Sean Combs Accused of Sexual Assault Minutes Before Fatal 1991 CCNY Stampede

Sean “Diddy” Combs was hit with two new lawsuits Friday, one from a woman who claims that minutes before a deadly stampede broke out at a City College of New York basketball game in December 1991, the then-rising music executive brought her to a makeshift dressing room, handed her a drink, and sexually assaulted her. 

The second lawsuit was from an Oklahoma woman who alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted at a 2006 “Black Party” hosted by Combs in New York. In a statement sent to Rolling Stone Friday, Combs’ lawyers stated that “Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone or engaged in sex trafficking.”

The woman who claims she was assaulted at the ill-fated charity basketball game where nine people were crushed to death sued under a Jane Doe pseudonym. She alleges she was visiting New York City with a friend and was invited to the event by a male acquaintance, described as a prominent rapper at the time. (Although the lawsuit doesn’t directly name the male acquaintance, there are errant mentions of someone named “Myers,” seeming references to Dwight Arrington Myers, aka Heavy D, an Uptown Records artist that was promoting the event with Combs. Myers died in 2011.)  

Doe claims that when she was unable to find the rapper, she was direct to Combs, the event’s co-sponsor and promoter. Minutes later, she and a female friend were led to a makeshift dressing space in a locker room’s office, the lawsuit states. There, the woman claims she met Combs for the first time. 

According to the lawsuit, Combs briefly escorted the woman’s excited friend to meet some celebrity guests while Doe waited to meet her rapper friend. Combs later returned to the room with a “plastic cup full of what he purported to be Coca-Cola,” the lawsuit claims. After taking a sip, the woman “began to feel woozy and attempted to leave to find her rapper friend on her own, but Combs blocked her exit,” the complaint says.

Combs allegedly began touching himself in a sexually suggestive manner before reaching for Doe and fondling her, the filing states. Although the woman claims she tried to resist, Combs allegedly overpowered her. “Combs removed her underwear and began molesting her before climbing on top of her and penetrating her,” the lawsuit alleges.

At some point, Combs was interrupted by a bodyguard at the door, who indicated Combs was needed, the woman claims. Doe claims she told Combs that “what he did was not right” and that she intended to tell her rapper friend what had happened. Combs allegedly threatened her, saying that she shouldn’t say anything to her friend because “people can come up missing,” the lawsuit says.

The woman says she hung back for a few minutes after Combs left to make sure he wasn’t returning. Upon leaving, she discovered a “chaotic” scene where people were running in every direction, she claims. She searched for her friend for 30 minutes before finding an exit and reuniting with her friend outside, the lawsuit says.

The woman, who is being represented by attorney Tony Buzbee, is seeking compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial.

The other woman who sued Combs Friday notably used her name, LaTroya Grayson, not a pseudonym. She says she was 23 and living in Oklahoma in 2006 when her sibling won a radio contest offering a free trip to New York to attend one of Combs’ infamous “White Parties.” She says she accompanied her sibling on the all-expenses-paid trip but that the October 2006 gathering was switched to a “Black Party” at the last minute, requiring her to purchase a new outfit. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, includes images of Delta airlines tickets, a receipt from the Roger Smith Hotel, and photos of Grayson mingling with famous guests inside.

Grayson claims that after consuming less than two pre-made drinks served by roving waitresses, she began to feel sick and apparently passed out. She alleges she woke up at Saint Vincent’s Medical Center with “no recollection” of how she got there. She claims that a day after she returned to Oklahoma, an anonymous woman called her from a New York number and cautioned her against reporting her “assault” because Combs was a “celebrity” and she would “just be wasting her time.” Grayson claims that for a week after she returned home, she felt “constant pain” that she believed was from “rough intercourse” she could not remember.

“The assault and fear after the assault led plaintiff into a tailspin of anxiety and depression,” the lawsuit alleges. The complaint alleges Combs engaged in a racketeering conspiracy with multiple co-defendants including the Oklahoma-based radio station KJAMZ, Atlantic Records (which Grayson says “facilitated” the party), and Delta Airlines. It also accuses Combs of assault and claims all the co-defendants acted negligently. “Defendants knew, or should have known, that Defendant Combs was not fit to be in a position of authority,” it reads.

Representatives for KJAMZ, Atlantic and Delta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

“Ms. Grayson admits she has no memory of the events alleged in her complaint, does not know who was supposedly involved, and has never spoken to Mr. Combs. Her allegations against him are pure fiction,” Combs’ lawyers said Friday. “As we’ve said before, Mr. Combs cannot respond to every baseless lawsuit and lawyer-driven money grab.  He has faith in the judicial process, in which fact will be separated from opportunistic fabrications like these.”

The two new lawsuits against Combs mark nearly 40 civil lawsuits that have been filed against the Bad Boy Entertainment founder after his ex-partner Casandra “Cassie” Ventura filed a sex trafficking complaint against him in November 2023. (Combs and Cassie reached a settlement a day after she filed her case.)

The 55-year-old music mogul was arrested and charged in September on racketeering and sex trafficking charges. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and has denied all claims of sexual abuse. “In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs never sexually assaulted or trafficked anyone — man or woman, adult or minor,” his team said in a previous statement.