Lawsuit Claims Sean “Diddy” Combs Drugged and Raped Woman With Bodyguard at Bad Boy Studio

Winston Cho
·3 min read
30

Sean Combs, the embattled music mogul who remains in jail while he awaits trial on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges, has been sued for allegedly drugging and raping a woman in 2001.

Thalia Graves, in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in New York federal court, says she was sexually assaulted by Combs and his bodyguard at Bad Boy Records’ New York studio after she was given a drink that caused her to briefly lose consciousness. She awoke “bound and restrained” as they “proceeded to brutally sexually abuse and violate” her, the complaint alleges.

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Combs’ deepening legal trouble culminated last week with a three-count indictment accusing him of directing a vast criminal enterprise through which he assaulted and trafficked women with the aid of his business empire from at least 2008. Prosecutors accused him of engaging in a “pervasive pattern of abuse” that involved coercing women to participate in highly-orchestrated sexual encounters with male sex workers, who were allegedly flown in across state lines and internationally. His bail was denied after he pled guilty to the charges due to concerns he posed a safety risk and could flee the country.

According to the complaint, Graves was lured to Bad Boy Records’ studio by Combs, who told her that he wanted to discuss her boyfriend’s performance issues at the company. She was picked up by Joseph Sherman, Combs’ bodyguard at the time.

At the Manhattan studio, Graves was handed a drink, which made her feel “lightheaded, dizzy and physically weak,” the lawsuit claims.

When she regained consciousness, Graves was “naked, and her hands were tied behind her back with what felt like a plastic grocery bag,” the complaint says. In response, Sherman “lifted her up from the couch and forcefully slammed her face down on what was apparently a pool table. Shortly thereafter, Combs entered the room naked” and proceeded to anally penetrate her,” the lawsuit alleges.

Graves was subsequently raped, according to the complaint. Gloria Allred, her lawyer, said that the incident was recorded and made available for sale.

Combs had a “pattern and practice of non-consensually recording women engaging in sexual acts and making those videos available to the public, including by selling tapes as pornography,” states the complaint. In a text message to Graves, a Bad Boy artist corroborated that Sherman “use[d] to sell porn of him doing this to chix” and that Sherman “did that to a lot of women,” the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit appears to be at least the tenth brought against Combs after singer Cassie Ventura, who was once signed to his label, sued him in a lawsuit that sparked a federal investigation into sex trafficking and racketeering. Several of the accusers have advanced allegations claiming that employees and directors at several of his businesses, including Bad Boy president Harve Pierre, were aware of and facilitated alleged sex crimes.

For decades, Graves remained silent and didn’t report the incident to law enforcement out of fear that Combs and his associates would “use their power to ruin her life, as they had repeatedly, explicitly threatened to do,” Graves alleges.

The sexual assault claim, which is more than a decade old, was brought under New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Act, a statute that allows accusers to file civil complaints involving such claims after the statute of limitations has run out.

With denial of bail, Combs is staying at Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, which is known for squalid and dangerous conditions.

“I’m glad he’s locked up, but that’s a temporary feeling of relief,” Graves said at a press conference announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

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