Accused of rape and selling assault video

A week after Sean “Diddy” Combs pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and other charges, another charge of aggravated sexual assault was filed against the imprisoned artist/producer.

“In or about the summer of 2001, Plaintiff's life was violently derailed when Defendants Sean Combs and Joseph Sherman brutally raped her at the Bad Boy Records studio in New York City,” says the lawsuit against Combs, his bodyguard and the Bad Boy companies, filed Tuesday in federal court in New York on behalf of Thalia Graves.

“Plaintiff was 25 years old at the time and was dating one of Combs' employees, a relationship that Combs exploited to get Plaintiff to meet him and Sherman alone,” the complaint continues. “After successfully shielding Plaintiff, Combs and Sherman gave her a drink likely laced with a drug that eventually rendered her briefly unconscious. When she awoke, she was bound and shackled.”

“After the assault, and on multiple occasions over the years, both Combs and Sherman contacted Plaintiff, admonishing her to remain silent and threatening her with consequences, including the potential loss of custody of her son, if she ever disclosed the assault,” the three-claim civil complaint alleges, which was recounted in several previous lawsuits filed against Combs and his entourage in recent months. “Because of their enormous power in the industry, including their ownership and positions in the Combs Corporations, Plaintiff knew they could carry out their threats.”

More than 20 years after the alleged attack, the wound of rape was reopened for Graves in late 2023. That time frame coincides with when Combs' longtime ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura filed her own short-lived sexual assault lawsuit against the Grammy winner.

“Any progress Plaintiff had made over the years in processing the assault was dramatically undone on or about November 27, 2023, when she first learned that Combs and Sherman had videotaped the gruesome rape 22 years earlier and shown the video to multiple men in order to publicly degrade and humiliate both Plaintiff and her boyfriend,” today's 26-page filing states.

“The plaintiff could not believe that the defendants would film themselves committing such a cruel crime and then proudly and widely distribute the recording,” the document states. “She was despairing and fell into a deep depression. She again considered ending her life.”

Read the latest sexual assault lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs here.

Hours after the jury-requested lawsuit was filed in the Empire State, Graves appeared at a press conference in Los Angeles with attorney Gloria Allred.

“Some of the worst aspects of this pain are the shame and guilt I have felt, which negatively impact my ability to function in everyday life,” Graves said Tuesday at Allred's office in Los Angeles. “Being blamed, questioned and threatened has often left me feeling worthless, isolated and sometimes responsible for what has happened to me.”

Although Graves issued a statement, he did not answer questions about the lawsuit or the incident involving Combs.

While Allred answered questions, he was reluctant to comment on whether Graves' legal team had been in contact with federal prosecutors in the criminal case against Combs or whether Combs or other alleged victims of his alleged predatory misconduct had been in contact.

Allred declined to say whether she would file further lawsuits against Combs, but acknowledged that she has at least one other client making allegations against the former music mogul.

Graves is the 11th.^th Person who has publicly claimed that Combs sexually abused her. Graves is seeking a range of unspecified damages. She also wants to have Combs and Sherman ordered to destroy “all copies of all images and videos” of the prolonged abuse 23 years ago and “give an account.”

Combs was arrested at a luxury Manhattan hotel on September 16, marking a clear turning point in the ongoing federal investigation. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams is charging Combs with sex trafficking, organized crime and transportation for the purpose of prostitution. The allegations in the unsealed indictment could land the 54-year-old Grammy winner up to life in prison if convicted.

He is awaiting trial after the defense twice unsuccessfully tried to set bail of $50 million or more. Combs is being held at the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the only federal detention facility in the five boroughs.