Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs in court seeking bail before trial
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has arrived in court for a hearing over his bid to be released on a $A77 million bail from the Brooklyn jail where the music mogul has been held for 10 weeks ahead of his May trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Combs, wearing a beige jail-issued outfit, blew kisses toward his family seated in the second row of the audience of US District Judge Arun Subramanian’s federal courtroom in Manhattan.
Combs has been denied bail three times since his arrest, with multiple judges citing a risk he might tamper with witnesses. The rapper and producer pleaded not guilty on September 17 to charges that he used his business empire, including his record label Bad Boy Entertainment, to sexually abuse women.
Prosecutors said the abuse included having women take part in recorded sexual performances called “freak offs” with male sex workers who were sometimes transported across state lines. Combs, 55, has denied wrongdoing, and his lawyers have argued the sexual activity described by prosecutors was consensual.
The proposed bail package was backed by Combs’ $US48 million ($A74 million) Florida mansion. It also called for Combs to be monitored around the clock by security personnel, subjected to home detention, and to have no contact with alleged victims or witnesses.
Combs’ lawyers questioned why jail was needed when federal prosecutors in Brooklyn last month allowed the pre-trial release on a $US10 million ($A15 million) bond of former Abercrombie and Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, who has pleaded not guilty to sex-trafficking.
“There is no legal basis for continuing to force Mr Combs to prepare for trial from jail,” his lawyers wrote in a Thursday court filing.
The US Attorney’s office in Manhattan, which brought the charges against Combs, countered that Jeffries is 80 years old with no criminal history, whereas Combs has prior arrests.
They also said federal agents recovered rifles with defaced serial numbers from Combs’ residences, and that Combs contacted witnesses through third parties from jail and tried to hide those communications from law enforcement.
“It strains credulity to believe that Combs will stop engaging in criminal conduct and abide by conditions of release,” prosecutors wrote in a Friday court filing.
Defence lawyers, meanwhile, said new evidence shed light on a 2016 hotel surveillance video of Combs assaulting former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, known as Cassie, and undermined part of the prosecution’s justification for detaining him.
His lawyers said the video was not proof of a coerced “freak off” as prosecutors alleged, but rather a glimpse into a complex romantic relationship. This week, Subramanian ordered prosecutors to destroy their copies of handwritten notes that Combs took in jail, pending a decision on whether they were subject to lawyer-client privilege.
A government investigator photographed the notes during a sweep of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Combs has been jailed.
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