Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs accused of drugging, sexually assaulting model in new lawsuit
A new lawsuit against rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs accuses the rap mogul of drugging and sexually assaulting a 22-year-old IMG model, who says in the suit she kept the clothes she wore that night to prove it.
Former model Crystal McKinney filed a Manhattan Federal Court lawsuit this week alleging Combs attacked her in 2003 after a designer introduced them at a Men’s Fashion Week event at Cipriani Downtown.
At the dinner, Combs was overly suggestive, “bordering on leering,” as he plied McKinney with alcohol and promised to use his industry connections to advance the Georgia native’s career, predicting she “was going to make it big one day,” the suit alleges.
“[H]opeful that Combs would fulfill his promises to help her career,” McKinney accepted an invitation back to Combs’ W. 44th St. Midtown studio, where she alleges the rapper and his associates offered her marijuana she later determined was laced with an intoxicant.
“Combs passed her the joint and [McKinney] took a hit which felt very powerful. Although [McKinney] insisted that she had enough after that, Combs pressured her to imbibe more alcohol and marijuana by telling her that she was acting too uptight,” the suit details.
In graphic detail, the suit alleges Combs then led a clearly intoxicated McKinney to the bathroom, forcibly kissing her and shoving her head down to perform oral sex against her will before leading her back into the studio, where she lost consciousness.
“[McKinney] awakened in shock to find herself in a taxicab heading back to the [Combs’] apartment,” the suit reads. “As her consciousness returned, [McKinney] realized that she had been sexually assaulted by Combs. [McKinney] felt humiliated and traumatized and without recourse.”
The suit details how McKinney saved her unwashed clothing, storing it in her closet “where it remains in a plastic wrap.”
The months and years that followed saw McKinney “blackballed” in the industry and on suicide watch in 2004 when she tried to kill herself for the attack she believed was her fault, details the suit seeking unspecified damages filed under New York City’s Gender Motivated Violence Act.
McKinney, the 1998 winner of MTV’s inaugural Model Mission and who modeled for Tommy Hilfiger, Macy’s, Elle, and Cosmopolitan, said the decades-old incident continues to impact her mental well-being and quality of life today. Her attorneys declined to comment.
Representatives and lawyers for Combs, 54, and related entities named in the suit did not respond to inquiries.
The lawsuit is the sixth to accuse Combs of grave sexual misconduct, including gang-raping a minor, which he denies, and comes less than two months after federal agents for the Department of Homeland Security raided his Miami and Los Angeles homes in a sex trafficking probe. Combs has not been charged with any crimes.
It comes days after CNN released explosive footage of Combs carrying out a vicious assault at a hotel in 2016 against Cassie Ventura, his ex-girlfriend with whom he settled a rape, sex trafficking, and physical abuse lawsuit for a reported $30 million, without admitting to wrongdoing, a day after it was brought last November.
Amid repeated denials that he did anything wrong, the rapper on May 19 said he took “full responsibility” for the caught-on-camera attack. In a video on Instagram, he claimed that “I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now,” and that he’d since sought therapy.
Ventura issued her first statement in response to Combs’ mea culpa on Thursday, calling on people to believe domestic abuse survivors.
“I offer my hand to those that are still living in fear,” Ventura wrote. “Reach out to your people, don’t cut them off.”
