Rapper and business mogul, Sean”Diddy” Combs, has reportedly been served with a new lawsuit from a former model, Crystal McKinney.
The new lawsuit filed in a Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, alleges that the model was drugged and sexually assaulted in 2023, by the rapper, in his recording studio. The allegation comes after Combs apologised for beating his ex-girlfriend Cassie after a video of that incident surfaced online on May 19, 2024.
According to McKinney, she met Combs at a Men’s Fashion Week event at a Manhattan restaurant when she was 22. Combs promised to help her modelling career.
She said Combs later invited her to his recording studio in New York where he offered her marijuana laced with intoxicating substances and narcotics.
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“Plaintiff later came to understand that Combs had laced the joint with a narcotic or other intoxicating substance,” the lawsuit states.
Combs persuaded McKinney to smoke and drink more, then took her to his bathroom and forced her to perform oral sex on him.
“Seeing Plaintiff was very intoxicated, Combs demanded Plaintiff follow him and he physically led Plaintiff to the bathroom, then forced her to perform oral sex on him,” the lawsuit read.
The lawsuit states that Combs then led McKinney back into the studio, where she passed out. McKinney said that she realised she had been assaulted after regaining consciousness in a taxi.
The lawsuit also claims that, after the assault, McKinney’s “modelling 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.”
McKinney’s case falls under New York City’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Act. The act gives accusers more time to pursue civil complaints after the statute of limitations has expired.
Crystal McKinney won MTV’s debut “Model Mission” competition in 1998 at age 17. McKinney then modelled for a Tommy Hilfiger campaign and appeared on various MTV shows, including Total Request Live, Fashionably Loud and True Life.
