FILE - Sean "Diddy" Combs arrives at the LA Premiere of "The Four: Battle For Stardom" at the CBS Radford Studio Center on May 30, 2018, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)
NEW YORK (AP) – Sean “Diddy” Combs presided over a sordid empire of sexual crimes, coercing and abusing women for years while using blackmail and shocking acts of violence to keep his victims in line, according to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
Combs pleaded not guilty, standing to speak, after listening to the allegations while showing little reaction, his uncuffed hands folded in his lap.
In court papers, prosecutors called the music mogul “dangerous” and urged that he be jailed without bail, citing guns found at his home and what they said were attempts to intimidate witnesses. His lawyers, meanwhile, proposed in court papers that he be released on a $50 million bond to home detention with electronic monitoring.
The racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking indictment described Combs inducing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes dayslong sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs.”
It also refers obliquely to an attack on his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video.
He’s accused of striking, punching and dragging women, throwing objects and kicking them – and getting his personal assistants, security and household staff to help him hide it all.
“The evidence in this case is incredibly powerful,” prosecutors said in a document seeking Combs’ detention. They said they had interviewed over 50 victims and witnesses and expect the number to grow and would use financial, travel and billing records, electronic data and communications and videos of the “Freak Offs” to prove their case.
Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said outside the courthouse Tuesday that he’d fight to keep him free, and that Combs is innocent.
“His spirits are good. He’s confident,” said the attorney, who said Combs came to New York voluntarily to “engage the court system and start the case.”
Combs was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami. He was due in court Tuesday afternoon, and his three sons arrived at the courthouse Tuesday morning to observe.
A conviction on every charge in the indictment would require a mandatory 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence.
The indictment describes Combs, the 54-year-old founder of Bad Boy Records, as the head of a criminal enterprise that engaged or attempted to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
Combs and his associates wielded his “power and prestige” to intimidate and lure women into his orbit, “often under the pretense of a romantic relationship,” the indictment says.
It says he then would use force, threats and coercion to get the women to engage with male sex workers in the “Freak Offs” – “elaborate and produced sex performances” that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during and often recorded, creating dozens of videos.
He sometimes arranged to fly the women in and ensured their participation by procuring and providing drugs, controlling their careers, leveraging his financial support and using intimidation and violence, according to the indictment.
The events could last for days, and Combs and victims would often receive IV fluids to recover from the exertion and drug use, the indictment said.
It said his employees facilitated “Freak Offs” by arranging travel, booking hotel rooms, stocking them with such supplies as drugs and baby oil, scheduling the delivery of IV fluids and cleaning the rooms afterward.
During a search of Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles this year, law enforcement seized narcotics, videos of the “Freak Offs” and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecutors. They said agents also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers – two of them, broken into parts, in his bedroom closet in Miami.
The indictment portrays Combs as a violent man who choked and shoved people, hit and kicked victims and sometimes dragged them by their hair, causing injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. His employees and associates sometimes witnessed his violence and kept victims from leaving or tracked down those who tried, the indictment said.
It alleges that Combs sometimes kept videos of victims engaging in sex acts and used the recordings as “collateral” to ensure the women’s continued obedience and silence. He also exerted control over victims by promising career opportunities, providing and threatening to withhold financial support, dictating how they looked, monitoring their health records and controlling where they lived, according to the indictment.
In a court filing, prosecutors accused Combs and an unidentified co-conspirator of kidnapping someone at gunpoint a few days before Christmas in 2011 in order to facilitate a break-in at another person’s home. Two weeks later, they wrote, Combs set fire to someone’s vehicle by slicing open its convertible top and dropping in a Molotov cocktail.
All of this, prosecutors allege, was happening behind the facade of Combs’ global music, lifestyle and clothing business.
“A year ago, Sean Combs stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City. Today, he’s been indicted and will face justice,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at a news conference Tuesday. His office is bringing the case.
Combs returned the key in June after Mayor Eric Adams requested it back.
Combs was recognized as one of the most influential figures in hip-hop before a flood of allegations emerged over the past year.
As the threat of criminal charges loomed, Combs and his associates pressured witnesses and victims to stay silent, offering bribes and supplying false narratives of what happened, the indictment says.
Prosecutors said Combs had assets approaching $1 billion, a private plane and international connections to enable him to flee.
“The defendant could easily buy his way out of facing justice,” they wrote.
In November, Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit saying he had beaten and raped her for years. She accused Combs of coercing her, and others, into unwanted sex in drug-fueled settings.
The suit was settled in one day, but months later, CNN aired hotel security footage showing Combs punching and kicking Ventura and throwing her on a floor. After the video aired, Combs apologized, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it.”
The indictment refers to the attack, without naming Ventura, and says Combs tried to bribe a hotel security staffer to stay mum about it.
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Ventura, declined to comment Tuesday.
Combs and his attorneys denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.
A woman said Combs raped her two decades ago when she was 17. A music producer sued, saying Combs forced him to have sex with prostitutes. Another woman, April Lampros, said Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters,” starting when she was a college student in 1994.
The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ventura and Lampros did.
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This story has been corrected to show that Combs is 54, not 58.
