NOTE: The next article incorporates disturbing content material. Please learn at your individual discretion.
One other lady sued Sean “Diddy” Combs on Tuesday, alleging the music mogul and his head of safety raped her and recorded it on video at his New York recording studio in 2001.
The lawsuit filed in federal court docket in New York, the most recent of a number of comparable fits in opposition to Combs, comes every week after he was arrested and a federal intercourse trafficking indictment in opposition to him was unsealed.
Thalia Graves alleges that when she was 25 and relationship an govt who labored for Combs in the summertime of 2001, Combs and Joseph Sherman lured her to a gathering at Dangerous Boy Recording Studios. She mentioned they picked her up in an SUV and in the course of the journey gave her a drink “seemingly laced with a drug.”
In response to the lawsuit, Graves misplaced consciousness and awoke to seek out herself certain inside Combs’ workplace and lounge on the studio. The 2 males raped her, slapped her, slammed her head in opposition to a pool desk and ignored her screams and cries for assist, the lawsuit alleges.
Thalia Graves attends a press convention on Sept. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles after suing Sean “Diddy” Combs and accusing him of rape in 2001.
AP Picture/Chris Pizzello
At a information convention in Los Angeles with considered one of her attorneys, Gloria Allred, Graves mentioned she has suffered from “flashbacks, nightmares and intrusive ideas” within the years since.
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“It has been laborious for me to belief others to kind wholesome relationships and even really feel secure in my very own pores and skin,” Graves mentioned, crying as she learn from a press release.
She mentioned it’s “a ache that reaches into your very core of who you’re and leaves emotional scars which will by no means totally heal.”
Combs stays jailed with out bail in New York on federal fees alleging that he ran an enormous community that facilitated sexual crimes and dedicated surprising acts of violence, utilizing blackmail and different ways to guard Combs and people near him.
He pleaded not responsible to racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking. His lawyer mentioned he’s harmless and can combat to clear his title. His representatives didn’t instantly reply to an e-mail looking for touch upon the most recent lawsuit. There was no instant indication from the lawsuit or from Combs’ representatives whether or not Sherman had a separate lawyer who may touch upon the allegations.
The lawsuit was filed beneath the New York Metropolis Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Safety Act and comes throughout a two-year window that suspends authorized deadlines and permits sexual assault victims to sue over abuse which may in any other case be too outdated to pursue.
Allred declined to say whether or not her consumer had spoken to investigators in Combs’ felony case. The indictment in that case mentions solely allegations since 2008.
Graves’ lawsuit additionally alleges that late final 12 months, after Combs’ former singing protege and girlfriend Cassie filed a lawsuit that started the surge of allegations in opposition to him, Graves discovered via her former boyfriend that Combs had recorded her rape, proven it to others and bought it as pornography.
The Related Press doesn’t sometimes title individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused, until they arrive ahead publicly as Graves and Cassie, whose authorized title is Casandra Ventura, have finished.
Graves’ lawsuit says each Combs and Sherman contacted her a number of instances within the years after the assault, threatening repercussions if she advised anybody what had occurred to her. She was in a divorce and custody combat on the time and feared dropping her younger son if she revealed something, the go well with says.
Graves mentioned on the information convention that the guilt and disgrace connected “usually made me really feel nugatory, remoted and typically accountable for what occurred to me.”
Lawyer Gloria Allred, left, and Thalia Graves attend a press convention on Sept. 24, 2024, in Los Angeles after suing Sean “Diddy” Combs and accusing him of rape in 2001.
AP Picture/Chris Pizzello
The lawsuit seeks damages to be decided at trial and for all copies of the video to be accounted for and destroyed.
The lawsuit additionally names as defendants a number of firms owned by Combs, the three-time Grammy winner and founding father of Dangerous Boy Information who was among the many most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the previous three many years.
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In case you or somebody is experiencing abuse or is concerned in an abusive scenario, please go to the Canadian Useful resource Centre for Victims of Crime for assist. They’re additionally reachable toll-free at 1-877-232-2610.
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