LOS ANGELES – A lawsuit that names Sean “Diddy” Combs as a co-defendant alleges that his son Christian “King” Combs sexually assaulted a woman working on a yacht chartered by his father.
The suit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court says Sean Combs created the circumstances that led to the assault and paid to cover it up afterward. It’s the latest in a series of lawsuits accusing the producer and music mogul of sexual misconduct, and it comes amid a federal sex trafficking investigation that led Homeland Security agents to raid his homes in Los Angeles and Miami last week.
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Grace O'Marcaigh, who worked as a crew member and a bartender on the boat, says that in late December 2022, Christian Combs pressured her to drink tequila that she believes was spiked with other drugs. He groped her breasts and genitals and attempted to force her to perform oral sex, the suit alleges.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as O’Marcaigh has done. She also consented to being named through her attorneys.
Aaron Dyer, an attorney for Sean and Christian Combs, called the lawsuit “lewd and meritless.”
"We will be filing a motion to dismiss this outrageous claim," Dyer said in a statement.
Dyer called the investigation that brought last week's raids "nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”
Sean Combs, who chartered the yacht throughout the holidays in 2022, “had full control of the staff and premises” and created circumstances where her assault was not only tolerated but encouraged.
O’Marcaigh, who was 25 at the time, said when Christian Combs, then 24, came aboard late one night, he appeared heavily intoxicated and began giving her inappropriate attention.
She said the two were in a music studio on board the ship, where producer Rodney Jones, who filed his own lawsuit in February, was told to be available around the clock for Sean Combs to work on his next album.
O’Marcaigh said in the suit that Christian Combs was insistent that she take shots of tequila, and she drank out of obligation.
The suit alleges he became increasingly aggressive with her, violently grabbing her arm as she tried to get out of the situation then groping her. The drinks made everything blurry, unusually quickly, the suit says.
Microphones in the studio, where Jones was told to capture everything, recorded their exchange, and the lawsuit includes a transcript where O’Marcaigh demands that Christian Combs stop touching her.
The suit alleges that he later continued the assault in the ship's movie theater, which was used as a spare sleeping area and where she was attempting to find a place to spend the night because the rooms were all taken, before another crew member appeared and he stopped.
O’Marcaigh told the yacht's captain about the assault the following morning, but she alleges that after Combs gave him a large amount of cash the same day, the captain failed to meaningfully investigate or take any action.
The suit says O'Marcaigh was eventually fired in retaliation and has since been unable to find work in the music industry where she had planned to build a career. It says since 2022, she has suffered severe emotional trauma.
The lawsuit seeks damages to be determined at trial.
Christian Combs is also a musical artist whose song “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” with Kodak Black topped Billboard’s Mainstream R&B Hip-Hop charts in 2022. He was at his father's Los Angeles home during last week's searches, during which he and his brother were handcuffed but not arrested.
The producer Jones’ federal lawsuit, filed in February by Tyrone Blackburn, the same attorney as O’Marcaigh's suit, includes allegations that Sean Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have sex with them.
Dyer's statement said the newest lawsuit is “filled with the same kind of manufactured lies and irrelevant facts we’ve come to expect from Blackburn.”
He pointed out that U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote criticized Blackburn in a separate lawsuit on Wednesday and referred him to a disciplinary committee for a “pattern of behavior" where he “improperly files cases in federal court to garner media attention, embarrass defendants with salacious allegations, and pressure defendants to settle quickly.”
Blackburn responded in an email that “a referral is not a sanction” and the statement from Combs' lawyer was an attempt to “deflect and distract.”
“Christian Combs sexually assaulted Ms. O’Marcaigh, and we have it on tape," Blackburn said.
Several lawsuits have brought public scrutiny to the music and business mogul, beginning with a November suit from his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, which alleged years of sexual abuse, including rape. It was settled the following day.
Combs and his attorneys have denied all of the lawsuits' allegations.
Combs, a three-time Grammy winner and the founder of Bad Boy Records, is among the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades. He turned his hip-hop empire into a broader business empire that includes private-label spirits, fashion, and a TV network.