Sean “Diddy” Combs and a former bodyguard allegedly drugged, bound and raped a woman in Combs’ Daddy’s House recording studio in 2001, then went on to share – and sell – a recording of the alleged assault as pornography, a 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 conference in Los Angeles. “The internal pain after being sexually assaulted has been incredibly deep and hard to put into words,” Graves said in remarks delivered a week after Combs was arrested and held without bail on a federal indictment unsealed in New York. “I am glad that he is locked up, but that’s a temporary feeling of relief.”
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Graves says in her lawsuit that she became friendly with Combs in late 1999 through her then-boyfriend, who was an executive at Bad Boy at the time. Due to the boyfriend’s position, Graves says she frequently attended events hosted at Combs’ homes and often visited her boyfriend at work. (The boyfriend is not named in the lawsuit. However, Rolling Stone reached out to the man in question on Tuesday after the lawsuit claimed he revealed the existence of the tape to Graves last November. He acknowledged seeing an alleged sex tape, but he said he only observed Graves and Combs’ bodyguard Joseph “Big Joe” Sherman on the alleged video. In a statement posted on social media, Sherman called the allegations “false” and denied even knowing Graves.)
According to the lawsuit, the alleged attack followed after Combs called Graves directly in mid-2001 and asked for a meeting to “discuss her boyfriend’s supposed performance issues.” Wanting to help her boyfriend and already knowing Combs, Graves says she agreed to the meeting. “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 filed in federal court in Manhattan claims.
Combs allegedly arrived at Graves’ residence a few hours later in an SUV driven by Sherman. Graves says she accepted a glass of wine from Combs and quickly became “lightheaded, dizzy, and physically weak.” By the time the group arrived at the recording studio, Graves was struggling to walk, and when they reached Combs’ office, Graves lost consciousness, her lawsuit claims.
“In retrospect, it is clear that Combs had caused a drug to be put into Plaintiff’s drink, as a few sips of wine had never impacted her that way,” the lawsuit claims. Graves alleges that when she woke up, she was naked and bound, with her hands tied behind her back with what felt like a plastic grocery bag. As Graves shouted for help, Sherman allegedly slammed her face down into a pool table, the lawsuit claims.
“Shortly thereafter, Combs entered the room naked,” the lawsuit alleges. “He then bent [Graves] over the table causing her feet to dangle above the floor, forcefully held her down, and anally penetrated her without her consent … [Graves] was unable to move, totally overpowered physically, in addition to being drugged and bound.”
Graves claims she screamed out in pain, but Combs ignored her and continued the alleged violent assault, smashing her head into the pool table when she tried to escape. Graves claims she lost consciousness again, and when she awoke Sherman allegedly slapped her multiple times and forced her to perform oral sex.
Some time later, Graves claims she woke up on a couch naked and alone. She alleges she was in “intense pain and [had] burning sensations in her vagina and anus” with bruising on her face and wrists. “Still dizzy and weak, Plaintiff called a livery driver that her family regularly hired and knew well,” her lawsuit alleges. Graves claims she was disheveled, crying uncontrollably and suffering from agonizing pain.
Reps for Combs did not reply to a request for comment. Sherman did not respond to messages sent by Rolling Stone but issued a public denial on his Facebook profile. “These accusations are not only false but damaging to my character,” Sherman said. “I have never met the accuser, and I was not working with Sean Combs during the time in question. I will be pursuing legal action to address this defamation and protect my name.”
In her lawsuit, Graves alleges her driver took her to a hospital after the alleged attack and “tried to convince her to report the rape and get a rape kit, but she was unable to leave the car, ‘shaking and crying hysterically’ and terrified of what Combs would do to her and her family if she reported him.” Graves informed her then-boyfriend of what happened, according to the lawsuit, but he discouraged her from going to the police, allegedly “telling her that it could negatively impact his own career.”
In the years since, Graves alleges that she has moved multiple times and that Combs and Sherman had threatened her to remain silent about the alleged assault. However, she maintains that she disclosed to close friends what happened.
Graves is the 11th person to come forward to accuse Sean “Diddy” Combs in a sexual assault lawsuit. Allred declined to say Tuesday whether Graves played any part in the grand jury proceedings that led to Southern District of New York prosecutors arresting Combs last week. “Our goal for Thalia is very simple. We want justice for her, and we are looking forward to winning it. It is long overdue for those who have caused her to suffer to be held accountable,” Allred said.
In November 2023, a few days after Casandra “Cassie” Ventura filed her sex trafficking and sexual abuse lawsuit against Combs, Graves claims that her ex-boyfriend told her that Combs and Sherman had recorded the alleged rape and shown it to others. “He disclosed that Combs and Sherman had a pattern and practice of non-consensually recording women engaging in sexual acts and making those videos available to the public, including by selling tapes as pornography,” the lawsuit alleges.
Graves suffers from PTSD, severe depression, “suicidal ideation and intrusive thoughts, and has attempted to end her life,” her lawsuit says. Her experience has left her in “constant fear.” She is suing Combs, Sherman and eight of Combs’ companies under the New York City’s Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, as well as a state civil rights law for the alleged secret recording and distribution of the sex tape.
This is the latest civil lawsuit against Combs, who has been sued for allegedly sexually abusing at least seven others since Ventura filed her graphic sex-trafficking complaint against him last November. Combs settled with Ventura for an undisclosed sum within 24 hours, but her 35-page complaint became the roadmap for the music mogul’s criminal prosecution and inspired others to file claims as well.
On Thanksgiving, the day New York’s Adult Survivors Act was set to expire, two more women sued with similarly disturbing claims against Combs. Joi Dickerson-Neal alleged Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her when she was a Syracuse University student in 1991. In a claim similar to Graves’ complaint, she alleged Combs filmed the incident and showed the video to others. Through a rep, Combs denied the allegation, calling the lawsuit a “money grab.”
Hours after Dickerson-Neal’s lawsuit grabbed headlines, Liza Gardner alleged Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall took turns raping her following an MCA Records event in 1990. Gardner says she was 16 years old at the time and that Combs turned “irate and began assaulting and choking” her until she almost “passed out” during a confrontation a day later. Combs and his lawyers denied Gardner’s allegations as well, calling them “fabricated.”
In early December, a fourth accuser alleged Combs, former Bad Boy president Harve Pierre, and a third man gang raped her at Combs’ New York recording studio in 2003 when she was 17 years old. In late February, Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a lawsuit accusing Combs of sexual assault, harassment, and not compensating him for work on the Grammy-nominated The Love Album.
After federal agents raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach were in March, more women stepped forward with lawsuits alleging violent sexual assaults.
Model Crystal McKinney filed a lawsuit on May 21 alleging Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her after she attended a Sean John fashion show on the arm of designer Roberto Cavalli in February 2003. She claimed before Combs allegedly drugged and sexually assaulted the 22-year-old. McKinney claimed Combs pressured her to take a hit off a laced joint, led her into a bathroom and forced her to perform oral sex.
On May 24, April Lampros filed a lawsuit alleging she was a student and intern at Arista Records when she began an on-off relationship with Combs in early 1994. She claims Combs sexually assaulted her on three occasions over the course of their four-year relationship and once more in early 2001. Like Graves and Dickerson-Neal, she alleges Combs recorded a sex tape of her and showed it to multiple people in 1997.
Earlier this month, former Danity Kane and Diddy-Dirty Money member Dawn Richard claimed Combs sexually harassed and assaulted her, and through a “pattern of coercive threats and displays of brutal violence,” caused her to “engage in commercial sex acts.”
This story was updated September 25, 2024, to include the response statement from Joseph Sherman.
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