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NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs presided over a sordid empire of sexual crimes, coercing and abusing ladies for years, threatening them to maintain them in line and enlisting a forged of aides to cowl it up, in response to an indictment unsealed Tuesday.
The music mogul “engaged in a persistent and pervasive sample of abuse towards ladies and different people,” together with bodily violence, so as “to meet his sexual needs, defend his status, and conceal his conduct, the indictment stated.
It describes him inducing feminine victims and male intercourse employees into drugged-up, typically dayslong sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs.” It additionally refers obliquely to an assault on his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video.
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Combs was 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. He was due in court docket Tuesday.
Over the previous yr, the hip-hop impresario has been sued by individuals who say he subjected them to bodily or sexual abuse. He has denied a lot of these allegations, and his lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, stated exterior the courthouse Tuesday morning that Combs is harmless and would plead not responsible.
“His spirits are good. He’s assured,” stated the legal professional, who stated Combs got here to New York voluntarily to “interact the court docket system and begin the case.”
The indictment describes Combs, the 54-year-old founding father of Bad Boy Records, as the top of a felony enterprise that engaged or tried to have interaction in intercourse trafficking, pressured labor, interstate transportation for functions of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice. He’s accused of putting, punching and dragging ladies on quite a few events, throwing objects and kicking them — and enlisting his private assistants, safety and family workers to assist him cover all of it.
Combs and his associates wielded his “energy and status” to “intimidate, threaten, and lure” ladies into his orbit, “typically underneath the pretense of a romantic relationship,” the indictment says. It says he then would use drive, threats and coercion to get the ladies to have interaction with male intercourse employees within the “Freak Offs” — “elaborate and produced intercourse performances” that Combs organized, directed, masturbated throughout and infrequently recorded.
He typically organized to fly the ladies in and ensured their participation by procuring and offering medication, controlling their careers, leveraging his monetary assist, and utilizing intimidation and violence, in response to the indictment.
The occasions might final for days, and Combs and victims would typically obtain IV fluids “to get well from the bodily exertion and drug use” from “Freak Offs,” the indictment stated. It stated his staff facilitated “Freak Offs” by arranging journey, reserving resort rooms the place they’d happen and stocking these rooms with provides, together with medication, child oil, lubricants, further linens and lighting, scheduling the supply of IV fluids, after which cleansing the rooms afterward.
During a search of Combs’ properties in Miami and Los Angeles this yr, legislation enforcement seized narcotics and greater than a thousand bottles of child oil and lubricant, in response to the indictment. Agents additionally seized firearms and ammunition, together with three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers, the indictment stated.
The doc portrays Combs as a violent man who choked and shoved individuals, hit and kicked victims and typically dragged them by their hair, inflicting accidents that usually took days or even weeks to heal. His staff and associates typically witnessed his violence and saved victims from leaving or tracked down those that tried, the indictment stated.
It alleges that Combs typically saved movies of victims participating in intercourse acts and used the recordings as “collateral” to make sure the ladies’s continued obedience and silence. He additionally exerted management over victims by promising profession alternatives, offering and threatening to withhold monetary assist, dictating how they appeared, monitoring their well being information and controlling the place they lived, in response to the indictment.
As the specter of felony costs loomed, Combs and his associates pressured witnesses and victims to remain silent, providing bribes and supplying false narratives of what occurred, the indictment says.
All of this, prosecutors allege, was occurring behind the facade of Combs’ international music, life-style and clothes empire.
Combs was acknowledged as probably the most influential figures in hip-hop earlier than a flood of allegations that emerged over the previous yr turned him into an business pariah.
In November, Cassie, whose authorized identify is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit saying he had overwhelmed and raped her for years. She accused Combs of coercing her, and others, into undesirable intercourse in drug-fueled settings.
The go well with was settled in someday, however months later, CNN aired resort safety footage exhibiting Combs punching and kicking Ventura and throwing her on a ground. After the video aired, Combs apologized, saying, “I used to be disgusted after I did it.”
The indictment refers back to the assault, with out naming Ventura, and says Combs tried to bribe a resort safety staffer to remain mum about it.
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Ventura, declined to remark Tuesday.
Combs and his attorneys denied related allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits.
A lady stated Combs raped her 20 years in the past when she was 17. A music producer sued, saying Combs pressured him to have intercourse with prostitutes. Another girl, April Lampros, stated Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters,” beginning when she was a school scholar in 1994.
The AP doesn’t usually identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused except they arrive ahead publicly, as Ventura and Lampros did.
Combs has gotten out of authorized hassle earlier than.
In 2001, he was acquitted of weapons costs associated to a Manhattan nightclub taking pictures two years earlier that injured three individuals.
Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York and Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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