Sean “Diddy” Combs and a former bodyguard allegedly drugged, sure and raped a girl in Combs’ Daddy’s Home recording studio in 2001, then went on to share – and promote – a recording of the alleged assault as pornography, a brand new lawsuit filed Tuesday and obtained by Rolling Stone claims.
Thalia Graves broke down in tears as her lawyer, Gloria Allred, described her claims at a press convention in Los Angeles. “The interior ache after being sexually assaulted has been extremely deep and laborious to place into phrases,” Graves mentioned in remarks delivered every week after Combs was arrested and held with out bail on a federal indictment unsealed in New York. “I’m glad that he’s locked up, however that’s a short lived feeling of aid.”
Graves says in her lawsuit that she turned pleasant with Combs in late 1999 by way of her then-boyfriend, who was an govt at Unhealthy Boy on the time. Because of the boyfriend’s place, Graves says she regularly attended occasions hosted at Combs’ houses and sometimes visited her boyfriend at work. (The boyfriend shouldn’t be named within the lawsuit. Nonetheless, Rolling Stone reached out to the person in query on Tuesday after the lawsuit claimed he revealed the existence of the tape to Graves final November. He acknowledged seeing an alleged intercourse tape, however he mentioned he solely noticed Graves and Combs’ bodyguard Joseph “Massive Joe” Sherman on the alleged video. In a press release posted on social media, Sherman known as the allegations “false” and denied even realizing Graves.)
In accordance with the lawsuit, the alleged assault adopted after Combs known as Graves straight in mid-2001 and requested for a gathering to “talk about her boyfriend’s supposed efficiency points.” Wanting to assist her boyfriend and already realizing Combs, Graves says she agreed to the assembly. “It was evidently a sick and twisted method of utilizing his possession of and title at Unhealthy Boy and its affiliate entities to abuse Plaintiff and in addition present his energy and skill to humiliate her boyfriend, his govt,” the lawsuit filed in federal court docket in Manhattan claims.
Combs allegedly arrived at Graves’ residence a number of hours later in an SUV pushed by Sherman. Graves says she accepted a glass of wine from Combs and rapidly turned “lightheaded, dizzy, and bodily weak.” By the point the group arrived on the recording studio, Graves was struggling to stroll, and after they reached Combs’ workplace, Graves misplaced consciousness, her lawsuit claims.
“Looking back, it’s clear that Combs had induced a drug to be put into Plaintiff’s drink, as a number of sips of wine had by no means impacted her that method,” the lawsuit claims. Graves alleges that when she awakened, she was bare and sure, along with her palms tied behind her again with what felt like a plastic grocery bag. As Graves shouted for assist, Sherman allegedly slammed her face down right into a pool desk, the lawsuit claims.
“Shortly thereafter, Combs entered the room bare,” the lawsuit alleges. “He then bent [Graves] over the desk inflicting her toes to dangle above the ground, forcefully held her down, and anally penetrated her with out her consent … [Graves] was unable to maneuver, completely overpowered bodily, along with being drugged and sure.”
Graves claims she screamed out in ache, however Combs ignored her and continued the alleged violent assault, smashing her head into the pool desk when she tried to flee. Graves claims she misplaced consciousness once more, and when she awoke Sherman allegedly slapped her a number of instances and compelled her to carry out oral intercourse.
A while later, Graves claims she awakened on a sofa bare and alone. She alleges she was in “intense ache and [had] burning sensations in her vagina and anus” with bruising on her face and wrists. “Nonetheless dizzy and weak, Plaintiff known as a livery driver that her household usually employed and knew effectively,” her lawsuit alleges. Graves claims she was matted, crying uncontrollably and affected by agonizing ache.
Reps for Combs didn’t reply to a request for remark. Sherman didn’t reply to messages despatched by Rolling Stone however issued a public denial on his Fb profile. “These accusations usually are not solely false however damaging to my character,” Sherman mentioned. “I’ve by no means met the accuser, and I used to be not working with Sean Combs in the course of the time in query. I shall be pursuing authorized motion to handle this defamation and shield my identify.”
In her lawsuit, Graves alleges her driver took her to a hospital after the alleged assault and “tried to persuade her to report the rape and get a rape package, however she was unable to depart the automotive, ‘shaking and crying hysterically’ and afraid of what Combs would do to her and her household if she reported him.” Graves knowledgeable her then-boyfriend of what occurred, based on the lawsuit, however he discouraged her from going to the police, allegedly “telling her that it may negatively influence his personal profession.”
