Another sexual assault lawsuit filed against Sean Combs
Yesterday Thalia Graves filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of New York under the New York City Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, which created a two year window for victims to file for crimes where the statute of limitation has passed. Her lawsuit alleges that Sean Combs sexually assaulted her, recorded the assault, and distributed the video. She is the eleventh plaintiff to file a civil suit against Combs for sexual assault.
Thalia said that she first met Combs in 1999 through her boyfriend, who was an executive at Bad Boy Records. She said that she attended events at Combs' house and visited her boyfriend at Combs' recording studio. In the summer of 2001 when she was 25 years old, Combs contacted her and asked to meet her in person to discuss her boyfriend's "performance issues" at work. Combs arrived at her house in Queens and picked her up in an SUV driven by his bodyguard Joseph Sherman. Combs offered her a glass of wine. She quickly became “lightheaded, dizzy, and physically weak" after drinking a few sips. When they arrived at his Manhattan recording studio, she had a hard time walking and lost consciousness after she entered the building.
[warning: graphic details of sexual assault]When she regained consciousness, she was naked and had her hands tied behind her back with a plastic grocery bag. After she shouted for help, Sherman slammed her face down into a pool table. Combs then entered the room, held her down, and raped her vaginally and anally. When she screamed in pain and tried to escape, Combs smashed her head into the pool table. She lost consciousness again and when she came to, Sherman slapped her multiple times and forced her to perform oral sex.
When she woke up, she called a driver that her family had used regularly. The driver took her to a hospital and tried to convince her to get a rape kit, but she was still crying hysterically and could not get out of the car. She said she was also terrified of what Combs would do to her and her family if she reported the assault. When she told her boyfriend what happened, he told her not to report the assault to the police because it could negatively impact his career. She said that in the years since the assault, Combs and Sherman have contacted her multiple times and warned her to stay silent. At one point, she was going through a custody battle and they threatened that she would lose custody of her son if she revealed what had happened.
A few days after Cassie Ventura filed her lawsuit against Combs in November 2023, Thalia's ex-boyfriend contacted her and told her that Combs and Sherman had recorded the assault, shown the video to other people, and sold the footage as pornography. Her ex-boyfriend also informed her that "Combs and Sherman had a pattern and practice of non-consensually recording women engaging in sexual acts and making those videos available to the public, including by selling tapes as pornography."
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Thalia said that she first met Combs in 1999 through her boyfriend, who was an executive at Bad Boy Records. She said that she attended events at Combs' house and visited her boyfriend at Combs' recording studio. In the summer of 2001 when she was 25 years old, Combs contacted her and asked to meet her in person to discuss her boyfriend's "performance issues" at work. Combs arrived at her house in Queens and picked her up in an SUV driven by his bodyguard Joseph Sherman. Combs offered her a glass of wine. She quickly became “lightheaded, dizzy, and physically weak" after drinking a few sips. When they arrived at his Manhattan recording studio, she had a hard time walking and lost consciousness after she entered the building.
[warning: graphic details of sexual assault]When she regained consciousness, she was naked and had her hands tied behind her back with a plastic grocery bag. After she shouted for help, Sherman slammed her face down into a pool table. Combs then entered the room, held her down, and raped her vaginally and anally. When she screamed in pain and tried to escape, Combs smashed her head into the pool table. She lost consciousness again and when she came to, Sherman slapped her multiple times and forced her to perform oral sex.
When she woke up, she called a driver that her family had used regularly. The driver took her to a hospital and tried to convince her to get a rape kit, but she was still crying hysterically and could not get out of the car. She said she was also terrified of what Combs would do to her and her family if she reported the assault. When she told her boyfriend what happened, he told her not to report the assault to the police because it could negatively impact his career. She said that in the years since the assault, Combs and Sherman have contacted her multiple times and warned her to stay silent. At one point, she was going through a custody battle and they threatened that she would lose custody of her son if she revealed what had happened.
A few days after Cassie Ventura filed her lawsuit against Combs in November 2023, Thalia's ex-boyfriend contacted her and told her that Combs and Sherman had recorded the assault, shown the video to other people, and sold the footage as pornography. Her ex-boyfriend also informed her that "Combs and Sherman had a pattern and practice of non-consensually recording women engaging in sexual acts and making those videos available to the public, including by selling tapes as pornography."
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