Thalia Graves alleged in a federal civil complaint that Sean “Diddy” Combs and Joseph Sherman drugged, restrained and sexually assaulted her in 2001, and that the assault was recorded and later distributed. Those statements come from Graves’s complaint and remain allegations—not judicial findings that the events occurred.
The lawsuit, Graves v. Combs et al., No. 1:24-cv-07201, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on September 24, 2024. The latest accessible docket material described the underlying case as pending, although the public docket mirror cautioned that its records had not been updated beyond July 17, 2025.
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What did Thalia Graves allege?
According to the civil complaint, Graves was 25 and living in New York during the summer of 2001. She alleged that Combs contacted her under the pretense of discussing the work of her then-boyfriend, who was connected to Bad Boy Records.
Graves’s complaint says Combs and Sherman picked her up from her mother’s home in Queens. It alleges that Combs offered her wine and that she soon became light-headed, dizzy and weak before losing consciousness.
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The complaint further alleges that Graves later regained consciousness naked, with her hands tied behind her back. It says Sherman forced her onto a pool table, after which Combs sexually assaulted her. Graves also alleged that Sherman assaulted her afterward. The pleading describes bruising, pain, bleeding and other physical effects.
These are allegations in a lawsuit. The complaint establishes what Graves claimed in court; it does not, by itself, establish that the alleged conduct occurred.
The alleged recording
A central part of the lawsuit is Graves’s allegation that the assault was recorded. She alleged that the recording was later distributed or sold as pornography.
The Washington Post’s contemporaneous report described the same core allegations. The report said Combs’s representatives generally denied allegations against him, while representatives for Sherman did not provide comment to the newspaper at the time of publication.
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Graves’s complaint says that learning of the alleged recording was one reason she eventually pursued legal action years after the alleged 2001 incident. The complaint, rather than an independent court finding, is the source for those details.
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Why Graves said she did not report the alleged assault immediately
Graves’s complaint says she did not promptly report the alleged assault because she feared retaliation, possible custody consequences and professional repercussions for people connected to Combs.
It alleges that she told her boyfriend and close friends, later relocated, and eventually filed suit after learning that the alleged assault had been recorded. These accounts should be understood as allegations and statements attributed to the complaint, not as facts independently established by the court.
What lawsuit did Graves file?
The case is Graves v. Combs et al., No. 1:24-cv-07201, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The public docket listing records the filing date as September 24, 2024. The docket identifies the case as a civil assault and libel-and-slander action and records that Graves demanded a jury trial.
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The named defendants included:
- Sean Combs;
- Joseph Sherman; and
- several Bad Boy-related corporate entities.
By November 2024, lawyers had appeared for Combs and several corporate defendants, and the court had entered case-management and discovery-related orders. A later federal order stated that Graves had dismissed her claims against the organizational defendants.
Because the accessible docket mirror warns that it was last retrieved on July 17, 2025, readers should not treat that mirror as a definitive statement of the case’s status after that date. A current status would require checking the federal docket or PACER.
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What happened in Joseph Sherman’s separate lawsuit?
Sherman filed a separate federal lawsuit against Graves and her attorney, Gloria Allred. Sherman alleged defamation and related claims based on the filing and public presentation of Graves’s case. That lawsuit was separate from Graves’s underlying civil action against Combs, Sherman and the corporate defendants.
On June 2, 2025, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss Sherman’s case. In the court’s order, Judge Torres held, among other things, that statements in Graves’s complaint concerning the alleged rape and recording were pertinent to the litigation and protected by absolute litigation privilege.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThat ruling was procedural and concerned whether Sherman could maintain his defamation action. It did not determine whether Graves’s underlying allegations were true or false, and it did not resolve the merits of her civil claims against Combs.
How does the case relate to Sean Combs’s criminal prosecution?
Graves’s lawsuit was a civil case and was separate from the federal criminal prosecution of Combs. The two proceedings should not be treated as interchangeable.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the federal criminal verdict on July 1, 2025, in a statement updated July 2. The Justice Department statement addressed the verdict but did not provide the complete count-by-count disposition in the text available here.
