As Sean “Diddy” Combs sits in New York’s Metropolitan Detention Center awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, the music mogul faces another lawsuit.
In the complaint filed in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, Sept. 24, Combs is accused by Thalia Graves of a brutal sexual assault.
Graves broke down in tears over the alleged abuse at a news conference on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
With her attorney Gloria Allred by her side, Graves said Combs destroyed her life.
“I’ve had PTSD, depression, and anxiety,” she said through tears. “Nightmares and intrusive thoughts make it a constant struggle, and I’ve dealt with physical issues like chronic pain and discomfort.”
“Some of the hardest parts of this pain are the shame and the guilt I have experienced that plays a negative part in my daily ability to function properly,” she continued. “Being blamed, questioned, and threatened has often made me feel worthless, isolated, and sometimes responsible for what happened to me.”
In the 26-page lawsuit, Graves alleges that when she was 25 years old in 2001, Combs and his then-head of security Joseph Sherman drugged, bound, and raped her at the Bad Boy Records studio in New York City.
The complaint says she met the mogul in late 1999 through her then-boyfriend, who was an executive at the record label.
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The boyfriend is not named in the lawsuit, but due to his position, Graves says she frequently attended events at Combs’ homes and would visit her boyfriend at the recording studio.
According to the suit, Diddy allegedly lured her to the recording studio under the pretense that he wanted to “discuss her boyfriend’s supposed performance issues.”
“It was evidently a sick and twisted way of using his ownership of and title at Bad Boy and its affiliate entities to abuse Plaintiff and also show his power and ability to humiliate her boyfriend, his executive,” the lawsuit states.
The complaint says Graves passed out after allegedly being drugged. Once she woke up, she was naked, bound and restrained, and Diddy and Sherman were allegedly brutally violating her, the lawsuit says.
The incident was reportedly filmed with a handheld camera, and later shown to her then-boyfriend and distributed to others.
Allred alleged Diddy has been profiting from the attack by “selling” the video for years.
Graves says she wasn’t made aware of the recording until November 2023.
“Any progress Plaintiff had made in healing from the attack over the years was dramatically reversed on or around November 27, 2023, when she learned for the first time that Combs and Sherman had video-recorded the horrific rape twenty-two years before and had shown the video to multiple men, seeking to publicly degrade and humiliate both Plaintiff and her boyfriend,” the complaint says.
“She was distraught and sunk into a deep depression. She again considered ending her life,” the suit says.
It wasn’t until Combs was arrested on Sept. 16 that Graves decided to go public with her claim.
According to the suit, the incident was never reported to police out of fear that Combs would use his power to retaliate against Graves.
“Following the assault and multiple times over the years, both Combs and Sherman contacted Plaintiff and warned her to be silent, threatening repercussions including Plaintiff potentially losing custody of her son if she ever disclosed the assault,” the suit alleges.
Graves is seeking compensatory and punitive damages in an amount “to be determined at trial,” according to the complaint.
She is the 11th accuser to come forward with abuse allegations against Diddy.
The mogul has maintained his innocence. He also pleaded not guilty to the three counts in the federal indictment against him.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can call the U.S. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 any time, day or night.