Note: This article contains references to alleged sexual assault that some readers may find disturbing.
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been sued by a woman who claims that he and one of his employees raped her in 2001. The woman, Thalia Graves, filed her complaint today (September 24) in a New York federal court.
According to the lawsuit, obtained by Pitchfork, Graves met Diddy “in or around late 1999 or early 2000 through her then-boyfriend, who was an executive at [Diddy’s] Bad Boy [Records].” She claims that, “around the summer of 2001,” Diddy called her and said that “he wanted to meet with her in person to discuss her boyfriend’s supposed performance issues” at the record label. She says that she agreed to the meeting, and Diddy and Joseph “Big Joe” Sherman, “his bodyguard and head of security,” picked her up in an SUV.
In the SUV, Graves accepted a glass of wine from Diddy, but “she started to feel lightheaded, dizzy, and physically weak,” according to the complaint. “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.”
Eventually, Graves, Diddy, and Sherman arrived at Diddy’s New York recording studio, and Graves claims that she lost consciousness while in Diddy’s “personal lounge and office at the Bad Boy studio.” When she regained consciousness, Graves “was naked, and her hands were tied behind her back with what felt like a plastic grocery bag,” according to the lawsuit. She says that she “shouted for help,” at which point “Sherman lifted her up from the couch and forcefully slammed her face down on what was apparently a pool table.”
“Shortly thereafter, Combs entered the room naked,” and he anally and vaginally raped Graves, the lawsuit states. She says that she screamed for help throughout the alleged assault before losing consciousness. Once she regained consciousness, she alleges, she saw Sherman “standing in front of her with his bare penis in her face.” The bodyguard then “slapped [her] in the face and forcefully inserted his penis into her mouth,” according to the lawsuit.
After losing and regaining consciousness again, Graves “quickly got dressed and bolted out of the studio room” and “called a livery driver” to pick her up. “The driver drove her to the hospital 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,” according to the complaint.
Graves, who says she was 25 years old at the time of the alleged assault, says that she “was afraid to report what had happened” because of Diddy’s “power and notoriety.” In addition, she says “she was involved in a contentious divorce and custody battle at the time and feared that reporting the rape would cause her to lose custody of her young child,” and that Diddy and Sherman “contacted [her] and warned her to be silent, threatening repercussions including Plaintiff potentially losing custody of her son if she ever disclosed the assault.”
Last year, according to the complaint, Graves also learned that Diddy filmed the alleged assault, without her consent, and showed it to “a group of men” that included her former boyfriend.
Diddy was arrested by the federal government last week and charged with racketeering conspiracy; sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion; and transportation to engage in prostitution. A judge denied him bail, and the music mogul is being held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center. According to The New York Times, he is living in the same dormitory-style unit as the disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried.
The arrest followed a spate of sexual abuse lawsuits against Diddy. The first major allegation against the musician came in November 2023 when the singer Casandra Elizabeth “Cassie” Ventura sued him for sexual and physical abuse. Cassie quickly settled her lawsuit with her former boyfriend, but her action led many other survivors of Diddy’s alleged abuse to come forward. Among those to accuse Diddy of wrongdoing are: Joi Dickerson-Neal, Liza Gardner, a woman identified as Jane Doe, the music producer Rodney Jones Jr., former model Crystal McKinney, April Lampros, former adult-film star Adria English, and the New Orleans artist and former Diddy collaborator Dawn Richard.
Diddy has denied many of the allegations of abuse that have been leveled against him. He has also pleaded not guilty to his criminal charges.
If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual assault, we encourage you to reach out for support:
RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline
https://rainn.org
1 800 656 HOPE (4673)
Crisis Text Line
SMS: Text “HELLO” or “HOLA” to 741-741
