Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Why COVID Is Spreading Again This Summer

21 hours ago

Amid Threats From Trump, Sen. Adam Schiff Forms Legal Defense Fund

1 day ago

Israel to Place $500 Million, US-Funded Order for Boeing Aerial Refueling Tankers

1 day ago

Hurricane Erin Threatens North Carolina’s Outer Banks With Storm Surge

1 day ago

Israel Approves Settlement Plan to ‘Erase’ Idea of Palestinian State

1 day ago

Tech Stocks Pressure Wall Street as Caution Sets in Ahead of Fed Meet

1 day ago

Most Americans Believe Countries Should Recognize Palestinian State, Reuters/Ipsos Poll Finds

1 day ago

Gabbard Revokes Security Clearances of 37 Current, Former US Intelligence Members

2 days ago

Trump Escalates Attacks Against the Smithsonian Institution

2 days ago

California Republicans File Suit Seeking to Block Newsom Redistricting Plan

2 days ago
Sean 'Diddy' Combs Makes Fresh Bid for Bail in Sex Trafficking and Conspiracy Case
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 11 months ago on
September 18, 2024

Sean 'Diddy' Combs' lawyers seek his release on bail, proposing home detention at his luxury Miami Beach island residence. (AP/Elizabeth Williams)

Share

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NEW YORK — Lawyers for Sean “Diddy Combs asked a judge Wednesday to let him await his sex trafficking trial at his luxury home on an island near Miami Beach, rather than a grim federal jail in Brooklyn.

Combs’ lawyer planned to argue before the Manhattan judge that would preside over Combs’ trial why the heftier bail should earn him release from detention. On Tuesday, a Manhattan magistrate judge had ordered Combs held without bail.

Indictment Alleges Elaborate Sexual Performances

The hip-hop mogul whose career blossomed in the 1990s was arrested on Monday on charges contained in an indictment that accuses Combs of using his “power and prestige” for “sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.”

It describes the inducement of female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs” that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during and often recorded. The events would sometimes last days and require IVs to recover from, the indictment said.

It alleges he coerced and abused women for years while using blackmail, including the videos he shot, and shocking acts of violence to keep his victims in line, coordinated and facilitated from the top down by a network of associates and employees.

Defense Seeks Home Detention with GPS Monitoring

Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo submitted a letter to Judge Andrew L. Carter on Wednesday seeking the release of Combs, 54, on conditions including home detention with GPS monitoring, along with a restriction on all visitors to his residences except for family, property caretakers and friends who are not considered co-conspirators.

Combs’ house is on Star Island, a man-made dollop of land in Biscayne Bay, reachable only by a causeway or boat. It is among the most expensive places to live in the United States.

“Sean Combs has never evaded, avoided, eluded or run from a challenge in his life,” the defense said in a court filing. “He will not start now.”

Combs was expected to reenter his not guilty plea in his initial appearance before Carter.

So far, prosecutors have successfully argued that he is a danger to the community and a flight risk and should remain incarcerated until trial.

Echoes of Previous Lawsuit in Criminal Charges

For all the revelations that came with the unsealing of the indictment Tuesday, most of what it outlines had been described in a November lawsuit filed by his former longtime girlfriend and protege, the R&B singer Cassie, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura. The suit was settled the following day, but its allegations have followed Combs since.

Its descriptions of beatings, sexual assaults, silencing tactics and “Freak Offs” were echoed throughout the criminal indictment, though it did not use her name or the names of any other women.

Agnifilo, also without naming Ventura but clearly referring to her, argued at Tuesday’s arraignment that the entire criminal case is an outgrowth of one long-term, troubled-but-consensual relationship that faltered amid infidelity.

The “Freak Offs,” Agnifilo contended, were an expansion of that relationship, and not coercive.

“Is it sex trafficking?” Agnifilo asked. “Not if everybody wants to be there.”

Prosecutors, however, portrayed the scope as far larger. They said in court papers that they had interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses and expect the number to grow.

Like many aging hip-hop figures — including many of those he beefed with in the bicoastal rap feuds of the 1990s alongside the Notorious B.I.G. — the Bad Boy Records founder Combs had established a gentler, more worldly public image. The doting father of seven children was a respected international businessman, whose annual “White Party” in the Hamptons was once a must-have invitation for the jet-setting elite.

But prosecutors said he used the same companies, people and methods he used to build his business and cultural power to facilitate his crimes. They said they would prove it with financial, travel and billing records, electronic data and communications and videos of the “Freak Offs” to prove their case.

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ventura did.

Combs was arrested late Monday in a Manhattan hotel, roughly six months after federal authorities raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami and revealed they were conducting a sex trafficking investigation.

During the searches, law enforcement seized narcotics, videos of the “Freak Offs” and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecutors. They said agents also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers.

The indictment portrays Combs as so violent that he caused injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. His employees and associates sometimes witnessed his violence and kept victims from leaving or tracked down those who tried, the indictment said.

