A new lawsuit has been filed against hip-hop mogul Sean Combs, accusing him of drugging and raping a woman, Thalia Graves, in 2001 at his Manhattan recording studio. Graves, now 25, says she recently discovered that the assault was recorded and shown to others. This lawsuit comes just a week after Combs was arrested on charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Combs, 54, has faced multiple accusations of sexual assault, with six other women coming forward in the past year, and three additional lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct. According to the lawsuit, Graves knew Combs through her then-boyfriend, who worked for Bad Boy, Combs’s record label. She says that in the summer of 2001, Combs invited her to meet in person.
After picking her up in an SUV, Combs offered her a glass of wine, which made her feel “lightheaded, dizzy, and physically weak.” Graves claims that after arriving at the recording studio, she lost consciousness. When she woke up, she was naked, her hands were tied behind her back, and she recalled being violently assaulted by Combs’s bodyguard, Joseph Sherman, before being raped by Combs.
The lawsuit describes how Graves was physically overpowered, drugged, and unable to resist the attack. Sherman is also named in the suit, with claims that he assaulted Graves and forced her to perform oral sex. S herman, however, has denied these accusations, saying he stopped working for Bad Boy in 1999 and did not know Graves.
He also claimed that Graves had reached out to him on social media, but he didn’t recognize her or understand what she was referring to. This lawsuit follows Combs’s ongoing criminal case, where prosecutors accuse him of a long history of physical and sexual abuse, allegedly assisted by his staff. Combs’s legal team denies all charges, describing him as innocent.
Graves’s lawsuit shares similarities with one filed by Cassie, a singer and former girlfriend of Combs, who accused him of abuse. Combs quickly settled that lawsuit but continues to fight other allegations, with his lawyers suggesting the lawsuits are attempts to get money. Graves said that after Cassie’s lawsuit, her former boyfriend told her that Combs and Sherman had shown him and other employees a video of her being raped.
This discovery led her to contact Sherman, hoping to destroy or recover the footage. Her lawyer, Gloria Allred, said in a press conference that the video “may still be out there being viewed,” and the lawsuit accuses the defendants of continuing to show it to others over the years. Graves filed her lawsuit under New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law, which allows older claims to be revisited.
The suit also includes charges related to the illegal sharing of explicit videos. During the press conference, Graves expressed some relief that Combs remains in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after being denied bail, but the possibility of the video still being out there continues to cause her distress. This latest lawsuit adds to the growing legal battles faced by Sean Combs, as more allegations of misconduct continue to emerge.