Sean “Diddy” Combs has been accused of sexual assault in a new lawsuit filed on Tuesday by Crystal McKinney, a former model and winner of MTV’s 1998 Model Mission competition show.
According to the complaint, filed in New York and obtained by CNN, McKinney claims that she was “drugged and sexually assaulted” in 2003 by Combs following a Men’s Fashion Week event in New York City.
McKinney, who was 22 years old at the time, first met Combs at a dinner, where he came on to her “in a sexually suggestive manner” and told her to call him later, the complaint alleges. McKinney “felt confused but hopeful that Combs would fulfil his promises to help her career,” and Combs invited her to his recording studio later that night, the complaint continues.
Accusations against Combs
At the studio, Combs offered McKinney marijuana, which she claims was “laced” with “a narcotic or other intoxicating substance.” The complaint alleges Combs saw McKinney was “very intoxicated” and demanded her to follow him as he “physically led” her to the bathroom.
In the bathroom, he “began kissing her without her consent” and later “forced her to perform oral sex on him,” according to the complaint.
After the assault, McKinney claims she felt “more and more woozy and then lost consciousness,” later waking up in a taxicab heading back to the apartment belonging to the designer she was working with at the time. “As her consciousness returned, Plaintiff realized that she had been sexually assaulted by Combs,” the complaint reads.
CNN has reached out to representatives for Combs and McKinney for comment, as well as representatives for Bad Boy Records, Sean John Clothing LLC, and Universal Music Group Inc., the entities of which were also named as defendants.
McKinney is suing the defendants for violation of the New York Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law.
According to the New York City Council, the law gives “survivors of gender-motivated acts of violence more time to pursue civil actions by extending the statute of limitations” and also “applies to such acts committed by parties who direct, enable, participate in, or conspire in a gender-motivated act of violence.”
McKinney was crowned the winner of MTV’s Model Mission in 1998 and was awarded a modelling contract with IMG. She became a familiar face on various MTV shows and modelled in a fashion campaign for designer Tommy Hilfiger.
As a result of the incident, McKinney became “severely depressed,” and “experienced alcohol and drug addiction” as she tried to cope, the complaint claimed. To this day, the complaint states, that McKinney still experiences mental health struggles stemming from the alleged assault and has since ceased pursuing a career in modelling.
She is seeking an unspecified amount in punitive and compensatory damages.
