Diddy’s bodyguard, who is accused of raping a woman alongside the rapper, flaunted his debauched lifestyle for years online – posing for photos with half-naked women on luxury boats and beaming next to A-list celebrities.
Joseph Sherman, known as Big Joe, and his former boss Diddy are accused of raping Thalia Graves when she was 25 years old in the Bad Boy studios in New York back in 2001.
In a new lawsuit filed on Tuesday, Graves claims Diddy and Sherman drugged her before recording the assault, and allegedly disseminating the video and even selling the footage as pornography.Â
This comes just days after Diddy was federally indicted for sex trafficking.Â
Sherman denied all wrongdoing, and told DailyMail.com that he ‘doesn’t know’ his accuser Graves, adding that her suit is just a ‘money grab.’
He even went as far to say that he had ‘no relationship whatsoever’ with Diddy – despite photos showing the pair together at parties in the mogul’s heyday. Â
The bodyguard said: ‘I know for a fact that this is a money grab. I’ve never seen this lady. Don’t have any tape of her like she says I have. I’ve never seen her. I never did anything with her. I don’t know, none of this. I don’t even know this lady.’Â
Graves says she woke up bound and restrained before Diddy and Joseph Sherman (pictured) sexually assaulted her, raping her anally and vaginally, according to the lawsuit. Sherman, who claims he doesn’t know his accuser, denied all wrongdoing Â
Joseph Sherman, known as Big Joe, and his former boss Diddy have been accused of raping a woman in the Bad Boy studios in New York back in 2001. He is pictured here pouring alcohol on a half-naked woman’s body
While Sherman has not worked with Diddy for years, and now owns several pornographic magazines, his social media is filled with memories from his life alongside the Hip Hop mogul.
Sharman shared photos partying with the biggest stars of the 1990s, including Mariah Carey, Jay Z, Bruce Willis and the late singer Aaliyah.
Images seen by DailyMail.com before Sherman made his Instagram private also showed him partying with twerking, naked women at clubs and yachts, usually pouring alcohol on their bodies.
Sherman often wrote about being honorable and keeping the secrets of the over 30 celebrities he reportedly worked with as a bodyguard.
But despite being pictured with Diddy in the 2000s, Sherman has denied having any type of relationship with his former boss.Â
He told DailyMail.com: ‘I’m being crucified and tortured for something I had nothing to do with me and me and Mr. Combs was not even friends. We had no relationship whatsoever. I have not been around Diddy for 24 years.’Â
Graves claims she was 25 and dating one of the rapper’s employees when she was lured into a meeting by Diddy, who said he wanted to ‘discuss her boyfriend’s supposed performance issues.’
According to her lawsuit, Diddy and Sherman ‘sequestered her’ and gave her a drink that was ‘likely laced with a drug that eventually caused her briefly to lose consciousness.’
Graves says she woke up bound and restrained before Diddy and Sherman sexually assaulted her, raping her anally and vaginally.Â
But the bodyguard said that he is only being named because ‘everyone’ who was around Diddy is being targeted following his slew of sex crime allegations.
He added that Graves had been trying to contact him via Instagram direct message for ‘five months’ before the bombshell filing on Tuesday.Â
The bodyguard said that ‘in his heart’ he knows he is innocent – and is happy to take a lie detector test to prove he did not rape the alleged victim, per the lawsuit. Â
The alleged victim, Thalia Graves, says the music mogul, 54, and his head of security Joseph Sherman raped her at the Bad Boy Records studios in New York back in 2001
Big Joe (left) with Sean Diddy Combs (right) in 2005
Joseph Sherman is pictured with Bruce Willis and with Mariah Carey
The bodyguard – who is now embroiled in alleged sex crimes, per the lawsuit – is pictured with the late singer Whitney Houston at a party in the early 2000s
Sherman told DailyMail.com: ‘I’ve never seen this person before in my life. I can swear on it, but my word means nothing.Â
‘The problem with this right now is, no matter what people like me say, Diddy is in such turmoil and everybody who was ever around him is being blamed for anything he did. Anyone who was around him is automatically guilty.Â
‘So, I understand that no matter what I say out my mouth, the public and people in the media is going to say I’m guilty and I’m a monster and I did this. But as long as I know in my heart and eyes that I had nothing to do with this, I’m fine.Â
‘I can take a lie detector test any day of the week with any office of the law.’Â
Sherman founded the magazine pornographic magazine Rhymes N Dimes, which is mentioned in Graves’ complaint.
The suit reads: ‘On information and belief, he has often distributed videos of his and/or his friends’ sexual assaults through his pornography company.’
The complaint alleges that Sherman ‘forcefully slammed Graves onto a table, slapped her, and repeatedly thrust his penis into her mouth.’
Sherman rebukes the claims – and said he is in fact the victim of what he described as a ‘shake down’ and said he’s being used as a pawn because he’s black.Â
Sherman founded the magazine pornographic magazine Rhymes N Dimes, which is mentioned in Graves’ complaint
Sherman often wrote about being honorable and keeping the secrets of the over 30 celebrities he reportedly worked with as a bodyguard. Pictured: Big Joe with singer Aaliyah
Big Joe is pictured with a young Jay Z in red (left) , and with Lil Kim (right)
He told DailyMail.com: ‘This lady, with the help of others, is only doing this because Sean Combs is incarcerated, just like so many other people.
‘I’m a father. I have four daughters. I have been crucified before by the government. I understand the power of the government. I understand proof is irrelevant when you’re a black man in America.
‘But because I’m a black man, they’re using me as a pawn and a scapegoat for issues that I had nothing to do with whatsoever.’
When asked about Diddy’s infamous ‘freak off’ sex parties that were mentioned in the rapper’s indictment, Sherman said he had never attended any.Â
He added: ‘When I worked with Mr. Combs, I went to one party in the Hamptons in 99 and it was classy. Everybody was nice. I’ve never in my life heard of a freak off party. So never in my life heard of all this stuff.’Â
In his many posts showcasing his lavish, lascivious life in the pornography magazine industry, Sherman wrote: ‘I would never change nothing in my life. Not one thing. From the streets to prison…Â
‘I appreciated being an honorable bodyguard that would never talk my secrets from over 30 different artists [and] sports figures.’
Graves also claims she did not know that Diddy and Sherman had recorded the assault until November, 2023, when they supposedly showed the footage to multiple men.
The suit states that Graves ex-boyfriend ‘disclosed that Combs and Sherman had a pattern and practice of non-consensually recording women engaging in sexual acts and making those videos available to the public, including by selling tapes as pornography.’
Graves is the eleventh person to publicly accuse Diddy of sexual assault.
Sherman founded the magazine pornographic magazine Rhymes N Dimes, which is mentioned in Graves’ complaint
The bodyguard, who was mentioned in the scathing lawsuit, poses in a car
The rapper is locked up in Brooklyn awaiting trial on allegations that he presided over a sordid empire of sexual crimes protected by blackmail and shocking acts of violence.
He has been in federal custody since his arrest Monday night at the Manhattan hotel.
Diddy is accused of inducing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes days-long sexual performances dubbed ‘Freak Offs.’
A thousand bottles of baby oil were discovered during searches of his properties, it is claimed. And prosecutors allege women who participated in the freak offs were so worn out by the marathon sex sessions they needed IV drips after.
The indictment also refers obliquely to an attack on his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video released earlier this year by CNN.