Within the years since, Graves alleges that she has moved a number of instances and that Combs and Sherman had threatened her to stay silent in regards to the alleged assault. Nonetheless, she maintains that she disclosed to shut pals what occurred.
Graves is the eleventh particular person to come back ahead to accuse Sean “Diddy” Combs in a sexual assault lawsuit. Allred declined to say Tuesday whether or not Graves performed any half within the grand jury proceedings that led to Southern District of New York prosecutors arresting Combs final week. ”Our objective for Thalia may be very easy. We would like justice for her, and we’re trying ahead to profitable it. It’s lengthy overdue for many who have induced her to undergo to be held accountable,” Allred mentioned.
In November 2023, a number of days after Casandra “Cassie” Ventura filed her intercourse trafficking and sexual abuse lawsuit in opposition to Combs, Graves claims that her ex-boyfriend advised her that Combs and Sherman had recorded the alleged rape and proven it to others. “He disclosed that Combs and Sherman had a sample and observe of non-consensually recording girls partaking in sexual acts and making these movies accessible to the general public, together with by promoting tapes as pornography,” the lawsuit alleges.
Graves suffers from PTSD, extreme despair, “suicidal ideation and intrusive ideas, and has tried to finish her life,” her lawsuit says. Her expertise has left her in “fixed concern.” She is suing Combs, Sherman and eight of Combs’ corporations underneath the New York Metropolis’s Gender-Motivated Violence Safety Act, in addition to a state civil rights regulation for the alleged secret recording and distribution of the intercourse tape.
That is the most recent civil lawsuit in opposition to Combs, who has been sued for allegedly sexually abusing no less than seven others since Ventura filed her graphic sex-trafficking criticism in opposition to him final November. Combs settled with Ventura for an undisclosed sum inside 24 hours, however her 35-page criticism turned the roadmap for the music mogul’s legal prosecution and impressed others to file claims as effectively.
On Thanksgiving, the day New York’s Grownup Survivors Act was set to run out, two extra girls sued with equally disturbing claims in opposition to Combs. Joi Dickerson-Neal alleged Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her when she was a Syracuse College scholar in 1991. In a declare much like Graves’ criticism, she alleged Combs filmed the incident and confirmed the video to others. Via a rep, Combs denied the allegation, calling the lawsuit a “cash seize.”
Hours after Dickerson-Neal’s lawsuit grabbed headlines, Liza Gardner alleged Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Corridor took turns raping her following an MCA Information occasion in 1990. Gardner says she was 16 years outdated on the time and that Combs turned “irate and started assaulting and choking” her till she virtually “handed out” throughout a confrontation a day later. Combs and his legal professionals denied Gardner’s allegations as effectively, calling them “fabricated.”
In early December, a fourth accuser alleged Combs, former Unhealthy Boy president Harve Pierre, and a 3rd man gang raped her at Combs’ New York recording studio in 2003 when she was 17 years outdated. In late February, Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a lawsuit accusing Combs of sexual assault, harassment, and never compensating him for work on the Grammy-nominated The Love Album.
After federal brokers raided Combs’ houses in Los Angeles and Miami Seashore had been in March, extra girls stepped ahead with lawsuits alleging violent sexual assaults.
Mannequin Crystal McKinney filed a lawsuit on Might 21 alleging Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her after she attended a Sean John vogue present on the arm of designer Roberto Cavalli in February 2003. She claimed earlier than Combs allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted the 22-year-old. McKinney claimed Combs pressured her to take a success off a laced joint, led her into a toilet and compelled her to carry out oral intercourse.
On Might 24, April Lampros filed a lawsuit alleging she was a scholar and intern at Arista Information when she started an on-off relationship with Combs in early 1994. She claims Combs sexually assaulted her on three events over the course of their four-year relationship and as soon as extra in early 2001. Like Graves and Dickerson-Neal, she alleges Combs recorded a intercourse tape of her and confirmed it to a number of individuals in 1997.
Earlier this month, former Danity Kane and Diddy-Soiled Cash member Daybreak Richard claimed Combs sexually harassed and assaulted her, and thru a “sample of coercive threats and shows of brutal violence,” induced her to “interact in industrial intercourse acts.”
This story was up to date September 25, 2024, to incorporate the response assertion from Joseph Sherman.