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Trigger Warning: This article discusses alleged sexual assault and sex trafficking.
Rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has plead ‘not guilty’ following his arrest in New York, charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Following his court hearing, US Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky ruled that Combs would remain in custody pending trial. The Bad Boy Entertainment founder faces a mandatory minimum of 15-year prison sentence and a maximum of life behind bars if convicted of the three felony charges.
The three-county indictment accuses Combs of running a criminal enterprise to facilitate his exploitation of women, dating back at least 16 years.
“He is a serial abuser and a serial obstructor,” Assistant ADA Emily Johnson said during the hearing.
The 54-year-old was first arrested in New York on Monday afternoon, US time, and taken into federal custody. According to TMZ, Combs was ‘swooped on’ in the midtown hotel that we was staying.
At the time of his arrest, before charges were confirmed, Combs lawyer, Marc Agnifilo told The Independent via email: “We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,”
“To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges,” Agnifilo added. “Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts.”
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs: Allegations Of Sex Trafficking, Abuse And Battery
Combs settled a case brought by ex-partner R&B singer Cassie (real name is Cassandra Ventura) back in November of 2023, the day after it was filed in a Manhattan court. Ventura accused Combs of sex trafficking, rape and physical abuse and said at the time of filing, “After years in silence and darkness I am finally ready to tell my story, and to speak up on behalf of myself and for the benefit of other women who face violence and abuse in their relationships.”
After Ventura’s case was brought, other women came forward with similar allegations against Combs, with multiple warrants being granted since 2023 to authorities to search the rapper’s Miami and Beverly Hills homes. This is the first time Combs has been arrested.
It is not clear whether the arrest is connected to the claims made against Combs by former Bad Boy Records singer Dawn Richard. Filed in a Manhattan court last week on September 11th, Combs is accused of “sexual assault and battery, sex trafficking, gender discrimination and fraud”, according to court documents via Reuters. They met during her audition for Combs’ MTV series Making the Band in 2004, during which time Richard was a member of a girl group called Danity Kane and also a R&B trio Diddy Dirty Money. .
The lawsuit stated that “(Combs) manipulated her with mantras that submission to his depraved demands was necessary for career advancement, instilling in her the belief that such abuse and exploitation were required for female artists to succeed in the music industry,”
According to Reuters, Richard claims to have “witnessed Combs abusing his then-girlfriend, the R&B vocalist Cassandra Ventura,” according to court documents.
120 People Come Forward With Sexual Misconduct Allegations
As Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs awaits trial on federal sex trafficking charges, Texas attorney Tony Buzbee has announced his intention to file a host of civil lawsuits against the rapper, from 120 more alleged victims.
In a press conference held in Houston on Tuesday October 1, Buzbee said the federal charges had broken “the wall of silence” surrounding Combs, empowering the alleged victims to come forward.
The allegations are being filed by 60 men and 60 women, according to Buzbee’s statement, of which 25 were minors at the time of the alleged offence, with events occurring between 1991, and as recently as this year.
One of the plaintiffs claims that he was the victim of sexual abuse that occurred during an audition with Sean Combs at Bad Boy Records when he was just nine years old.
“This individual was sexually abused allegedly by Sean Combs and several other people at the studio in the promise to both his parents and to him himself of getting a record deal,” the attorney disclosed, continuing, “Other boys were there to audition as well… All of them were trying to land a record deal. All of them were minors.”
Buzbee implored anyone who had knowledge of these events (and others) to come forward, stating “I expect in this process many powerful people will be exposed.”
The attorney also made reference to Combs’ infamous white parties, stating that much of the alleged abuse happened at such events where a pattern involving alcohol and tranquilizer drugs featured across many of the individual claims. “One individual who was 22 years at the time, she was assaulted, said that the typical MO at one of these parties…was that when you were handed a drink, and now we know that the drink is laced with something, that if you refused to drink it, you were kicked out of the party,” Buzbee detailed during the press conference.
According to the statement, Buzbee expected the civil lawsuits to be filed sometime within the next month.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ attorney, Erica Wolff, has since responded to the announcement, emphatically denying what Combs states to be “false and defamatory” claims.
“He looks forward to proving his innocence and vindicating himself in court if and when claims are filed and served, where the truth will be established based on evidence, not speculation,” Wolff said in a statement.
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