Sean “Diddy” Combs will remain locked up in a notorious federal prison in New York on sex trafficking and racketeering charges after his lawyer’s request to place him under house arrest with a $50 million bond failed.
U.S. District Judge Andrew L. Carter said Wednesday that a bail package that would have kept the hip-hop mogul under house arrest at his Star Island mansion in Miami — with security and no access to cellphones, the Internet or women other than his family — was insufficient to free him pending trial.
Combs has been the subject of a wide-ranging federal investigation since at least the beginning of the year and was arrested in New York on Monday. He arrived at the courthouse on Wednesday from his cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The facility, which has housed inmates including R. Kelly, Michael Cohen and Jeffrey Epstein, has a history of violence and poor conditions.
On Tuesday, prosecutors unsealed the indictment against Combs, charging him with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation for prostitution. Combs pleaded not guilty and was also denied bail during the hearing.
The indictment alleges that Combs and his associates lured women, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs then allegedly used force, threats of force, coercion and controlled substances to compel them to engage in sexual acts with male prostitutes in what Combs referred to as “freak offs.” Combs is accused of giving the women ketamine, ecstasy and GHB to “keep them obedient and docile” during the performances.
The encounters, which prosecutors say sometimes lasted for days, were elaborate productions that Combs organized, directed, masturbated during and often recorded, according to the indictment. Prosecutors allege in a detention memo filed with the court that the sexual performances occurred regularly from at least 2009 through this year and that the hotel rooms where they took place often suffered significant damage.
During searches of Combs' homes in Miami and Los Angeles in March, according to the indictment, authorities seized narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant that Combs' staff stored in hotel rooms for sexual encounters.
It was an incident during one such production in 2016 in Los Angeles that prosecutors point to as evidence that Combs is a danger and cannot be trusted to be released from custody.
In one incident captured on security video, Combs' ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura (identified only as Victim One in the indictment) is seen running down the hallway of an InterContinental Hotel before Combs catches up to her, punches her repeatedly and throws a vase at her.
In court on Wednesday, Judge Carter described the video of Combs assaulting Ventura as “disturbing.”
Combs' attorneys said in court papers arguing for his release Tuesday that the woman in the video had punched him in the head and stolen his clothes after finding a photo of another girlfriend on his phone.
One of Combs' attorneys, Marc Agnifilo, told the judge Wednesday that at the time of the video, Combs was struggling with anger issues and drug addiction. Agnifilo said Combs and the woman in the video loved each other, had gone to rehab together and had chosen to be intimate with a third person.
But prosecutors painted a different picture, saying the video, first broadcast by CNN in May, showed a woman trying to escape a forced sexual relationship with Combs and a paid sex worker. They said Combs unsuccessfully tried to silence one of the hotel’s security staff with a bribe, and on Wednesday, they said Combs had threatened two other victims with videos of them if they cooperated with authorities.
