Sean “Diddy” Combs faces fresh accusations of sexual assault in a lawsuit filed in New York on Tuesday, adding to the string of recent controversies facing the rapper and record label executive, including multiple sexual misconduct suits and surveillance footage showing him physically assaulting his former partner Cassie Ventura.
McKinney suit is the latest among a string of sexual misconduct lawsuit filed against Sean 'Diddy' ... [+]
In a filing made with the federal district court in Manhattan, former model Crystal McKinney accused Combs of drugging and sexually assaulting her at his New York recording studio in 2003.
According to the suit, the then 22-year-old McKinney met Combs while attending a Men’s Fashion Week event at a restaurant in Manhattan.
During their meeting, the rapper allegedly came on to her “in a sexually suggestive manner”, leaving her confused but “hopeful that Combs would fulfill his promises to help her career,” the filing said.
Combs then invited McKinney to his studio later that night, where he offered her marijuana that she now believes was “laced…with a narcotic or other intoxicating substance,” the complaint alleges.
McKinney claims after she became “very intoxicated”, Combs led her to a bathroom where he first kissed her without her consent and then “forced her to perform oral sex on him.”
The suit alleges McKinney eventually lost consciousness, before waking up in a cab and realizing she had been sexually assaulted.
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McKinney won MTV’s inaugural Model Mission—which the suit describes as a “televised modeling competition akin to Miss America”—in 1998 when she was only 17 years old. She was awarded a modeling contract with IMG due to her win. After this, McKinney modeled for a Tommy Hilfiger campaign and appeared on various MTV shows, including Total Request Live, Fashionably Loud and True Life. The lawsuit claims after the assault, Mckinney’s “modeling opportunities quickly began to dwindle and then evaporated entirely.” The suit accuses Combs of using his influence to have Mckinney “blackballed” in the industry, which led her into “a tailspin of anxiety and depression.”