LOS ANGELES (AP) — Another woman sues Sean “Diddy” Combs on Tuesday, claiming that the music mogul and his security chief raped her and videotaped it in his New York recording studio in 2001.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New York, is the latest of several similar lawsuits against Combs, coming a week after he was arrested and a federal charge of sex trafficking was filed against him.
Thalia Graves claims that in the summer of 2001, when she was 25 and dating a manager who worked for Combs, she was lured by Combs and Joseph Sherman to a meeting at Bad Boy Recording Studios. She said they picked her up in an SUV and gave her a drink “that was probably laced with a drug” during the drive.
According to the lawsuit, Graves lost consciousness and awoke handcuffed in Combs’ office and lounge at the studio. The two men raped her, beat her, slammed her head against a pool table and ignored her screams and cries for help, the lawsuit says.
At a press conference in Los Angeles with one of her lawyers, Gloria Allred, Graves said she had suffered from “flashbacks, nightmares and obsessions” in the years since.
“I had a hard time trusting others, building healthy relationships, or feeling safe in my own skin,” Graves said, crying as she read a statement.
She said it was “a pain that goes to the core of your personality and leaves emotional scars that may never fully heal.”
Combs remains in prison He was released without bail in New York, facing charges that he ran a sprawling network that facilitated sex crimes and committed shocking acts of violence, using extortion and other tactics to protect Combs and those close to him.
He pleaded not guilty to organized crime conspiracy and sex trafficking. His lawyer said he is innocent and will fight to clear his name. His representatives did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the latest lawsuit. Neither the lawsuit nor Combs’ representatives immediately said whether Sherman had his own attorney who could comment on the allegations.
The lawsuit was filed under New York’s Gender-Based Violence Victims’ Protection Act and came within a two-year period that suspends statutory time limits and allows victims of sexual violence to sue for abuse even though they may otherwise be too old to prosecute.
Allred declined to say whether her client had spoken to investigators in the criminal case against Combs. The indictment in that case only mentions allegations since 2008.
Graves’ lawsuit also alleges that late last year, after Combs’ former singing protégé and friend Cassie filed a lawsuit that began the flood of accusations against himGraves learned from her former boyfriend that Combs had filmed her rape, shown it to others, and sold it as pornography.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as was the case in Graves and Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura.
Graves’ lawsuit says that both Combs and Sherman contacted her multiple times in the years following the assault, threatening consequences if she told anyone what had happened to her. She was in the middle of a divorce and custody battle at the time and feared losing her young son if she revealed anything, the lawsuit says.
Graves said at the press conference that the associated feelings of guilt and shame “often left me feeling worthless, isolated, and sometimes responsible for what happened to me.”
The lawsuit demands damages to be determined in court as well as the retention and destruction of all copies of the video.
The lawsuit also names as defendants several companies owned by Combs, a three-time Grammy winner and founder of Bad Boy Records who was one of the most influential hip-hop producers and managers of the past three decades.
