVA) cannot apply retroactively to create a cause of action unavailable to plaintiff at the time in question," Spiro wrote in his letter to the court, according to Rolling Stone. "A contrary conclusion would violate both state and federal due process protections."
The lawyer cited an earlier ruling in which a judge dismissed a sexual assault complaint against Aerosmith's Steven Tyler as the alleged accuser aimed to use the GMVA revival window for an incident that allegedly took place in 1975.
Spiro also insisted that the window only applies to sexual misconduct claims within New York City's limits and Jane Doe's claim indicates that the afterparty venue was "located outside the territorial boundaries".
Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres ruled that the accuser could continue with her case anonymously and denied Spiro's request to expedite rulings, writing, "The Court will not fast-track the judicial process merely because counsel demands it."
Combs, who has been accused of sexual misconduct in more than 30 lawsuits, has denied all of the allegations against him.
He was arrested in September and is currently being held in a Brooklyn jail on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation to engage in prostitution. His trial is set to begin in May.