A conviction on every charge in the indictment would require a mandatory 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence.

Combs and his attorneys denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits filed after Ventura’s.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect After Shooting Near River Park

DON'T MISS

Israel Bombards Gaza City Ahead of Planned Offensive

DON'T MISS

Fresno Hosts Giddy Up N’ Groove Country Festival Before Dog Daze Fest

DON'T MISS

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Latest Role Is Social Media Troll

DON'T MISS

Putin’s Demand to Ukraine: Give up Donbas, No NATO and No Western Troops, Sources Say

DON'T MISS

Trump’s Civil Fraud Penalty Is Thrown out by New York Appeals Court

DON'T MISS

James Dobson, American Evangelical Activist, Dies at 89

DON'T MISS

California Supreme Court Paves the Way for Democrats’ Redistricting Plan

DON'T MISS

US Existing Home Sales Tick up Unexpectedly in July

DON'T MISS

Wall Street Stocks Fall, Traders Focus on Fed

UP NEXT

Israel Bombards Gaza City Ahead of Planned Offensive

UP NEXT

Fresno Hosts Giddy Up N’ Groove Country Festival Before Dog Daze Fest

UP NEXT

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Latest Role Is Social Media Troll

UP NEXT

Putin’s Demand to Ukraine: Give up Donbas, No NATO and No Western Troops, Sources Say

UP NEXT

Trump’s Civil Fraud Penalty Is Thrown out by New York Appeals Court

UP NEXT

James Dobson, American Evangelical Activist, Dies at 89

UP NEXT

California Supreme Court Paves the Way for Democrats’ Redistricting Plan

UP NEXT

US Existing Home Sales Tick up Unexpectedly in July

UP NEXT

Wall Street Stocks Fall, Traders Focus on Fed

UP NEXT

Top Dem on Oversight Committee Demands Trump Administration Account for Wildland Firefighter Vacancies

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Latest Role Is Social Media Troll

1 hour ago

Putin’s Demand to Ukraine: Give up Donbas, No NATO and No Western Troops, Sources Say

1 hour ago

Trump’s Civil Fraud Penalty Is Thrown out by New York Appeals Court

1 hour ago

James Dobson, American Evangelical Activist, Dies at 89

1 hour ago

California Supreme Court Paves the Way for Democrats’ Redistricting Plan

2 hours ago

US Existing Home Sales Tick up Unexpectedly in July

2 hours ago

Wall Street Stocks Fall, Traders Focus on Fed

2 hours ago

Top Dem on Oversight Committee Demands Trump Administration Account for Wildland Firefighter Vacancies

2 hours ago

California’s Finances Face a Perfect Storm. It Could Eventually Lead to Another Tax Hike

2 hours ago

International Rapper Derrick ‘Aesop’ McElroy Who Called Fresno Home Dies at 51

16 hours ago

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect After Shooting Near River Park

Fresno police arrested an 18-year-old man Wednesday evening after he allegedly fired shots at another vehicle near Blackstone and Nees avenu...

10 minutes ago

River Park Ruths Chris Fresno Police
10 minutes ago

Fresno Police Arrest Suspect After Shooting Near River Park

Displaced Palestinian women fleeing northern Gaza ride with their belongings as they head south, amid an Israeli military operation, in Gaza City, August 21, 2025. (Reuters/Dawoud Abu Alkas)
46 minutes ago

Israel Bombards Gaza City Ahead of Planned Offensive

Fresno’s Chukchansi Park will host the all-ages country music festival Giddy Up N' Groove on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, featuring Louie TheSinger, Reyna Roberts, CeCe, and other rising artists ahead of Dog Daze Fest. (Instagram/Dog Daze Fest)
47 minutes ago

Fresno Hosts Giddy Up N’ Groove Country Festival Before Dog Daze Fest

Gavin Newsom in San Francisco's Mission District
1 hour ago

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Latest Role Is Social Media Troll

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Moscow-installed leader of the Russian-controlled part of the Donetsk region Denis Pushilin amid Russia-Ukraine military conflict, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, August 4, 2025. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

Putin’s Demand to Ukraine: Give up Donbas, No NATO and No Western Troops, Sources Say

President Donald Trump attends a press conference at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in Anchorage, Alaska, U.S., August 15, 2025. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

Trump’s Civil Fraud Penalty Is Thrown out by New York Appeals Court

Ted Cruz speaks with Dr. James Dobson (R), an evangelical Christian author, at a town hall at Winterset Stage in Winterset, Iowa January 4, 2016. (Reuters File)
1 hour ago

James Dobson, American Evangelical Activist, Dies at 89

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference, accompanied by members of the Texas Democratic legislators, at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento, California, U.S., August 8, 2025. (Reuters File)
2 hours ago

California Supreme Court Paves the Way for Democrats’ Redistricting Plan

Search

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Send this to a friend