A woman has filed a lawsuit accusing hip-hop mogul Sean Combs of drugging and raping her at his Manhattan recording studio in 2001. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, alleges that the woman, Thalia Graves, recently learned that the assault had been recorded and shown to others.
The lawsuit comes shortly after Combs, 54, was arrested on charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, to which he has pleaded not guilty. In the past year, six other women have also accused Combs of sexual assault, while three additional lawsuits have accused him of sexual misconduct.
Graves, who was 25 at the time of the alleged assault, says she knew Combs through her boyfriend, who worked for Bad Boy, Combs’s record label. According to the lawsuit, in the summer of 2001, Combs contacted Graves and arranged to meet her. After picking her up in an SUV, Combs allegedly offered her a glass of wine, which made her feel “lightheaded, dizzy, and physically weak.”
The lawsuit claims that when they arrived at Combs’s recording studio, Graves lost consciousness and later woke up naked, with her hands tied behind her back with what “felt like a plastic grocery bag.” Graves alleges that one of Combs’s bodyguards, Joseph Sherman, lifted her and slammed her onto a table, after which she was raped by Combs.
“Plaintiff was unable to move, totally overpowered physically, in addition to being drugged and bound,” the lawsuit states, which was filed in federal court in Manhattan.
Neither Combs nor his representatives have responded to requests for comment.
The lawsuit also names Sherman as a defendant, accusing him of physically assaulting Graves and forcing her to perform oral sex on him. Sherman has denied these allegations, claiming he had no ties to Combs by 2001 and asserting that he had “nothing to do” with the incident.
“I categorically — a trillion times — deny it,” Sherman said in an interview. “Not only do I deny it, I don’t know who she is. I’ve never seen this woman.”
Sherman further alleged that Graves contacted him via social media months ago, to which he replied that he had no idea what she was referring to.
In Combs’s ongoing criminal case, prosecutors have accused him of a “decades-long pattern” of physical and sexual violence, often facilitated by his aides. Combs’s lawyers, however, have vehemently denied the charges, portraying him as an “innocent man.”
The accusations in Graves’s lawsuit are similar to those raised in a suit filed by singer Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura. Combs quickly settled Ventura’s lawsuit in November but has been vigorously fighting the remaining lawsuits. His lawyers have claimed that many plaintiffs are making false claims in hopes of securing settlements.
“Everyone lined up to get their checks,” said Marc Agnifilo, one of Combs’s lawyers, during a recent court hearing.
Graves’s lawsuit also claims that her former boyfriend informed her, following Cassie’s lawsuit, that Combs and Sherman had shown him and other employees footage of her assault. Graves reportedly reached out to Sherman in hopes of getting the tape destroyed or obtaining it herself.
It remains unclear whether any video footage of the alleged assault still exists. Gloria Allred, Graves’s lawyer, said at a news conference on Tuesday that the video “may still be out there being viewed,” and the lawsuit accuses the defendants of continuing to show the video over the years.
Allred declined to comment on whether Graves is involved in the criminal case against Combs.
Graves shared during the news conference that Combs’s incarceration at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he is being held after being denied bail, has brought her a “temporary feeling of relief.”
The lawsuit was filed under New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law, which allows accusers to pursue older claims. It also references laws against the unlawful dissemination of pornography.