LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥 A lawsuit that names Sean 鈥淒iddy鈥 Combs as a co-defendant alleges that his son Christian 鈥淜ing鈥 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鈥檚 the latest in a accusing the producer and music mogul of sexual misconduct, and it comes amid a federal sex trafficking investigation that led Homeland Security agents to last week.
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鈥橫arcaigh has done. She also consented to being named through her attorneys.
Aaron Dyer, an attorney for Sean and Christian Combs, called the lawsuit 鈥渓ewd and meritless.鈥
"We will be filing a motion to dismiss this outrageous claim," Dyer said in a statement.
Dyer called the investigation that brought "nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.鈥
Sean Combs, who chartered the yacht throughout the holidays in 2022, 鈥渉ad full control of the staff and premises鈥 and created circumstances where her assault was not only tolerated but encouraged.
O鈥橫arcaigh, 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 in February, was told to be available around the clock for Sean Combs to work on his next album.
O鈥橫arcaigh 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鈥橫arcaigh 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鈥橫arcaigh 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 鈥淐an鈥檛 Stop Won鈥檛 Stop鈥 with Kodak Black topped Billboard鈥檚 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鈥 federal lawsuit, filed in February by Tyrone Blackburn, the same attorney as O鈥橫arcaigh'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 鈥渇illed with the same kind of manufactured lies and irrelevant facts we鈥檝e come to expect from Blackburn.鈥
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 鈥減attern of behavior" where he 鈥渋mproperly files cases in federal court to garner media attention, embarrass defendants with salacious allegations, and pressure defendants to settle quickly.鈥
Blackburn responded in an email that 鈥渁 referral is not a sanction鈥 and the statement from Combs' lawyer was an attempt to 鈥渄eflect and distract.鈥
鈥淐hristian Combs sexually assaulted Ms. O鈥橫arcaigh, and we have it on tape," Blackburn said.
have brought public scrutiny to the music and business mogul, beginning with a November suit from his former protege and girlfriend, the , which alleged years of sexual abuse, including rape. It was .
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 , fashion, and a .
