NEW YORK (Court TV) — Sean “Diddy” Combs has another sexual misconduct lawsuit on his hands.
On the heels of last Friday’s release of jaw-dropping surveillance video of the music mogul brutally beating Cassie Ventura in a hotel hallway, former model Crystal McKinney filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her.
FILE – In this May 30, 2018, file photo, Sean “Diddy” Combs arrives at the LA Premiere of “The Four: Battle For Stardom” at the CBS Radford Studio Center in Los Angeles. Combs’ lawyer said Tuesday, March 26, 2024, that the searches of his Los Angeles and Miami properties by federal authorities in a sex-trafficking investigation were ”a gross use of military-level force” and that Combs is “innocent and will continue to fight” to clear his name. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)
In a civil suit filed Tuesday in federal district court in Manhattan, McKinney stated that she met Combs in 2003 at a Men’s Fashion Week event in New York City. She was 22 at the time, and her filing states that Combs told her he was going to use his “power in the industry” to “help advance” her modeling career.
McKinney said that the rapper invited her to his music studio that evening, where he gave her marijuana that, according to the complaint, she believes was laced with a narcotic or similar substance which caused her to become intoxicated.
McKinney said Combs then led her into a bathroom where he kissed her without her consent and “forced her to perform oral sex on him.”
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The suit goes on to state that McKinney lost consciousness and woke up in a taxi where she realized what had happened. McKinney also stated that, after having modeled professionally since she was 17 for campaigns like Tommy Hilfiger, Combs used his power and influence to have her “blackballed” in the industry, which led to depression and anxiety. The suit notes that after the “traumatic events,” McKinney wrapped the clothing she wore during the alleged attack in plastic and saved them in her closet, where they remain.
A measure known as the Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Act exists in New York City, allowing alleged victims more time to file civil complaints where, criminally speaking, the statute of limitations would have already passed.
The McKinney and Ventura controversies over the past week aren’t Combs’ only recent legal woes: Back in March, Homeland Security agents responding to a federal sex trafficking investigation raided his Los Angeles and Miami homes. Last month, another woman filed a lawsuit saying she went to dinner with Combs when she was a college student back in 1991 and that she was drugged and sexually assaulted, and that the assault was recorded. A suit filed by Ventura in November, before the hotel video came to light, was settled the very next day.
