Current:Home > ContactOliver James Montgomery-Former model sues Sean 'Diddy' Combs, claims he drugged, sexually assaulted her in 2003 -ProfitLogic
Oliver James Montgomery-Former model sues Sean 'Diddy' Combs, claims he drugged, sexually assaulted her in 2003
Oliver James Montgomery View
Date:2025-04-11 07:27:29
Embattled music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs has been accused of drugging and Oliver James Montgomerysexually assaulting a young model in the early 2000s.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, Crystal McKinney alleges Diddy, then 34, assaulted the 22-year-old model at his New York City studio in 2003 and forced her to perform oral sex.
McKinney also claims the hip-hop icon derailed her career by having her “blackballed” in the modeling industry, despite earlier promising to help her professionally. The ordeal purportedly led to a decline in McKinney’s mental health, including “bouts of depression, anxiety, body image issues, feelings of worthlessness and intimacy issues.”
In recent months, Combs, 54, has faced a series of sexual assault lawsuits alleging he raped or sexually assaulted multiple women over the past few decades. In March, his Los Angeles home was raided by Homeland Security Investigations agents, reportedly in connection with an ongoing sex trafficking investigation in New York.
McKinney, who is described as a “woman of faith,” said she felt a “moral obligation” to come forward with her experience after seeing media coverage of Diddy's legal woes.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
McKinney “prayed to God before bringing this lawsuit, as she feared further violence and/or retaliation from Defendant Combs, but ultimately decided that she needed to speak her truth,” the lawsuit reads. She “seeks justice for herself" and other alleged victims of Combs.
Combs’ companies Bad Boy Records, Sean John Clothing and Universal Music Group are also named as defendants in the case.
USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for McKinney and Combs for comment.
Crystal McKinney details alleged sexual assault by Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
In the lawsuit, McKinney claims she met Combs after being invited to a Men’s Fashion Week event at New York City restaurant Cipriani Downtown by an unnamed fashion designer.
During the dinner, Combs allegedly “made a very public display of coming on to (McKinney) in a sexually suggestive manner” and plied McKinney with alcohol “as he repeatedly refilled her glass with wine.”
Per McKinney’s filing, the music mogul also told the model he was going to help advance her career and gave McKinney his phone number “as a gesture of good faith.” McKinney won MTV’s Model Mission contest in 1998 and had previously modeled for Tommy Hilfiger.
Combs invited McKinney to visit his studio later that night, according to the lawsuit, where she smoked marijuana with the “Hello Good Morning” rapper and his associates. McKinney alleges the marijuana joint “felt very powerful” and that it had been laced with “a narcotic or other intoxicating substance.”
Shortly afterward, Combs allegedly led McKinney to the bathroom, the filing states. After Combs forced himself onto her and kissed her “without her consent,” McKinney claims Combs “shoved her head down to his crotch” and forced her to perform oral sex.
Following the alleged assault, McKinney began to feel increasingly “woozy” and subsequently lost consciousness, per the complaint. The model later awoke inside a taxicab that drove her back to the fashion designer’s apartment.
Crystal McKinney says Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs ‘blackballed’ her in modeling industry after alleged assault
McKinney claims in the lawsuit that she was “blackballed” following her alleged assault by Diddy, as her “modeling opportunities quickly began to dwindle and then evaporated entirely.”
The model says she found herself in a “tailspin of anxiety and depression,” per the filing, which resulted in a hospitalization for a suicide attempt around 2004.
“Combs’ assault has altered the trajectory of (McKinney’s) career, denying her a successful and lucrative career in the modeling and film industries,” the lawsuit reads.
McKinney has also reportedly suffered from alcohol and drug addiction, as well as intimacy issues, as a result of Combs’ alleged assault, according to the former model’s complaint.
The lawsuit was filed under New York's Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Law, which created a two-year lookback window for survivors of gender-motivated violence to seek legal action against their abusers, regardless of when the abuse took place.
McKinney is demanding a jury trial for the case. She is also seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages for the “mental and emotional injury, distress, pain and suffering, and injury to her reputation.”
Contributing: Naledi Ushe, USA TODAY
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline offers free, confidential, 24/7 support to survivors and their loved ones in English and Spanish at: 800-656-HOPE (4673) and Hotline.RAINN.org and en Español RAINN.org/es.
veryGood! (983)
Related
- A South Texas lawmaker’s 15
- T20 World Cup 2024: Tournament director says cricket matches will be 'very, very exciting'
- Bachelor Nation’s Jared Haibon and Pregnant Ashley Iaconetti Reveal Sex of Baby No. 2
- Rangers' Matt Rempe, Flyers' Nicolas Deslauriers get into lengthy NHL fight
- Meet first time Grammy nominee Charley Crockett
- University of Wyoming identifies 3 swim team members who died in car crash
- GM suspends sales of Chevy Blazer EV due to quality issues
- Checking a bag will cost you more on United Airlines, which is copying a similar move by American
- What were Tom Selleck's juicy final 'Blue Bloods' words in Reagan family
- Federal prosecutors accuse a New Mexico woman of fraud in oil and gas royalty case
Ranking
- Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow owns a $3 million Batmobile Tumbler
- NFL has 'unprecedented' $30 million salary cap increase 2024 season
- Oaths and pledges have been routine for political officials. That’s changing in a polarized America
- Department of Defense says high-altitude balloon detected over Western U.S. is hobbyist balloon
- Questlove charts 50 years of SNL musical hits (and misses)
- Fulton County D.A.'s office disputes new Trump claims about Fani Willis' relationship with her deputy Nathan Wade
- Influencer Ashleigh Jade recreates Taylor Swift outfit: 'She helped me find my spark again'
- Body of nursing student found on a University of Georgia campus; police questioning person of interest
Recommendation
$73.5M beach replenishment project starts in January at Jersey Shore
Green Bay police officer fatally shoots person during exchange of gunfire
LA Dodgers' 2024 hype hits fever pitch as team takes field for first spring training games
Jury convicts Southern California socialite in 2020 hit-and-run deaths of two young brothers
Scoot flight from Singapore to Wuhan turns back after 'technical issue' detected
Louisiana advances a bill expanding death penalty methods in an effort to resume executions
Trump’s lawyers seek to suspend $83M defamation verdict, citing ‘strong probability’ it won’t stand
Brother of suspect in nursing student’s killing had fake green card, feds say