Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs is on suicide watch at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, after being charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation for prostitution.
A source told NBC that putting the renowned artist on suicide watch is “standard procedure for high-profile clients,” and that for now he “remains strong and focused on his defense.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs presided over a sordid empire of sex 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 filed Tuesday.
Combs pleaded not guilty, standing to speak after hearing the accusations while showing little reaction, with his uncuffed hands folded in his lap.
Details of Allegation
In court papers, prosecutors called the music mogul “dangerous” and urged that he be jailed without bail, citing weapons 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 $50 million bail for house arrest with electronic monitoring.
The racketeering and sex trafficking indictment describes Combs luring female victims and male sex workers into drugged, sometimes days-long sex acts called “freak offs.”
It also indirectly refers to an attack on his ex-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie, that was caught on video. He is accused of punching and dragging women, throwing objects and kicking them, and having his personal assistants, security personnel and household staff help him cover it all up.
“The evidence in this case is incredibly powerful,” prosecutors said in a document requesting Combs’ arrest. They said they had interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses and expected the number to grow. They also said they would use financial, travel and billing records, electronic data and communications and videos from the “Freak Offs” to prove their case.
Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said outside court Tuesday that he would fight to keep him free, and that Combs is innocent.
Combs was arrested Monday night in Manhattan, about six months after federal authorities raided his luxury homes in Los Angeles and Miami while conducting a sex trafficking investigation. He was due to appear in court Tuesday afternoon, and his three children arrived at the courthouse in the morning to be at the proceedings.
What punishment could you face?
A conviction on all counts in the indictment would require a mandatory 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence.
The indictment describes Combs, 54, the founder of Bad Boy Records, as the head of a criminal organization engaged in or attempting to engage in activities including sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for the purpose of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
Combs and his associates wielded their “power and prestige” to “intimidate, threaten and lure” women into their orbit, “often under the guise of a romantic relationship,” the indictment says.
It says he then used force, threats and coercion to get women to engage with male sex workers in “Freak Offs,” or “elaborate and produced sexual encounters,” which Combs “arranged and directed, in which he masturbated and often recorded creating dozens of videos.”