Sean “Diddy” Combs was due in courtroom Tuesday (September 17, 2024) on federal intercourse trafficking and racketeering fees that accuse him of hitting and abusing girls for over a decade and presiding over an empire of sexual crimes.
The music mogul “engaged in a persistent and pervasive sample of abuse towards girls and different people,” based on an indictment unsealed Tuesday (September 17, 2024).
Detailing allegations courting to 2009, the indictment accuses him of abusing, threatening and coercing girls for years “to meet his sexual needs, shield his fame, and conceal his conduct.”
Combs had been arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a intercourse trafficking investigation raided his luxurious properties in Los Angeles and Miami.
Over the previous yr, Combs has been sued by individuals who say he subjected them to bodily or sexual abuse. He has denied lots of these allegations, and his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, mentioned outdoors the courthouse Tuesday morning that Combs would plead not responsible and that he would “combat like hell” to attempt to get his consumer launched from custody.
Of Combs, Agnifilo mentioned, “His spirits are good. He’s assured.”
The indictment accuses Combs of hanging, punching and dragging girls on quite a few events, throwing objects and kicking them — and enlisting his private assistants, safety and family employees to assist conceal all of it.
The indictment describes Combs as the top of a prison enterprise engaged in or trying to interact in actions together with intercourse trafficking, compelled labor, interstate transportation for functions of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
Combs, 54, was acknowledged as one of the influential figures in hip-hop earlier than a flood of allegations that emerged over the previous yr turned him into an trade pariah.
In November, his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, whose authorized identify is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit saying he had crushed and raped her for years. She accused Combs of coercing her, and others, into undesirable intercourse in drug-fueled settings.
The swimsuit was settled in sooner or later however months later CNN aired resort safety footage exhibiting Combs punching and kicking Cassie and throwing her on a ground. After the video aired, Combs apologized, saying, “I used to be disgusted after I did it.”
Combs and his attorneys, nonetheless, denied related allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Cassie, mentioned in an announcement Tuesday that “neither Ms. Ventura nor I’ve any remark.”
“We admire your understanding and if that adjustments, we will definitely let you realize,” he added.
A girl mentioned Combs raped her twenty years in the past when she was 17. A music producer sued, saying Combs compelled him to have intercourse with prostitutes. One other girl, April Lampros, mentioned Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters,” beginning when she was a school pupil in 1994.
The AP doesn’t usually identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused until they arrive ahead publicly, as Cassie and Lampros did.
Combs, the founding father of Dangerous Boy Information, has gotten out of authorized bother earlier than.
In 2001, he was acquitted of fees associated to a Manhattan nightclub taking pictures two years earlier that injured three folks. His then-protege, Shyne, was convicted of assault and different fees and served about eight years in jail.
Printed – September 17, 2024 08:01 pm IST
