Graves v. Combs et al

In the summer of 2001, Thalia Graves, then 25, was lured by Sean Combs to the Bad Boy Records studio in New York City under the pretense of discussing her boyfriend’s employment, an executive at Bad Boy. Combs and Joseph Sherman, his head of security, gave her a drink likely laced with a drug, causing her to lose consciousness. Upon waking, she was bound and raped anally and vaginally by Combs, and orally assaulted by Sherman, on a pool table in Combs’ personal lounge at the studio. The assault caused severe physical injuries, including anal bleeding, vaginal burning, and bruising. Fearing Combs’ influence, Graves did not report the rape, facing threats from both defendants to remain silent. She fled New York, suffering severe depression, PTSD, and suicidal ideation. On November 27, 2023, Graves learned that Combs and Sherman had recorded the rape and shown it to multiple men, including her then-boyfriend, to humiliate them both. The video was allegedly sold as pornography, exacerbating her trauma, leading to deep depression and further suicidal thoughts.

Compensatory damages in an amount to be determined at trial for physical and emotional harm, including mental anguish, emotional distress, and humiliation; punitive damages for malicious, willful, wanton, and outrageous conduct; attorneys’ fees under the fee-shifting provision of the VGMVPA; an order to account for and destroy all copies of the video; temporary and permanent injunctions to prevent further dissemination of intimate images of Plaintiff.