Combs, 54, appeared in court in New York and pleaded not
guilty, after he was arrested in connection with the charges late on Monday in
Manhattan. His apprehension came roughly six months after federal authorities
conducting a sex-trafficking investigation raided his homes in Los Angeles and
Miami.
Federal judge Robyn Tarnofsky heard lengthy arguments from
prosecutors and Combs’s lawyers and decided the defendant should remain in
federal detention.
Combs took a long sip of water from a bottle after bail was
denied and was led out of court without being handcuffed, as he looked towards
relatives in the public gallery.
“Mr Combs is a fighter. He’s going to fight this to the
end. He’s innocent,” his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said after court, pledging to
appeal the bail decision.
The three-count, 14-page indictment alleges racketeering
conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation to
engage in prostitution.
The document contains remarkably graphic details, including
that Combs would force sex-trafficking victims to engage in group sex acts with
associates of his that he referred to as “freak offs” – sometimes for days at a
time – while he recorded video of the encounters and masturbated to them. The
encounters were so physically exhausting for him and his victims – whom he
would force to ingest drugs – that all “typically received IV fluids to
recover”, the indictment said.
“For decades, SEAN COMBS, a/k/a ‘Puff Daddy,’ a/k/a ‘P
Diddy,’ a/k/a ‘Diddy,’ a/k/a ‘PD,’ a/k/a ‘Love,’ the defendant, abused,
threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual
desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct,” the indictment
reads.
Combs’s alleged criminal conspiracy, the indictment says,
“relied on employees, resources, and influence of the multi-faceted business
empire that he led and controlled – creating a criminal enterprise whose
members and associates engaged in, and attempted to engage in, among other
crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and
obstruction of justice”.
It is unclear whether the arson allegation may refer to
singer Casandra Ventura’s lawsuit – in which she stated that Combs purportedly
threatened to blow up the rapper Kid Cudi’s car in 2012 after the latter man
briefly dated her.
Cudi’s car allegedly exploded in the driveway of his
residence. A statement that he provided to the New York Times later said the
allegations in Ventura’s lawsuit were “all true”.
The indictment said Combs tasked his employees with
providing everything from lubricant to drugs for the alleged “freak offs”.
“Freak Offs occurred regularly, sometimes lasted multiple days, and often involved multiple commercial sex workers,” the complaint says. Combs would direct the sex acts at the center of the freaks offs while he also “distributed a variety of controlled substances to victims, in part to keep the victims obedient and compliant”.
His supervisors, security, hotel staff and assistants would
allegedly stock up on drugs and lubricant, procure baby oil, extra linens and
specialized lighting, and book hotel rooms and travel arrangements.
When investigators raided Combs’s homes in Miami and Los
Angeles in March, they seized drugs, more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and
lubricant and three AR-15 rifles.
Contained in the complaint are apparent references to
Ventura, Combs’s former girlfriend who made allegations of sexual abuse last
year that Combs quickly settled out of court. He was recorded beating her in
the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, video of which surfaced only
earlier this year.
The indictment suggests Combs “attempted to bribe [a hotel]
staff member to ensure silence” after that assault, which the indictment
describes without naming Ventura.
The government adds that – from at least 2009 – Combs
“assaulted women by, among other things, striking, punching, dragging, throwing
objects at, and kicking them”.
Combs appeared in Manhattan federal court wearing a black
T-shirt and gray sweatpants and looked toward his sons in the public gallery.
His lawyers tried unsuccessfully to keep him out of jail,
requesting his release to home detention and travel restrictions as well as a
$50m bond secured on the basis of his home in Miami. They said in a motion that
Combs would turn over his passport and that he was attempting to sell his
private jet. They said that “conditions at Metropolitan detention center in
Brooklyn are not fit for pre-trial detention”. Guardian
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