NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was due in courtroom Tuesday on federal intercourse trafficking and racketeering prices 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 pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals,” in response to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
Detailing allegations relationship to 2009, the indictment accuses him of abusing, threatening and coercing girls for years “to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, 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 houses in Los Angeles and Miami.
Over the previous 12 months, 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 exterior the courthouse Tuesday morning that Combs would plead not responsible and that he would “fight like hell” to attempt to get his shopper launched from custody.
Of Combs, Agnifilo mentioned, “His spirits are good. He’s confident.”
The indictment accuses Combs of putting, 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 disguise all of it.
The indictment describes Combs as the pinnacle of a legal enterprise engaged in or making an attempt to interact in actions together with intercourse trafficking, pressured labor, interstate transportation for functions of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
Combs, 54, was acknowledged as one of the vital influential figures in hip-hop earlier than a flood of allegations that emerged over the previous 12 months turned him into an trade pariah.
In November, his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, whose authorized title 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 at some point however months later CNN aired lodge safety footage displaying Combs punching and kicking Cassie and throwing her on a flooring. After the video aired, Combs apologized, saying, “I was disgusted when 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 have any comment.”
“We appreciate your understanding and if that changes, we will certainly let you know,” he added.
A lady mentioned Combs raped her twenty years in the past when she was 17. A music producer sued, saying Combs pressured him to have intercourse with prostitutes. One other lady, April Lampros, mentioned Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters,” beginning when she was a university scholar in 1994.
The AP doesn’t usually title individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused except they arrive ahead publicly, as Cassie and Lampros did.
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Combs, the founding father of Unhealthy Boy Data, has gotten out of authorized hassle earlier than.
In 2001, he was acquitted of prices associated to a Manhattan nightclub capturing two years earlier that injured three individuals. His then-protege, Shyne, was convicted of assault and different prices and served about eight years in jail.
Related Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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