As troubled music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs awaits trial on federal sex crime charges, he and his former bodyguard are facing new sexual assault allegations in a lawsuit.
In a complaint and demand for jury trial filed on Tuesday, Sept. 24, in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York and obtained by PEOPLE, a woman named Thalia Graves claims that Combs, 54, and his head of security at the time, Joseph Sherman, raped her in the summer of 2001 at the Bad Boy Records studio in New York City.
Graves claims that the sexual assault was captured on film and that she has had suicidal thoughts since then, according to the complaint.
Graves sobbed during a press briefing regarding the lawsuit on Tuesday afternoon, saying that the alleged rape made her feel “worthless and isolated.”
What she claims to have gone through “goes beyond just physical harm caused by and during the assault,” she stated. “It’s a pain that reaches into your very core,” she said, adding, “This has taken a toll on my mental health,” which she describes as including PTSD, flashbacks, nightmares, and suicidal ideation.
She concluded her statements by saying, “I’m glad Diddy is locked up, but that’s only temporary relief.”
Graves’ attorney, Gloria Allred, said she will seek compensatory and punitive damages in an amount “to be determined at trial.”
Graves claims that she was 25 years old and dating one of Combs’ staffers at the time, which Combs “exploited to lure (her) into meeting him and Sherman alone,” according to the complaint.
“Once they effectively secluded [her], Combs and Sherman handed her a drink “possibly tainted with a narcotic that finally led her to lose consciousness,” it claims.
According to the complaint, she awoke “to find herself bound and restrained.”
She alleges to have been raped “anally and vaginally,” according to the complaint.
According to the lawsuit, she refused to report the incident to the authorities because she was afraid of what Combs and Sherman would do. She claims to have suffered from despair and anxiety for years, according to the complaint.
Her fear increased when she discovered in November 2023 that Combs and Sherman reportedly recorded the “horrific rape,” according to the complaint.
She alleges that Combs and Sherman “continued to show the video of the rape to others over the years and through to the present and/or sold the video as pornography.”
The complaint describes what transpired during the alleged rape, claiming that when she recovered consciousness and shouted, Sherman “slammed her face down on what was a pool table.” During the alleged assault, she vomited on the table, but “Combs was undeterred,” according to the lawsuit. “He wiped himself off….” and resumed to rape her, it claims.
According to the complaint, she considered suicide as a result of the alleged rape and the events that followed. Combs is now in jail after being arrested on Sept. 16 and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation for prostitution. He pleaded not guilty but has been denied bail twice.
His attorney, Marc Agnifilo, claims that his client is innocent.
“He’s going to fight this with all of his energy and all of his might and the full confidence of his lawyers and I expect a long battle with a good result for Mr. Combs,” Agnifilo said outside of court on Sept. 17.
Combs’ hearing is scheduled for Oct. 9 at 2 p.m. The attorney for Combs did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. It is unknown whether Sherman has retained a counsel who can speak for him.