Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested late Monday (September 16, 2024) in New York, the place he faces a sealed prison indictment, prosecutors introduced late on Monday.
Particulars of the costs weren’t instantly introduced by prosecutors, however the hip-hop mogul has confronted a stream of allegations by ladies in latest months who accused him of sexual assault.
The U.S. legal professional in Manhattan, Damian Williams, mentioned in an announcement that federal brokers arrested Mr. Combs. “We anticipate to maneuver to unseal the indictment within the morning and can have extra to say at the moment.”
Mr. Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, issued an announcement saying: “We’re disillusioned with the choice to pursue what we consider is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace.”
He added that Mr. Combs had gone to New York final week in anticipation of the costs being introduced.
“He’s an imperfect individual, however he’s not a prison,” Mr. Agnifilo mentioned.
Mr. Combs was arrested in a Manhattan lodge foyer and is in federal custody, mentioned an individual aware of the arrest who spoke with The Related Press on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk publicly.
The prison fees are a serious however not sudden takedown of one of the crucial outstanding producers and most well-known names within the historical past of hip-hop.
The federal investigation of the 58-year-old Mr. Combs was revealed when Homeland Safety Investigations brokers served simultaneous search warrants and raided Mr. Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami on March 25.
His protection legal professional Aaron Dyer the day after the raids known as them “a gross use of military-level pressure,” mentioned the allegations have been “meritless,” and mentioned Combs was “harmless and can proceed to struggle” to clear his title.
Mr. Combs, then often called Puff Daddy, was on the centre of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battles of the Nineteen Nineties because the companion and producer of the Infamous B.I.G., who was shot and killed in 1997. However like a lot of those that survived the period, his public picture had softened with age right into a genteel host of events in Hollywood and the Hamptons, a fashion-forward businessman, and a doting father who spoiled his children, a few of whom misplaced their mom in 2018.
However a distinct picture started rising in November, when his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, grew to become the primary of a number of folks to sue him for sexual abuse with tales of a gradual stream of intercourse staff in drug-fueled settings the place a few of these concerned have been coerced or cajoled into intercourse.
In her November lawsuit, Ms. Cassie alleged years of abuse, together with beatings and rape. Her go well with additionally alleged Combs engaged in intercourse trafficking by “requiring her to have interaction in compelled sexual acts in a number of jurisdictions” and by participating in “harbouring and transportation of Plaintiff for functions of intercourse induced by pressure, fraud, or coercion.”
It additionally mentioned he compelled her to assist him visitors male intercourse staff Mr. Combs would pressure Ms. Cassie to have intercourse with whereas he filmed.
The go well with was settled settled the next day, however its reverberations would final far longer. Combs misplaced lingering allies, supporters and people reserving judgment when CNN in Could aired a leaked video of him punching Ms. Cassie, kicking her and throwing her on the ground in a lodge hallway.
The next day, in his first actual acknowledgement of wrongdoing because the stream of allegations started, Mr. Combs posted a social media video apologizing, saying “I used to be disgusted once I did it” and “I’m disgusted now.” Ms. Cassie’s lawsuit was adopted by not less than a half-dozen others within the ensuing months.
In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Mr. Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have intercourse with them.
One other of Mr. Combs’ accusers was a lady who mentioned the rap producer raped her twenty years in the past when she was 17.
One other girl who filed a lawsuit, April Lampros, mentioned she was a university scholar in 1994 when she met Combs and a sequence of “terrifying sexual encounters” with Mr. Combs and people round him started that lasted for years.
Mr. Combs and his attorneys denied practically all the lawsuits’ allegations.
Whereas authorities didn’t publicly say that the lawsuits set off the prison investigation, Dyer mentioned when the warrants have been served that the case was based mostly on “meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”
The AP doesn’t sometimes title individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused until they arrive ahead publicly as Ms. Cassie and Ms. Lampros did.
Because the founding father of Unhealthy Boy Data, Mr. Combs grew to become one of the crucial influential hip-hop producers and executives of the previous three a long time Together with the Infamous B.I.G. he labored with a slew of top-tier artists together with Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lil Kim, Religion Evans and 112.
Mr. Combs’ roles in his companies past music — together with profitable private-label spirits, a media firm and the Sean John Trend line — took main hits when the allegations arose.
The implications have been even larger when the leaked beating video emerged. Howard College lower ties with him, and he returned his key to the town of New York on the request of the mayor.
Printed – September 17, 2024 09:17 am IST
