As embattled music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs sits in jail awaiting trial on federal sex-crimes charges, he and his former bodyguard face new sexual assault charges in a new lawsuit.
In a complaint and request for a jury trial filed Tuesday, Sept. 24, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, obtained by PEOPLE, a woman named Thalia Graves alleges that Combs, 54, and his security chief in that time, Joseph Sherman, raped her in the summer of 2001 at the Bad Boy Records studio in New York.
Graves claims the sexual assault was captured on video and has had suicidal thoughts ever since, the lawsuit alleges.
At a news conference about the lawsuit Tuesday afternoon, Graves sobbed and said the alleged rape left her feeling “worthless and isolated.”
What she allegedly experienced “goes beyond just the physical injury caused by the assault and during the assault,” she said.
“It’s a pain that cuts to your very core,” she said, adding, “this has taken a toll on my mental health,” which she says has included PTSD, flashbacks, nightmares and suicidal thoughts.
She ended her remarks by saying, “I’m glad Diddy is locked up, but it’s a temporary sense of relief.”
Her attorney, Gloria Allred, said Graves will seek compensatory and punitive damages in an amount “to be determined at trial.”
In the complaint, Graves says she was 25 and was dating one of Combs’ employees at the time, which Combs “used to lure (her) into a private meeting with him and Sherman,” it claims.
“Once they have successfully sequestered themselves [her]Combs and Sherman gave her a drink “possibly laced with drugs that eventually caused her to lose consciousness,” it said.
She awoke, the lawsuit states, “to find herself bound and restrained.”
She claims she was raped “anally and vaginally,” the lawsuit states.
She says she never reported the incident to authorities because she was afraid of what Combs and Sherman would do to her, the complaint alleges.
For years, she says, she suffered from depression and anxiety, according to the complaint.
Her anxiety skyrocketed when she learned in November 2023 that Combs and Sherman had allegedly filmed a “horrific rape,” according to the lawsuit.
She alleges that Combs and Sherman “continued to show the rape videos to others over the years to this day and/or sell the videos as pornography.”
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The complaint details what happened during the alleged rape, stating that when Sherman regained consciousness and screamed, she allegedly “slammed her face into what was apparently a pool table,” according to the complaint.
During the alleged assault, she vomited on the table, but “Combs was unmoved,” the complaint states. “He wiped himself…” and continued raping, it is said.
She says she considered suicide the result of the alleged rape and what happened afterward, according to the complaint.
Combs is currently in jail after being arrested on September 16 and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation for prostitution. He pleaded not guilty but was denied bail twice.
His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, says his client is innocent.
“He will fight this with all his energy and with all his might and with the full confidence of his attorneys and I expect a long battle with a good result for Mr. Combs,” Agnifilo said outside court on Sept. 17.
A hearing for Combs is scheduled for Oct. 9 at 2 p.m
Combs’ attorney did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. It is not clear whether Sherman has hired an attorney who can speak on his behalf.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Line by dialing 988, texting “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Line at 741741 or going to 988lifeline.org.
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Source: HIS Education