Woman alleges Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs raped her on video in lawsuit

LOS ANGELES (AP) — One other lady sued Sean “Diddy” Combs on Tuesday, alleging that the music mogul and his head of safety raped her and recorded it on video at his New York recording studio in 2001.

The lawsuit filed in federal courtroom in New York, the newest of a number of related fits in opposition to Combs, comes every week after he was was arrested and a federal intercourse trafficking indictment in opposition to him was unsealed.

Thalia Graves alleges that when she was 25 and relationship an government who labored for Combs in the summertime of 2001, Combs and Joseph Sherman lured her to a gathering at Dangerous Boy Recording Studios. She mentioned they picked her up in an SUV and in the course of the trip gave her a drink “seemingly laced with a drug.”

In keeping with the lawsuit, Graves misplaced consciousness and awoke to search out herself sure inside Combs’ workplace and lounge on the studio. The 2 males raped her, slapped her, slammed her head in opposition to a pool desk and ignored her screams and cries for assist, the lawsuit alleges.

At a information convention in Los Angeles with one among her attorneys, Gloria Allred, Graves mentioned she has suffered from “flashbacks, nightmares and intrusive ideas” within the years since.

“It has been laborious for me to belief others to type wholesome relationships and even really feel protected in my very own pores and skin,” Graves mentioned, crying as she learn from a press release.

She mentioned it’s “a ache that reaches into your very core of who you might be and leaves emotional scars that will by no means totally heal.”

Combs stays jailed with out bail in New York on federal costs alleging that he ran an enormous community that facilitated sexual crimes and dedicated stunning acts of violence, utilizing blackmail and different techniques to guard Combs and people near him.

He pleaded not responsible to racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking. His lawyer mentioned he’s harmless and can combat to clear his title. His representatives didn’t instantly reply to an electronic mail in search of touch upon the newest lawsuit. There was no rapid indication from the lawsuit or from Combs’ representatives whether or not Sherman had a separate lawyer who may touch upon the allegations.

The lawsuit was filed below the New York Metropolis Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Safety Act, and comes throughout a two-year window that suspends authorized deadlines and permits sexual assault victims to sue over abuse which may in any other case be too outdated to pursue.

Allred declined to say whether or not her shopper had spoken to investigators in Combs’ prison case. The indictment in that case mentions solely allegations since 2008.

Graves’ lawsuit additionally alleges that late final 12 months, after Combs’ former singing protege and girlfriend Cassie filed a lawsuit that started the surge of allegations in opposition to him, Graves realized by her former boyfriend that Combs had recorded her rape, proven it to others and offered it as pornography.

The Related Press doesn’t usually title individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused, until they arrive ahead publicly as Graves and Cassie, whose authorized title is Casandra Ventura, have performed.

Graves’ lawsuit says each Combs and Sherman contacted her a number of instances within the years after the assault, threatening repercussions if she instructed anybody what had occurred to her. She was in a divorce and custody combat on the time and feared shedding her younger son if she revealed something, the swimsuit says.

Graves mentioned on the information convention that the guilt and disgrace hooked up “typically made me really feel nugatory, remoted and generally accountable for what occurred to me.”

The lawsuit seeks damages to be decided at trial and for all copies of the video to be accounted for and destroyed.

The lawsuit additionally names as defendants a number of firms owned by Combs, the three-time Grammy winner and founding father of Dangerous Boy Data who was among the many most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the previous three a long time.