Combining legal theatrics and celebrity accusations, this courtroom turn featuring Joseph Sherman, the one-time bodyguard who stood between Sean "Diddy" Combs and harm, was a significant legal hit. A federal judge dismissed Sherman's $100 million defamation lawsuit against Thalia Graves, the woman who opened up with disturbing allegations regarding the hip-hop mogul. Sherman said Graves's allegations had been "outright lies" that had ruined his name and life.
Graves filed a bombshell lawsuit in September 2024 alleging that in 2001, she was drugged, restrained, and raped by Diddy and Sherman at Daddy's House recording studio in Manhattan. She was 25 then and said she was seeing someone close to Combs. Once there, after being given a drink, she said, she went unconscious only to regain consciousness bound, naked, and under attack. Her most chilling claim is She only discovered more than two decades later, in 2023, that the assault had allegedly been filmed and sold as pornography.
Sherman, who told The Times he stopped working for Diddy in 1999 and had never even met Graves, denied all the allegations against him as "completely and utterly false." He alleged emotional distress and reputational destruction, and, oh, by the way, she supposedly offered to leave him out of her case if he turned on Diddy. He even claimed she had attempted to bribe an ex-boyfriend for $3 million to corroborate her version of events.
However, the court ruled against Sherman, saying Graves's accusations were part of a legal process and, therefore, protected by what is commonly called "litigation privilege." You can't sue someone for what they say as part of a valid legal filing.
Most damning of all for Sherman, the judge noted that his complaint contained "several frivolous claims" in addition to the defamation claim. Graves has since become a recognizable name in the wave of lawsuits filed against Diddy, and she is still pursuing her case. She has been vocal about the experience, coming forward with powerhouse attorney Gloria Allred to demand all copies of the supposed assault be destroyed. For years, she says, she has suffered trauma, silence and intimidation.
For his part, Diddy has outright denied all of Graves' claims. But he is in federal custody on unrelated sex trafficking charges, meaning his name remains squarely in the headlines.
This new legal ruling is a win for Graves in the expanding batch of litigation connected to Combs and his inner circle. Not only has the lawsuit been thrown out for Sherman, but he has also been publicly rebuked in an already firestorm-filled storyline.
In the meantime, as these high-stakes cases continue to play out, the truth and justice are going through a thicket of fame, trauma, and legal warfare.
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