Sean “Diddy” Combs out of date his fame as one in every of hip-hop’s largest names to coerce women folks into demeaning sexual acts as allotment of a prolonged-working map of intercourse trafficking and racketeering, prosecutors talked about on Tuesday in bringing three criminal prices towards him.
Combs, 54, pleaded no longer responsible in Broad apple federal court docket hours after the 14-website indictment used to be unsealed. US Magistrate Deem Robyn Tarnofsky denied bail for Combs, granting a prosecution demand for persisted detention before trial following the tune rich individual’s arrest on Monday.
The rapper and producer out of date his change empire alongside side his myth designate Ghastly Boy Entertainment to transport women folks, as successfully as male intercourse workers, across command traces to take allotment in recorded sexual performances called “Freak Offs” whereby the tune rich individual would seek and masturbate, prosecutors talked about.
In a probable preview of defence strategy, Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo called the sexual job described by prosecutors consensual.
“Does each person fill abilities with being intimate this plot? No. Is it intercourse trafficking? No. Now not if each person desires to be there,” Agnifilo urged the resolve.
Combs faces a sentence of as much as life in prison, and as a minimum 15 years, if convicted of the three felony counts: racketeering conspiracy, intercourse trafficking and transportation to have interaction in prostitution.
Prosecutors talked about Combs enticed women folks by giving them pills akin to ketamine and ecstasy, financial lend a hand, or promises of profession lend a hand or a romantic relationship. Combs then out of date the surreptitious recordings of the intercourse acts as “collateral” to be high-tail that that the girls folks would remain tranquil, and most regularly displayed weapons to intimidate abuse victims and witnesses, prosecutors talked about.
The indictment did no longer specify what number of girls folks had been alleged victims. It contained no allegation that Combs himself abruptly engaged in unwanted sexual contact with women folks, although he used to be accused of assaulting them by punching, kicking, dragging and throwing objects. Combs and his mates out of date bribery and violence akin to arson and kidnapping to take a detect at to defend his conduct secret, prosecutors talked about.
When Tarnofsky asked how he wished to plead, Combs – carrying a shaded T-shirt and grey sweatpants – stood up, pulled a skinny microphone on the defence table upward, and talked about, “Now not responsible.”
“My grief is that it is a crime that occurs within the lend a hand of closed doorways,” the resolve talked about in denying bail, before Combs used to be led out of the court docket by contributors of the US Marshals Service.
Defence lawyer Marc Agnifilo talked about he’ll enchantment his consumer’s persisted detention at a hearing on Wednesday before US District Deem Andrew Carter, who will oversee the rest of the case.
Additionally diagnosed for the duration of his profession as P. Diddy and Puff Daddy, Combs based Ghastly Boy records and is credited with helping turn rappers and R&B singers akin to Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars within the Nineties and 2000s.
‘EXTREMELY DANGEROUS’
Prosecutors accused Combs of working a criminal endeavor to facilitate his exploitation of girls folks, courting lend a hand a minimal of 16 years, in a case introduced by the place of business of Broad apple US Approved skilled Damian Williams.
“The defendant Sean Combs bodily and sexually abused victims for decades,” prosecutor Emily Johnson, arguing for persisted detention, urged the resolve. “He’s extremely dreadful to the community.”
The defence had sought to fill Combs released on a $50 million bond secured by his Miami dwelling. Agnifilo acknowledged that Combs has a historical previous of drug use and poisonous relationships, and talked about he used to be getting treatment and treatment, with out going into specifics.
Combs is the ideal-profile tune change determine charged with sexual misconduct since R&B singer R. Kelly used to be sentenced to a mixed 31 years in prison after being convicted in Fresh York in 2021 and Chicago in 2022 intercourse trafficking, racketeering, child intercourse crimes and other counts.
Hit with a series of civil complaints accusing him of sexual and other misconduct as successfully as a federal criminal investigation, Combs’ profession has been derailed within the previous twelve months.
Final November, his frail female friend Casandra Ventura, an R&B singer diagnosed as Cassie, accused him in a lawsuit of serial physical abuse, sexual slavery and rape. She agreed to an undisclosed settlement one day after suing. Combs denied her allegations.
In a March 2016 incident that resembles Cassie’s description of his alleged attack, prosecutors talked about Combs used to be captured on a hotel safety video placing and dragging a girl making an strive to head away a “Freak Off.” Combs then equipped a stack of cash to a hotel safety officer who intervened, prosecutors talked about.
Prosecutors talked about Combs’ workers helped organize the “Freak Offs” by booking hotel rooms and shopping managed substances and other devices out of date for the duration of intercourse, in step with the indictment.
At some level of raids of his properties in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, Florida six months ago, authorities found pills and 1,000 bottles of runt one oil and lubricant, alongside with AR-15 rifles with defaced serial numbers, the indictment talked about.
