() – A woman has accused music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and his bodyguard of drugging and assaulting her in 2001 and filming the attack, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in New York.
Thalia Graves claimed she met Combs when she was 25 through her boyfriend, who worked at Combs’ record label, Bad Boy. Around the summer of 2001, while riding in a vehicle with Combs and Joseph Sherman, her bodyguard and head of security, she accepted his offer of a glass of wine and began to feel “lightheaded, dizzy and physically weak,” the suit claims.
According to the suit, the woman lost consciousness and then woke up naked in a Manhattan studio with her hands tied behind her back. Combs entered the room and raped her, smashing her head into a pool table when she tried to resist. Sherman sexually assaulted her as she came in and out of consciousness, according to the suit.
At a news conference Tuesday alongside attorney Gloria Allred, Graves spoke tearfully about how the alleged assault had damaged her physically and emotionally.
“The combination of physical and emotional pain has created a cycle of suffering that is very difficult to break out of,” he said. “I want to continue this path to recovery and healing. I am glad that I am locked up, but it is a temporary feeling of relief.”
has reached out to representatives for Combs and Sherman for comment.
The lawsuit is the latest accusation of sexual violence against Combs and comes a week after he was charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation for prostitution. Combs, 54, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was denied bail and will remain in federal custody, a federal judge ruled.
The Indictment accused Combs of leading a “criminal enterprise” with other associates and employees, alleged he staged drug-fueled “freak offs” with male victims and sex workers, noted instances of physical and sexual abuse and highlighted guns and the large collection of baby oil and lubricant found during March raids on his homes.
Also, Diddy He was accused in 10 civil lawsuits alleging a variety of sexual misconduct and other illegal activities.
According to the lawsuit, Graves suffered severe pain and distress after a rental car driver took her to a hospital. However, she did not get out of the car because she was “shaking and crying hysterically” and “terrified of what Combs would do to her and her family if she reported him.”
Due to the damage caused by the rape, Graves suffers from severe depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and has attempted suicide, she alleged.
In November 2023, she learned from her ex-boyfriend that Combs and Sherman had recorded and posted a video of the assault and shown it to other people, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit accuses Combs, Sherman and companies associated with Combs of violating New York’s Gender-Based Violence Victims Protection Act, and accuses Combs and Sherman of violating state civil rights law and the city’s administrative code.
Combs was moved to a dorm-style room at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center on Monday, a space he now shares with former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez. The facility’s high-profile inmates remain in this larger detention unit that is isolated from the general public and does not go into common areas of the prison, a source told .
This is a developing story and will be updated.
‘s Kara Scannell contributed to this report.
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