A former model filed a lawsuit Tuesday accusing hip-hop mogul Sean Combs of forcing her to perform oral sex on him at his New York City recording studio in 2003.
In the complaint, Crystal McKinney says that at age 22, an unnamed fashion designer invited her to a Men's Fashion Week event at a Manhattan restaurant, where she met Mr. Combs, a well-known impresario and record label host. from the MTV reality show 'Making the Band'.
Later that evening, according to the lawsuit, Mr. Combs invited her to his recording studio, where Ms. McKinney says she was given what she later believed to be laced with alcohol and marijuana. She says Mr. Combs led her into the bathroom, pushed her head toward his crotch and, after she refused, forced her to perform oral sex on him. Shortly afterwards, the lawsuit says, she lost consciousness, later waking up in a taxi and realizing she had been sexually assaulted.
Representatives for Mr. Combs did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the lawsuit.
Mr. Combs, 54, has been facing mounting legal troubles since his ex-girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, better known as Cassie, filed a lawsuit against him last year in which she accused him of sexually and physically abusing her for years. The lawsuit was organized in one day, but three more lawsuits followed from women accusing him of rape. In March, two of Mr. Combs' homes were raided as part of an investigation that officials said was at least partly a human trafficking probe.
The producer and businessman, known as Puff Daddy and Diddy, has called the allegations against him false and “sickening,” and he has described accusers as looking for “a quick payday.”
Mr. Combs' behavior has come under close scrutiny in recent days after CNN published it footage from 2016 in which he punches, kicks and drags Ms. Ventura, confirming part of her lawsuit filed last year. He has Sunday apologizedand said in a video on Instagram: “My behavior in that video is inexcusable.”
Ms. McKinney, who filed her lawsuit in Federal District Court in Manhattan, said hearing about the other lawsuits against Mr. Combs prompted her to file her own lawsuit. Because the allegations are more than twenty years old, which falls outside the statute of limitations, the lawsuit brings the claim under the jurisdiction of New York City. Victims of Gender-motivated Violence Actallowing plaintiffs to file civil complaints regarding claims for a limited period of time after the statute of limitations has expired.
A lawyer representing Mr. Combs, Jonathan Davis, argued in a separate assault lawsuit that the gender violence law should not be used to allow such lawsuits to proceed because another state law that specifically extended the statute of limitations for sexual assault had expired .