Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs facing sexual assault allegations in new lawsuit
Music artist Sean “Diddy” Combs was hit this week with a lawsuit alleging he drugged and sexually assaulted a model in the early 2000s, marking the latest in a series of accusations against him.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court in New York City, states that Crystal McKinney — then a 22-year-old rising model — met Combs through an unnamed fashion designer in 2003 and was later sexually assaulted at his music studio.
The designer allegedly styled McKinney "to ensure Combs found her attractive" and brought her to meet the rapper at Cipriani Downtown, a restaurant in New York City. During the dinner, McKinney alleged Combs outwardly made a number of flirtatious and sexually suggestive remarks toward McKinney and "plied" her with alcohol.
The music artist then reportedly gave McKinney his number and, later in the evening, asked her to come to his studio in the city, per the suit. Upon her arrival, she met Combs and a group of men who were passing around alcohol and marijuana joints.
She was passed a joint under the impression it was marijuana, but "later came to understand" it was laced with a narcotic or intoxicating substance, the lawsuit stated. She soon became "very intoxicated," and Combs allegedly forced himself on her in a bathroom, per the court filing.
Combs led her back to the studio, where she "lost consciousness" and later woke up in a taxicab heading toward the fashion designer's apartment, the lawsuit states.
McKinney also filed the suit against the rapper's record label, Bad Boy Entertainment, the label's distributor, Universal Music Group, and his fashion brand, Sean John Clothing.
Neither Combs nor the other listed defendants immediately responded to The Hill's request for comment.
The suit came days after CNN obtained and reported on a 2016 video of a man purported to be Combs brutally assaulting a woman, whom the outlet identified as Cassie Ventura, a singer who is often known mononymously as Cassie.
The surveillance video, taken inside the InterContinental Hotel in Century City in Los Angeles, shows multiple angles of Combs apparently grabbing, shoving and kicking Ventura.
He issued an apology Sunday, calling his behavior "inexcusable" and saying he is "truly sorry" for his actions.
Ventura filed a lawsuit against Combs late last year, which was settled a day after it was filed, per both parties. Since that suit, the hip-hop mogul has faced a slew of other misconduct allegations from multiple people, including a New York music producer, who accused Combs of sexually assaulting him and forcing him to have sex with prostitutes.
In a suit filed last December, another woman accused Combs and two other men of sexually assaulting her in 2003 when she was 17 years old.
In a separate court case, a different woman alleged Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her after a date, and another accused the rapper and R&B singer Aaron Hall of assaulting and beating her and a friend. Both women claimed the alleged incidents happened in 1991.
Combs's homes in Los Angeles and Miami were raided in March as part of a federal investigation into a sex trafficking probe in New York.