Diddy‘s one-time bodyguard Joseph ‘Big Joe’ Sherman was named in a recent sexual assault lawsuit filed against the embattled mogul, but he’s confident that his innocence will be proven.
A woman named Thalia Graves filed the complaint in a New York federal court late last month, alleging that back in 2001, she was dating someone who worked at Bad Boy, and Diddy called her to set up a meeting, under the guise of needing to talk to her about her partner’s “performance issues” at work.
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The suit recounts her alleged subsequent rape by both Diddy and his then-bodyguard Joseph Sherman.
But in a new interview with NBC New York, Joe has denied ever having met the woman , let alone take part in what she’s alleging.
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“It’s a lie on me,” he said. “I don’t know this lady from anywhere. […] I am not questioning her integrity. I am just questioning her claims against me. You got the wrong man. I wasn’t even in the same room with you. I have never seen you. I wasn’t even in New York that I recall at the time.”
According to Joe, he did do security for Diddy and Bad Boy Records in the 90s, but was no longer with the company at the time she alleges the incident occurred in 2001.
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“Her and whoever she’s in cahoots with was orchestrating a money grab. And she wanted me to be part of that money grab…She wanted to get Diddy,” he added.
Check out a clip from the interview below.
"It's a lie on me!"
Diddy's ex-bodyguard, Joseph Sherman (Big Joe), pleads for his innocence in an emotional interview and calls Thalia Graves' lawsuit a money grab.
(🎥 @NBCNewYork ) pic.twitter.com/YeOJJZQwuk
— The Art Of Dialogue (@ArtOfDialogue_) October 4, 2024
He also provided texts and DMs that were confirmed by NBC, showing that the woman had reached out in November 2023 attempting to get him to be a witness.
One text asked him to call a number and said: “If you will be my witness against Diddy, then my attorneys will leave you out of any proceedings because we have statements that you physically showed over eight people videos of me and you to people in the studio.”
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“I am nothing but a scapegoat for this BS because I wouldn’t lie on Puffy — Sean Combs,” he concluded.
Joe and his team plan to counter-sue for defamation.
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In the original lawsuit, the woman alleged:
“Following the assault and multiple times over the years, both Combs and Sherman contacted Plaintiff and warned her to be silent, threatening repercussions including Plaintiff potentially losing custody of her son if she ever disclosed the assault.”
Then, in November 2023, the suit says that Graves’ former boyfriend revealed to her that Diddy and Sherman had shown him a video of the assault — and alleges that the two had a habit of doing this and selling the resulting videos.
“A Bad Boy artist later corroborated in a text message that Sherman ‘use[d] to sell porn of him doing this to chix’ and that Sherman ‘did that to a lot of women,’ the complaint reads.
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“Combs and Sherman…had shown the video [of Graves’ assault] to multiple men, seeking to publicly degrade and humiliate both Plaintiff and her boyfriend.”
Attorney Gloria Allred is representing Graves.
