Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has been sued by a woman who claims the rapper raped her and recorded the attack.
The alleged victim, Thalia Graves, says the 54-year-old music mogul and his security chief Joseph Sherman raped her in 2001 at Bad Boy Records studios in New York, reports Rolling Stone.
It is the latest legal challenge against the rapper, who is in jail awaiting trial after being charged with racketeering and drug trafficking last week.
Graves claims she was 25 and in a relationship with an employee of the rapper when she was lured to a meeting by Diddy. Diddy said he wanted to “discuss her boyfriend’s alleged performance issues.”
According to her complaint, Diddy and Sherman “held her in seclusion” and gave her a drink that “was likely laced with a drug, which ultimately caused her to briefly lose consciousness.”
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has been sued by a woman who claims the rapper raped her and recorded the attack
Graves says she woke up bound and handcuffed before Diddy and Sherman sexually assaulted her, raping her anally and vaginally.
She has considered suicide, has been forced to undergo extensive psychological treatment and continues to suffer from severe depression following the alleged attack, the lawsuit says.
Graves also claims she didn’t know Diddy and Sherman had recorded the attack until November 2023. They then showed the footage to multiple men.
The indictment alleges that Graves’ ex-boyfriend “revealed that Combs and Sherman had a habit of non-consensually recording women during sexual acts and releasing the videos to the public, including by selling the tapes as pornography.”
Gloria Allred is representing Graves and the two will hold a press conference later on Tuesday.
Graves is the eleventh person to publicly accuse Diddy of sexual abuse.
The rapper is being held in Brooklyn awaiting trial on charges he ran a sordid sex crimes empire protected by blackmail and shocking acts of violence.
He has been in federal custody since his arrest Monday night at the Manhattan hotel.
Diddy, seen here on the right in court, went to jail on Tuesday to await trial in a federal sex trafficking case in which he is accused of running a sordid sex crimes empire.
The musician was seen making a prayer gesture while talking to fans before he was arrested
A federal magistrate on Tuesday denied his first request for bail. On Wednesday, he and his lawyers rejected a second judge who will preside over his trial.
Diddy is accused of inducing female victims and male sex workers to engage in drug-induced sexual acts that sometimes lasted for days, known as “Freak Offs.”
Thousands of bottles of baby oil were found during a search of his belongings, it is alleged. And prosecutors allege that women who took part in the freak-offs were so exhausted from marathon sex sessions that they required IVs afterwards.
The lawsuit also makes passing reference to an assault on his former girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video and released by CNN earlier this year.
In court, Agnifilo acknowledged that Diddy was “not a perfect person,” saying he had used drugs and been in “toxic relationships,” but that he had received treatment and therapy.
He maintained that the affair arose from a long-term, consensual relationship that teetered amid infidelity. He did not name the woman, but the details matched those of Diddy’s decades-long involvement with Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura.
The ‘Freak Offs’, Agnifilo argued, were an extension of that relationship, not coercive.
Prosecutors described the scale as greater, saying they had interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses.
Like many hip-hop figures of old, the Bad Boy Records founder had cultivated a soft-spoken image. The father of seven was a respected businessman whose annual Hamptons “White Party” was once a must-have invitation for the jet-setting elite.
But prosecutors said he facilitated his crimes using the same companies, people and methods that put him in power. They said they would prove the charges with financial and travel records, electronic communications and videos of the “Freak Offs.”
In arguing to keep Diddy in jail, prosecutor Emily Johnson said the once-celebrated rapper has a long history of intimidating both accusers and witnesses to his alleged abuse. She cited text messages from women who said Diddy forced them into the Freak Offs and then threatened to leak videos of them performing sex acts.
Johnson seized on a text message from a woman who said Combs had dragged her down a hallway by her hair. According to Johnson, the woman told the rapper, “I’m not a rag doll, I’m someone’s child.”