Former model files sexual assault lawsuit against Diddy

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Sean “Diddy” Combs has been accused of sexual assault in a new lawsuit by a woman who claims the hip-hop mogul sexually assaulted her in a recording studio bathroom in 2003.

This emerges from the lawsuit filed by lawyers in the US District Court in New York Michelle Caiola And Jonathan GoldhirschCrystal McKinney claims she met Combs at a Men’s Fashion Week dinner in Manhattan at the invitation of a fashion designer she knew. While attending the dinner where she claimed Combs approached her in a “sexually suggestive manner,” she said he invited her to hang out at his recording studio.

When she arrived at the studio, where McKinney said several other men were present, she said she was given alcohol and a marijuana joint, which she later believed was “laced with a narcotic or other intoxicating substance.” She says Combs then led her to a bathroom, where he began kissing her without her consent before pushing her head into his crotch and forcing her to perform oral sex over her protests.

McKinney, who was working as a professional model at the time, claims that she later “woke up in shock” and found herself in a taxi heading back to the apartment of the designer who had invited her to dinner. At that point, she “realized that she had been sexually abused by Combs,” the complaint states. The lawsuit goes on to say that after the alleged assault, McKinney’s “modeling opportunities quickly began to dwindle and then completely evaporated” after Combs allegedly “pressured” her in the industry. After falling into “a tailspin of anxiety and depression,” she claimed she attempted suicide in 2004 and later fell into drug and alcohol addiction to deal with the trauma of the alleged assault.

The new lawsuit was filed under the NYC Gender Motivated Violence Act, which established a two-year lookback window beginning in March 2023 that allows survivors of gender-based violence to sue their perpetrators for alleged incidents that occurred outside the statute of limitations.

Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are Combs’ label Bad Boy Records, his parent company Universal Music Group and Combs’ clothing company Sean John Clothing, which McKinney alleges “enabled” the alleged attack by “actively engaging Combs in a companies have maintained and employed”. position of power,” even though they allegedly “knew or should have known that Combs posed a risk of sexual assault.”

McKinney is seeking damages for, among other things, psychological and emotional injury, despair, pain and suffering and defamation of reputation, as well as punitive damages.

Representatives for Combs, Bad Boy Entertainment, Sean John Clothing and Universal Music Group did not immediately respond billboardPlease comment.

Tuesday’s complaint is the sixth sexual misconduct lawsuit filed against Combs in recent months. The flood of lawsuits was initiated by a complaint filed in November 2023 by his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura, who accused him of repeated abuse by the mogul over the course of more than a decade.

Although Ventura’s lawsuit was settled just a day later, a 2016 security video released by CNN on Friday (May 17) showed Combs physically attacking Ventura in a hotel hallway. Although Combs denied all of Ventura’s initial allegations, he apologized after the video was released, calling his behavior in the clip “inexcusable.” LA District Attorney George Gascon later issued a statement saying that Combs could not be prosecuted for the assault because of the statute of limitations.

Combs has strongly denied all allegations of sexual assault made against him. On December 6, he released a statement saying: “Let me be clear: I did not do any of the terrible things that are alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”

In November, Combs stepped down as chairman of his digital media company Revolt before reportedly selling his stake in the company in March. Also in March, federal agents conducted raids on Combs’ homes in LA and Miami “in connection” with a federal sex trafficking investigation, according to CNN.