Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing another lawsuit, this time from a singer in his Bad Boy-backed music groups Danity Kane and Diddy-Dirty Money who says she saw him hitting his ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.

Dawn Richard, who rose to fame on MTV and Diddy’s reality competition “Making the Band 3” in 2004, sued Combs in U.S. District Court in New York on Tuesday, making allegations that seek to back up some of those made by Ventura, whose high-profile lawsuit in November opened new legal floodgates for the controversial hip-hop mogul.

The 41-year-old singer of “Damaged” accused her former boss of sexual assault, harassment and inhumane treatment. Combs groped, fondled and grabbed her without her consent, wrongfully imprisoned her and forced her to stay at his various residences while depriving her and her bandmates of basic needs such as adequate food and sleep.

According to the complaint, obtained by The Times on Wednesday, Richard claims that Combs “blatantly exploited” her as a singer and writer by withholding her earnings, stealing her copyrighted works and subjecting her to “inhumane working conditions for years.”

Combs, the lawsuit says, manipulated Richard with mantras that “submission to his depraved demands was a necessity for career advancement.” This “instilled in Richard the belief that such abuse and exploitation were necessary for female artists to succeed in the music industry.”

“When Ms. Richard resisted Mr. Combs’ advances, Mr. Combs retaliated by denying her vocal parts in songs, removing her from songs, not allowing her to sing at performances, and turning off her microphone during performances. The more Ms. Richard rejected his advances, the more Mr. Combs’ retaliatory behavior intensified,” the complaint states.

Richard named Combs, record executive Herve Pierre, Remote Productions, Sony Music Publishing and several companies under the Bad Boy and Combs brands as defendants, among others. She is seeking a jury trial and unspecified damages; monetary compensation for mental anguish, distress and emotional distress; criminal and financial penalties and the payment of attorney’s fees.

Representatives for Combs did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment on Wednesday.

Richards claimed in the lawsuit that she witnessed Combs physically abusing and brutally beating Ventura “on multiple occasions” and said she was threatened by the rapper and producer when she intervened.

“Mr. Combs’s temper, from which he is named, frequently manifested itself in physical violence,” their attorneys Lisa Bloom and Arick Fudali argued in the suit, claiming that Combs “regularly hurled objects in fits of rage,” often throwing items such as cell phones, laptops, food and studio equipment across the room or at people. His “persistent abuse” included choking and strangling Ventura, hitting her with hands and objects, slapping her, punching her and throwing objects at her, including a scalding hot skillet, the attorneys alleged.

“Mr. Combs learned of her efforts to help Ms. Ventura and became angry. He threatened Ms. Richard with death, saying, ‘You want to die today,’ ‘I’m going to make N— disappear,’ and ‘I’m going to kill people.'” When she once claimed to have seen Diddy throw a pan of scalding hot eggs at Ventura, Richard told her, “I’m giving you one chance. If you want to use it, shut up… if you say anything, there will be consequences.”

She also said she witnessed his late ex Kim Porter, the mother of three of his children, leaving his recording studio “in tears and with visible facial injuries, including a split lip.” She later also witnessed Combs and several other men having sex with his assistant at a hotel pool in Glasgow.

Allegations of sexual assault, sex trafficking and abuse have surfaced in several lawsuits filed against Combs over the past year, including those by Ventura, producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones and former model Crystal McKinney. Richard’s lawsuit also referenced sordid allegations of sex trafficking at Combs’ mansions that seemed to match some of the allegations that likely led to raids on Combs’ homes on both coasts in March.

In November 2009, after the Soul Train Awards in Atlanta, Richard said in the lawsuit, Combs flew her and others in a private jet to an after-party at his home in New York. She recalled seeing “large amounts of illegal drugs” being openly consumed and believed Combs arranged for dozens of young women and girls – some of whom appeared to be underage – to be brought to the party, where they were given drugs and alcohol.

“Many of them appeared lethargic or unconscious while Mr. Combs and his guests performed sexual acts on them,” the complaint states. “Ms. Richard believed that her presence at the party was a test to see if Mr. Combs could trust her.”

Dawn Richard (left), Sean “Diddy” Combs and Kalenna Harper of the band Diddy-Dirty Money arrive at the 2011 BET Awards in Los Angeles.

(Chris Pizzello/Associated Press)

Richard also said in the lawsuit that during auditions for “Making the Band,” she was subjected to verbal attacks from Combs, who allegedly spoke to the female contestants in a “hostile and condescending” manner and made derogatory gender-based remarks, such as calling contestants “fat,” “ugly,” “sluts” and “bitches.” She said she felt threatened and intimidated by his “obvious disdain.”

Combs “was regularly awake for long periods of time,” she said, because he was allegedly under the influence of drugs. He demanded access to Danity Kane members for 36 to 48 hours at a time without breaks to record or rehearse, and forced the women to choose between eating and sleeping. The 5-foot-4 singer said she lost a significant amount of weight during these “extreme conditions,” at times weighing as little as 100 pounds.

She also claimed that Combs often disturbed her while she was changing, groped her naked body, and slapped her butt.

She accused Combs of assault and false imprisonment in December 2010 as Diddy-Dirty Money was preparing to perform on “Saturday Night Live.” She claimed that Combs publicly berated her and her bandmate Kalenna Harper and “raised his arm and swung his fist toward her face,” but did not hit her when Richard told him to stop. Instead, his bodyguard allegedly grabbed her and led her and her bandmate into a Bad Boy Records Bentley with heavily tinted windows and no door handles on the inside, where she was locked in for two hours with “no way to escape.”

Eventually, the lawsuit says, she was able to call her father on Harper’s cell phone, and he traveled from Baltimore to New York to rescue her. When Frank Richard – a former singer and drummer for the funk/soul band Chocolate Milk – confronted Combs and threatened to report him to the police, Combs allegedly told him to think about his daughter’s career.