New Lawsuit Accuses Diddy Combs Of Filming 2001 Assault
Another woman filed a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs on Tuesday, accusing him and his head of security of raping her and recording it on video at his New York recording studio in 2001. The lawsuit, submitted to a federal court in New York, is the latest in a series of similar cases against Combs. It was filed a week after his arrest and the unsealing of a federal sex trafficking indictment.
According to multiple reports, Thalia Graves claims that in the summer of 2001, when she was 25 and dating an executive who worked for Combs, both Combs and Joseph Sherman lured her to a meeting at Bad Boy Recording Studios. She alleges they picked her up in an SUV and gave her a drink “likely laced with a drug” during the ride.
The lawsuit states that Graves lost consciousness and woke up bound in Combs’ office and lounge at the studio, where the two men allegedly raped her, slapped her, slammed her head against a pool table, and ignored her screams for help.
At a Los Angeles news conference with her attorney, Gloria Allred, Graves shared that she has suffered from “flashbacks, nightmares and intrusive thoughts” since the incident.
“It has been hard for me to trust others to form healthy relationships or even feel safe in my own skin,” Graves said, tearing up as she read her statement. She described the trauma as “a pain that reaches into your very core of who you are and leaves emotional scars that may never fully heal.”
Combs remains in jail without bail in New York, facing federal charges that accuse him of operating a network that facilitated sexual crimes and used blackmail and other violent tactics to protect himself and his associates. He pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, with his attorney asserting his innocence and intention to clear his name.
The Associated Press reported that Graves’ lawsuit was filed under the New York City Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act. This comes during a two-year period that temporarily lifts legal deadlines, allowing sexual assault survivors to file lawsuits for incidents that might otherwise be too old to pursue.
The lawsuit also claims that late last year, after Combs’ former girlfriend and protege Cassie filed a lawsuit sparking the wave of allegations, Graves learned through her ex-boyfriend that Combs had recorded her assault, showed it to others, and sold it as pornography.
Check out Thalia Graves’ public statement here (CONTENT WARNING: The following details an alleged instance of sexual assault.)
