A bold accusation has surfaced from a Harris County woman, Thalia Graves, who has filed a federal lawsuit in New York, alleging that the renowned rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs and his bodyguard, Joseph "Big Joe" Sherman, drugged, raped, and filmed her in a harrowing incident back in 2001.
On Tuesday, Graves, with courage and resolve, stepped forward to confront her alleged abusers, lodging a 26-page complaint detailing the trauma she endured. The lawsuit paints a harrowing picture of Graves, then 25, who crossed paths with Diddy through her boyfriend, an employee at his Bad Boy Records label.
In the sultry summer of 2001, while sharing a ride with Combs and Sherman, Graves innocently accepted a glass of wine, only to find herself swiftly descending into a dizzying haze of disorientation and weakness. Her next conscious moment found her naked and bound in a Manhattan studio, her hands tied behind her back with what seemed like a crude grocery bag.
According to the lawsuit, Combs entered the room, violating her body amidst her struggles and even striking her head against a pool table in a brutal display of force. Sherman, too, sexually assaulted her as she flickered in and out of consciousness, both men unfazed by her cries for help.
In a state of utter disarray, Graves fled the studio, her tears uncontrollable, her body wracked with excruciating pain. For years, she remained silent, fearing the immense power Combs and Sherman wielded and the explicit threats they had made to ruin her life.
However, a shattering revelation in November 2023 shattered her silence once more: Graves discovered that the men had not only filmed their heinous act but had also circulated the footage, seeking to degrade and humiliate her and her boyfriend. The thought of them proudly disseminating such a grotesque recording was almost too much to bear.
Currently incarcerated in New York on federal charges related to facilitating sexual crimes and perpetrating acts of shocking violence, Combs has pleaded his innocence, vowing to clear his name. Graves' lawsuit, filed under the New York City Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, arrives amidst a two-year window that offers a lifeline to sexual assault survivors, allowing them to seek justice for long-buried traumas.
In her quest for restitution, Graves seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, along with a court order mandating the destruction of all copies and images of the assault video and prohibiting its further distribution. She also demands a jury trial, determined to break free from the cycle of suffering and embark on a journey towards healing and recovery.
