Photo Credit: Tingey Law
The latest lawsuit against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs comes from a woman who alleges he drugged and ‘viciously’ raped her in a recording studio in 2001.
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sued by a woman who alleges he and his bodyguard “viciously” raped her in a New York City recording studio over 20 years ago after Combs had drugged her. The lawsuit, filed by Thalia Graves in federal court on Tuesday, also claims the men recorded the encounter on video, about which she only recently learned.
Graves is seeking a trial by jury in the lawsuit, which appears to be the first against Combs since his indictment last week by federal authorities in New York on charges including sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Graves’ lawsuit also names Combs’ former bodyguard and head of security, Joseph “Big Joe” Sherman, who denies raping or even knowing Graves, and claims he was not employed by Combs at the time.
According to the lawsuit, Graves met Combs around late 1999 or early 2000 through her boyfriend at the time, who was an executive at Combs’ Bad Boy Records, and had a close relationship with the rapper and producer. Graves says she frequently visited her boyfriend, who is curiously not identified in the complaint, at Combs’ Bad Boy studio in New York City, and attended events hosted at Combs’ properties.
In the summer of 2001, the suit claims Combs called the then-25-year-old Graves and asked her to meet with him to discuss her boyfriend’s “performance issues.” Combs picked her up in an SUV which Sherman was allegedly driving, where Graves was offered a glass of wine that she says later caused her to “feel lightheaded, dizzy, and physically weak.” They drove to the Bad Boy studio in Manhattan, and Graves says she found it difficult to walk upon exiting the vehicle. She says she was escorted to a couch in a private room in the studio, where she then lost consciousness.
When she came to, Graves says she was naked, with her hands tied behind her back with what felt like a plastic grocery bag. She shouted for help, after which Sherman lifted her from the couch and was said to have forcefully slammed her, face-down, on a pool table. Soon, Combs entered the room naked, the suit continues.
Graves says Combs applied lubricant to himself and then raped her, while she was “unable to move, totally overpowered physically, in addition to being drugged and bound.” She then lost consciousness again and awoke to Sherman slapping her in the face and sexually assaulting her. Graves then lost consciousness yet again.
According to the suit, when she finally awoke, she was alone on the couch, naked and terrified, and quickly got dressed and fled the studio. She says she called a livery driver she knew, who drove her to the hospital and tried to convince her to report the assault and get a rape kit. Graves said she was shaking and crying hysterically, and was unable to leave the vehicle, “terrified of what Combs would do to her and her family if she reported him.”
Last November, when the first lawsuit against Combs surfaced, filed by his ex-girlfriend and R&B singer Cassie Ventura, Graves says her former boyfriend revealed to her that, years earlier, Combs and Sherman showed him “and a group of men — some of whom were also employed by Combs’ companies” the video of her being raped.
Graves also alleges both Combs and Sherman to have contacted her in the years since the assault, warning her to stay silent and threatening her with repercussions if she did not, including that she could lose custody of her son.
“Plaintiff lives in constant fear,” the suit explains. “She struggles with hyper-vigilance and experiences anxiety and panic attacks in social settings, preferring to be alone. Her need to hide to feel safe has strained her relationships with friends and family.”
Sherman denies the allegations in Graves’ suit, saying he was employed by Combs from 1998 to 1999, and was not associated with Combs by the time the alleged assault would have taken place.
