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Joseph Sherman, the former bodyguard accused of raping a woman with Sean “Diddy” Combs, is speaking out to clear his name: “You got the wrong man.”
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Diddy’s downfall and arrest for sex trafficking implicates several partners, friends, associates, and employees of the mogul’s empire. Yet, Sherman, aka Big Joe, claims Thalia Graves’ shocking lawsuit alleging a brutal assault falsely accused him. In an unfiltered interview with NBC New York, Sherman publicly denied having anything to do with her assault and revealed reported receipts he claims prove his innocence.
“It’s a lie on me. I don’t know this lady from anywhere,” Sherman said. “I am not questioning her integrity. I am just questioning her claims against me.”
Thalia Graves’ Sexual Assault Lawsuit Against Diddy And Joseph Sherman
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As BOSSIP previously reported, Graves filed a lawsuit against Diddy and Sherman for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting her in 2001. Graves said she dated an employee of Combs, who “lured her into meeting him and Sherman alone” at the Bad Boy Entertainment headquarters. The filing states she received a drink “likely laced with a drug,” lost consciousness, and awoke “to find herself bound and restrained.”
In addition to accusing both men of brutal sexual assault, Graves claimed Sherman beat her and recorded the “horrific rape.” After Cassie’s lawsuit against Diddy opened the floodgates of sexual assault, abuse, and trafficking allegations, Graves said she discovered Sherman allegedly recorded the assault. She claims Combs and Sherman “continued to show the video of the rape to others over the years and through to the present and/or sold the video as pornography.”
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Sherman denies that he was anywhere near Graves or working for Diddy when the assault allegedly took place. He revealed reported receipts to back his claims that he is the victim of a “cash grab.”
Read Joseph “Big Joe” Sherman’s side of the story and his reported receipts about why Thalia Graves named him in the Diddy lawsuit after the flip.
Joseph “Big Joe” Sherman Sets The Record With Reported Receipts
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Sherman categorically denied assaulting Graves and claimed he couldn’t possibly be the man she described in her federal lawsuit. He clarified that he wasn’t head of security or even still working for Diddy in 2001.
“Not only wasn’t I there, I wasn’t even in New York,” he said, adding that he only worked for Bad Boy Records in the 1990s. Sherman claims that he has no current relationship with his former boss, who remains behind bars without bail awaiting his sex trafficking trial.
Sherman initially didn’t dispute that Graves was assaulted. Then, he went on to say she named him in the lawsuit because she was “orchestrating a money grab.”
“And she wanted me to be part of that money grab…She wanted to get Diddy,” Sherman said.
NBC New York verified a connection between Graves and an Instagram account that DMed Sherman in November 2023. He claims the messages fishing to identify him as Diddy’s bodyguard prove “she doesn’t know who I am.” The messages seemingly offered immunity from naming Sherman in the lawsuit in exchange for becoming a witness against Diddy.
“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,” the account wrote to Sherman.
“I don’t know what the f**k you talking about [or] know who the f**k you are,” he responded.
Source: Rodin Eckenroth / Getty
Graves went on to name Sherman in the lawsuit filed a week after Diddy’s federal sex trafficking arrest in September. Now, Sherman says he’s “nothing but a scapegoat for this BS because I wouldn’t lie on Puffy — Sean Combs.” He added that there “never was a video. I never saw this woman.”
He also shut down claims that he works with a company distributing pornography. Sherman explained that he publishes models in urban rap magazines, but “I don’t show nude women.” He doubled down that the “money grab” was destroying his life.
“She knows what she did to me destroyed my family, destroyed my livelihood — I can’t get a job,” said Sherman, who plans to file a counterclaim and likely defamation suit.
Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty
Sherman said his contact with Graves made him question her motivations. However, more than 100 alleged victims came forward with abuse allegations since Diddy’s arrest. Like Graves, they reportedly did not feel safe to come forward until he was behind bars.
