A former body guard for Sean Combs has filed a defamation lawsuit against a woman who in September accused him of physically and sexually assaulting her in 2001.
Joseph Sherman called the allegations in Thalia Graves’ lawsuit “utterly and entirely false,” in documents filed Thursday in federal court in Manhattan. He is also suing Graves’ attorneys, including Gloria Allred. Both women spoke at a news conference to discuss the lawsuit in September. They declined comment Monday.
Graves alleged in her lawsuit that in 2001 both Combs and Sherman sexually assaulted her at the embattled music mogul’s recording studio in Manhattan after she was summoned to a meeting with Combs to discuss her then-boyfriend’s work performance at the Bad Boy record label.
Combs, she said in the suit, picked her up in an SUV driven by Sherman and offered her a glass of wine that later caused her “to feel lightheaded, dizzy, and physically weak.”
When they arrived at the recording studio, Graves, who was 25 at the time, said she lost consciousness and woke up to her hands tied behind her back with “what felt like a plastic grocery bag,” the suit says. She said Sherman had lifted her up from a couch, slammed her down on a table and Combs then raped her, according to her court filing. Sherman also slapped her multiple times and forced her to perform oral sex on him, Graves’ lawsuit said.
She also said in her suit that she learned last year that Combs and Sherman had recorded the alleged encounter and shown it to others, and that both men had contacted her multiple times over the years and warned her to be silent, threatening repercussions, including that she could lose custody of her son if she ever disclosed the alleged assault.
Sherman’s attorney, Darnell Crosland, said in a statement Monday that his client was among “the thousands of men who have been falsely accused” in the #MeToo movement and who continue to suffer as a result.
“And these wrongly accused men aren’t the only victims of false claims, in fact, the thousands of women who are truly sexually assaulted are hurt by these financially motivated claims, because no one hears their cries,” he said. “The defendants in this lawsuit need to be held responsible for their actions and they need to understand that a ‘cash grab’ based on false claims hurts more people than they can imagine in more ways than they can imagine.”
Sherman is seeking compensatory and punitive damages and a jury trial.
Sherman previously told NBC News that he did not know or rape Graves, that he was employed by Combs from 1998 to 1999 — years before the alleged assault would have taken place, in 2001, and that he hadn’t seen the rapper in 25 years, all of which his suit also states. Sherman’s filing also says that in 1999 he began working for another record company, a direct competitor of Combs’ and “was not even allowed into Bad Boy records studios or near Sean Combs after 1999,” so he could not have raped or videotaped Graves.
His suit says that the defendant’s “negligent conduct” has caused him to suffer harm to his reputation, emotional distress and financial losses, among other things.
Sherman’s lawsuit accuses Graves of seeking a payday. To support that claim, his lawsuit includes a copy of social media messages that he says he received from Graves offering to leave him out of her legal case if he would be a witness against Combs. The screenshots of the messages do not identify the sender. Instead, it says that they were sent by “Instagram User” whose account had been blocked by Sherman. He said he responded that he did not know what the person who sent him the messages was talking about.
“I will make sure that the state does not pick up charges or rape charges against you,” one of the messages said, in part, according to screenshots included in Sherman’s suit.
Combs, 55, has been sued by more than 25 people since his former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, an R&B singer known as Cassie, sued him last year, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse. He and Ventura settled their suit in a day. Combs denied any wrongdoing.
Combs’ attorneys have vehemently denied the charges in the indictment and allegations in all of the other suits.
He was arrested in September and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty, was denied bail and is detained at a federal jail in Brooklyn. His trial is scheduled to begin in May.
