McKenney v. Combs: More Than a Year In, Combs and His Companies Still Haven't Answered

Tina McKenney sued Sean Combs and his companies in February 2025 over an alleged 2001 rape by his bodyguard, Joseph Sherman. Nineteen months and an amended complaint later, the docket shows no answer, no motion to dismiss, and no other response to her claims from Combs or any of the corporate defendants — and no motion by McKenney for a default judgment either.

Background

McKenney, who filed originally under the pseudonym “Jane Doe,” alleges that in late 2001 she met Joseph Sherman — Combs’s bodyguard, known as “Big Joe” — at a nightclub near Combs’s restaurant, Justin’s, in New York City. She knew Sherman because he was involved with a friend of hers. After several hours, Sherman offered her a ride home in his Cadillac Escalade; en route, he stopped at his own apartment. Once inside, McKenney alleges, Sherman emerged naked, demanded she undress, and when she refused, retrieved a handgun from a closet and vaginally raped her at gunpoint. She alleges that in the aftermath she accidentally placed a phone call to the friend Sherman was involved with, who overheard his voice but did not believe her account of the assault. (Am. Compl. ¶¶ 37–44, NYSCEF Doc. No. 18.) McKenney brings a single claim against Combs, Sherman, and a group of Combs-controlled corporate entities under New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act, alleging the companies enabled and helped conceal the assault. (Id. ¶¶ 45–55.)

One of the ten corporate entities originally named, Bad Boy Records LLC, is no longer a defendant: McKenney and the company stipulated to a voluntary dismissal without prejudice in June 2025, with no findings on the merits. (Stip. of Partial Discontinuance, NYSCEF Doc. No. 14.) Daddy’s House Recordings, CE OpCo (d/b/a Combs Global), and the remaining Bad Boy entities are still in the case.

Sherman is also named, alongside Combs, as a defendant in a separate federal suit, Graves v. Combs, No. 1:24-cv-07201 (S.D.N.Y.), filed by Thalia Graves in September 2024 and currently stayed pending related Second Circuit appeals.

Anonymity Denied, Amended Complaint Filed Under Her Own Name

McKenney moved, by order to show cause, for permission to litigate anonymously. On August 14, 2025, Justice Leslie A. Stroth denied the motion, finding that McKenney’s only support was an unsworn declaration from her lawyer, which does not satisfy CPLR 2106’s requirement of a sworn affirmation or affidavit, and that the First Department has held an attorney’s affirmation adequate only where its facts are specific to the plaintiff — which this one, unsworn, could not establish either way. (Decision & Order at 1–2, NYSCEF Doc. No. 15, citing Doe v. Yeshiva Univ., 195 A.D.3d 565.) The court denied the motion without prejudice to renew within 30 days. (Id. at 2.)

McKenney did not renew the motion. Instead, on September 12, 2025, she filed an Amended Complaint captioned in her own name, dropping the pseudonym. (Am. Compl., NYSCEF Doc. No. 18.)

The Other Side

Combs and the corporate defendants, represented by Sher Tremonte LLP, had opposed the anonymity motion months earlier on the same ground the court ultimately relied on. Their brief noted that the same judge had “recently denied essentially identical anonymity motions” brought by the same plaintiffs’ firm in three other cases against Combs, and argued the motion “must be denied on that basis alone.” (Mem. of Law in Opp’n at 1, NYSCEF Doc. No. 8.) It went further, arguing that even a proper declaration would not have mattered, because “no less than fourteen courts have recently denied similar anonymity motions in sexual abuse cases brought against the Combs Defendants, in decisions authored by eleven different judges.” (Id. at 2.)

Where Things Stand

Sher Tremonte entered notices of appearance in May 2025 for Combs, Daddy’s House, CE OpCo, and the remaining Bad Boy entities — not for Bad Boy Records LLC, which had its own counsel, and not for Sherman, who has no attorney of record and no notice of appearance anywhere on this docket. (NYSCEF Doc. Nos. 10–13.) Two stipulations extended the corporate defendants’ and Combs’s time to answer the original complaint (NYSCEF Doc. Nos. 7, 9), but no answer, and no motion directed at either the original or the amended complaint, has been filed since. The only docket activity after the Amended Complaint is a housekeeping order, decided June 4, 2026, admitting an out-of-state attorney to appear for McKenney pro hac vice. (Order, NYSCEF Doc. No. 22.) McKenney has not moved for a default judgment against any defendant.

Counsel and Sources

Tina McKenney is represented by Antigone Curis of Curis Law, PLLC; Anthony G. Buzbee and David C. Fortney of The Buzbee Law Firm; and Andrew Van Arsdale of AVA Law Group. Sean Combs, Daddy’s House Recordings, CE OpCo, and the remaining Bad Boy entities are represented by Mark Cuccaro, Raphael A. Friedman, Michael Tremonte, and Erica A. Wolff of Sher Tremonte LLP. Bad Boy Records LLC, before its dismissal, was represented by Donald S. Zakarin and Nicholas G. Saady of Pryor Cashman LLP. Source: NYSCEF Doc. Nos. 1, 7–15, 18, 22 on the McKenney v. Combs docket.

Diddy Docket reports on public court records. Parties are presumed innocent or not liable unless proven otherwise. This is not legal advice.