October 6, 2021

Diplo Denies Sexual Misconduct Allegations

Diplo has posted a lengthy message to Instagram denying sexual misconduct allegations against him and accusing an unnamed 25-year-old woman of stalking and extortion. (Last fall, the woman accused the DJ of recording sexually explicit videos of her without her permission, distributing at least one without her consent, and knowingly infecting her with chlamydia.) Diplo, aka Thomas Wesley Pentz, is now accusing the woman, whom he refers to as “SA,” of being “a stalker [who] scammed her way into my life and tried to extort me for millions and then sued me when she didn’t get what she wanted.” This follows Buzzfeed News‘ recent report that Diplo could potentially face criminal charges for sexual misconduct stemming from a police report filed in October 2020.

“I will keep this story easy to read because I know the Internet has a short attention span and it was my goal to never address a stalker,” Diplo began on Wednesday evening. The first part of Diplo’s statement is below, where he admits to having sexual relations with “SA” but accuses her of becoming obsessed and stalking him.

I will refer to her as “SA” (and you can find anything easily online). She was an obsessed fan of mine, and after I relinquished all contact with her, it appears that her only purpose in life has been to disrupt my work, my business, harass me and my close friends and attack me and threaten my family. To be clear, SA was not a minor when I had conversations or sexual intercourse with her. Her own text messages admit this. More on this below.

I had a night of consensual sex with her. Basically, SA reached out to me and I declined a few times but at one time decided to meet her. After that experience, we had exchanged texts for a few months, there was small talk, sexual flirting, she would send me pics and videos.. Eventually it got too much to handle and I stopped contact with her when I realized she had started to become obsessed with me. It began as a nightmare of almost three years of her harassing and threatening me and my family and friends.

SA would offer her friends and other people to have sexual experiences with, and that’s when I began to get suspicious that she was engaging in criminal activity, and was possibly a call girl.

The DJ then shared a video of texts containing a series of sexually explicit back-and-forths. From there, Diplo describes how he “blocked a few accounts” and “thought she was out of my life” before “SA” allegedly found him again on Snapchat. “I didn’t remember who she was because, I’ll be honest, I meet a lot of girls in my work, which I’ve never denied,” he wrote, continuing to relate how he, “SA,” and a group of friends “all ended up having sex” after a show in Las Vegas.

Diplo adds:

SA began to post on websites about our experience. One was called Lipstick Alley, and she started to follow my family members, the mothers of my children, and girls I would comment on, on Instagram. I didn’t know this until a year later when a private investigator found they were all coming from SA’s location under many names.

Diplo also accuses “SA” of calling him on multiple numbers and via WhatsApp:

One time I just hid in my neighbor’s house and ignored her. I don’t think she could physically harm me, but I was afraid she was going to harm herself,” he wrote, adding, “We always took the high road when dealing with her. We tried to deal with her in court and help her find help. Our detective had found out she had a previous restraining order against her in Florida after we rounded up many of her fake accounts.

Diplo wraps up: “When I was expecting my third son, it really threw her over the edge. She became obsessed withy son’s mother… calling and berating her and sending extremely racist comments to her and sharing my text messages from years ago.”

The woman in question is represented by high-powered attorney Lisa Bloom. Last fall, she reportedly tweeted a thread accusing Diplo of grooming her and hiring a private investigator to intimidate her following an argument so that she would not share “the disgusting details” she knew about him. In the thread, she alleged that the investigator threatened her by claiming her knew her address, her workplace, and her parents’ address.

The thread also alleged that Diplo had filmed sexual activity without her permission: “I SPECIFICALLY asked him not too & his reply was ‘fuck it. I’m recording this,’” she wrote. She also described Diplo as “a huge manipulating liar / gaslighter who PREYS young women of ALL races (to be honest) but primarily young naive women of color.” As a result, the woman sought a restraining order against Diplo. A temporary restraining order was granted by a Los Angeles judge a few days later.

At the time, Diplo’s attorney Bryan J. Freedman gave this statement to Pitchfork:

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.