David Shankbone, CC BY-SA 3.0 <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/>, via Wikimedia Commons
Embattled Music mogul, Sean “Diddy” Combs will remain in federal custody after a judge denied his appeal to be released on bail on Wednesday, September 18, one day after he pleaded not guilty to three criminal counts including sex trafficking and racketeering following a series of sexual assault allegations and a federal investigation.
Combs’ lawyers sought bail for the rapper after reporting “horrific” conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York, where he’s being held, but had their appeal denied by a magistrate judge who cited the severity of Combs’ charges and prosecutors’ accusations of witness tampering.
Combs was initially denied bail Tuesday after being indicted on three counts: racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, cause or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution, based on actions that allegedly occurred between 2009 and 2018 for sex trafficking, and 2009 and 2024 for prostitution.
The indictment alleges Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfil sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct,” claiming he also used his business empire to “creat[e] a criminal enterprise” in which associates engaged in or attempted to engage in “sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.”
Prosecutors alleged Combs engaged in “a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse” including “verbal, emotional, sexual and physical abuse,” accusing Combs of “striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at and kicking” women and alleging his employees helped facilitate and cover up his abuse.
Combs allegedly manipulated women into engaging in “extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers” that the mogul described as “Freak Offs,” prosecutors claim in the indictment, and Combs and his associates allegedly transported sex workers across state lines which prosecutors allege constitutes sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution and allegedly drugged women to keep them “obedient and compliant.”
Prosecutors confirmed Combs had been arrested Monday night in Manhattan, but the charges were only unsealed Tuesday morning.
Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo has denied any wrongdoing by the musician, saying Combs “voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges” and has “nothing to hide.”