According to Associated Press reporting, the jury convicted Combs on two counts of transporting people for prostitution and acquitted him of racketeering-conspiracy and sex-trafficking charges.
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That criminal verdict concerned the charges brought in the federal prosecution. It was not a verdict on Graves’s 2001 civil allegations. An acquittal on particular criminal counts does not automatically resolve every separate civil claim, just as the filing of a civil complaint does not prove the allegations in it.
What is established, and what remains alleged?
| Issue | What the available record shows |
|---|---|
| Filing of Graves’s lawsuit | The federal docket records that the case was filed on September 24, 2024. |
| Events described in the 2001 incident | They are allegations made in Graves’s civil complaint, not judicial findings in the available materials. |
| Alleged recording and distribution | These claims appear in the complaint and were reported by The Washington Post; the available research does not establish them as facts. |
| Claims against corporate defendants | A later federal order said Graves dismissed her claims against the organizational defendants. |
| Sherman’s defamation lawsuit | Judge Torres dismissed it on June 2, 2025, holding that the challenged statements were pertinent to the litigation and protected by litigation privilege. |
| Combs criminal case | AP reported convictions on two prostitution-transportation counts and acquittals on racketeering-conspiracy and sex-trafficking charges. That was a separate proceeding. |
| Final status of Graves’s underlying case after July 17, 2025 | The accessible docket material is not sufficient to make a current claim that the case was finally resolved. |
Why the legal distinction matters
Several different kinds of information have circulated around the Combs litigation: allegations in complaints, statements by lawyers, procedural decisions and criminal verdicts. They carry different legal meanings.
A complaint is a party’s formal account of the facts it intends to prove. A court may later dismiss claims, allow them to proceed, resolve them through settlement or decide them after a trial. A ruling on privilege or pleading sufficiency generally addresses a legal issue; it does not necessarily decide whether the underlying event occurred.
For that reason, the careful description of this case is that Graves alleges she was drugged, bound and raped, and that the assault was recorded and distributed. It is not accurate to present those allegations as an established judicial finding based on the materials currently available. Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.
Sources and case status
The principal source for the factual allegations is Graves’s filed complaint. The federal docket is the primary source for the filing and procedural history. The Sherman dismissal order is the primary source for that separate case’s ruling. The Washington Post and Associated Press provide contemporaneous reporting, while the Department of Justice provides the government’s announcement of the Combs criminal verdict.
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Because the public docket mirror’s last-retrieved date is July 17, 2025, any later development—including a settlement, amended pleading, dismissal or trial result—should be verified through the current federal docket or PACER before being reported as the final status of Graves v. Combs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did a court find that Sean Combs raped Thalia Graves?
Not in the materials reviewed for this article. Graves’s complaint alleges rape and related conduct, but a civil complaint is not a judicial finding. The available research does not identify a final merits ruling on those allegations.
Did Joseph Sherman’s defamation case prove that Graves’s allegations were false?
No. Judge Analisa Torres dismissed Sherman’s separate lawsuit on June 2, 2025, holding that statements in Graves’s complaint were pertinent to the litigation and protected by absolute litigation privilege. That decision did not determine whether Graves’s allegations were true or false.
Was Graves’s civil case part of Sean Combs’s criminal trial?
No. Graves’s federal civil lawsuit was separate from Combs’s federal criminal prosecution. AP reported that the criminal jury convicted Combs on two transportation-for-prostitution counts and acquitted him of racketeering-conspiracy and sex-trafficking charges; those verdicts did not decide Graves’s civil allegations.
Is Thalia Graves’s lawsuit resolved?
The accessible docket material described the underlying action as pending and warned that the public mirror was last retrieved on July 17, 2025. A more recent PACER or court-docket check is needed before stating the lawsuit’s definitive current status.
The Bottom Line
Thalia Graves’s lawsuit alleges that Sean Combs and Joseph Sherman drugged, restrained and sexually assaulted her in 2001 and that the assault was recorded and distributed. Those claims remain allegations unless and until established through the civil process. Sherman’s separate defamation case was dismissed on privilege grounds, and Combs’s 2025 criminal verdict involved different charges; neither proceeding, based on the available record, resolved the truth of Graves’s underlying allegations.
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