Model Claims Diddy Sexually Assaulted Her And Quashed Her Career
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Crystal McKinney said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that Sean “Diddy” Combs sexually assaulted her and curtailed her modeling career more than two decades ago.
In her lawsuit, first reported by TMZ, McKinney claimed that she met the media mogul in 2003 at a Men’s Fashion Week event at Cipriani Downtown in New York City. McKinney claimed the rapper said he’d help her modeling career and invited her to his studio, according to the lawsuit HuffPost obtained.
At the studio, McKinney recalled joining Combs and other people in his orbit for drinks and marijuana, specifically a joint that “felt very powerful.”
She realized soon after that Combs “had laced the joint with a narcotic or other intoxicating substance,” the lawsuit continued.
“Combs demanded Plaintiff follow him, and he physically led Plaintiff to the bathroom,” where he kissed her against her will and forced her to perform oral sex, according to the suit.
McKinney alleges that she passed out afterward and later woke up in a taxi, realizing that she was sexually assaulted. (The suit does not clarify if she is referring to the aforementioned sexual assault or another instance that occurred when she was unconscious.)
Following the assault, McKinney claims that Combs “blackballed” her and “utilized his significant influence to impede Plaintiff’s career growth.”
She then “became severely depressed as she began to blame herself for the assault and for sabotaging her own career,” according to the lawsuit.
She seeks damages for pain and suffering and punitive damages through a jury trial. Bad Boy Entertainment, Universal Music Entertainment Group and Sean John Clothing are also defendants in the suit.
McKinney said she “knew she had a moral obligation to speak up” following a spate of lawsuits against Combs in which he is accused of sexual abuse and violence.
Most recently, CNN published a harrowing video Friday that put on display Combs’ domestic violence against his ex, Cassie Ventura, in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, adding to the singer’s claims of abuse and rape in a quickly settled lawsuit from November.
The video of the abuse prompted a response from Combs in which he said he “fucked up.”
He continued, “I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I made no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I’m disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it. I am disgusted now.”
Representatives for Combs did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.
