By ANDREW DALTON, MICHAEL R. SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs, the hip-hop mogul who has confronted a stream of allegations by girls accusing him of sexual assault, was arrested late Monday in New York after he was indicted by a federal grand jury.
The indictment was sealed and particulars of the fees weren’t instantly introduced by prosecutors, however the U.S. legal professional in Manhattan, Damian Williams, confirmed in a press release that federal brokers had Combs in custody.
“We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time,” Williams stated in a press release.
Combs was arrested in a Manhattan resort foyer, based on an individual aware of the arrest who spoke with The Related Press on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk publicly.
His lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, stated Combs had been cooperating with the investigation and had relocated to New York final week in anticipation of prices being introduced.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Agnifilo stated, describing his consumer as a music icon and a “loving family man.”
“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,” Agnifilo stated in a press release, including “Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
The legal prices are a serious however not surprising takedown of one of the distinguished producers and most well-known names within the historical past of hip-hop.
The federal investigation of Combs, 58, was revealed when Homeland Safety Investigations brokers served simultaneous search warrants and raided Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami on March 25.
A day after the raids, his legal professional Aaron Dyer known as them “a gross use of military-level force,” stated the allegations have been “meritless.”
Combs, then referred to as Puff Daddy, was on the middle of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battles of the Nineteen Nineties because the accomplice and producer of the Infamous B.I.G., who was shot and killed in 1997. However like a lot of those that survived the period, his public picture had softened with age right into a genteel host of events in Hollywood and the Hamptons, a fashion-forward businessman, and a doting father who spoiled his children, a few of whom misplaced their mom in 2018.
However a unique picture started rising in November, when his former protege and girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, turned the primary of a number of individuals to sue him for sexual abuse with tales of a gentle stream of intercourse employees in drug-fueled settings the place a few of these concerned have been coerced or cajoled into intercourse.
In her November lawsuit, Cassie alleged years of abuse, together with beatings and rape. Her go well with additionally alleged Combs engaged in intercourse trafficking by “requiring her to engage in forced sexual acts in multiple jurisdictions” and by participating in “harboring and transportation of Plaintiff for purposes of sex induced by force, fraud, or coercion.”
It additionally stated he compelled her to assist him visitors male intercourse employees Combs would pressure Cassie to have intercourse with whereas he filmed.
The go well with was settled the next day, however its reverberations would final far longer. Combs misplaced lingering allies, supporters and people reserving judgment when CNN in Might aired a leaked video of him punching Cassie, kicking her and throwing her on the ground in a resort hallway.
The following day, in his first actual acknowledgement of wrongdoing for the reason that stream of allegations started, Combs posted a social media video apologizing, saying “I was disgusted when I did it” and “I’m disgusted now.” Cassie’s lawsuit was adopted by a minimum of a half-dozen others within the ensuing months.
In February, a music producer filed a lawsuit alleging Combs coerced him to solicit prostitutes and pressured him to have intercourse with them.
One other of Combs’ accusers was a lady who stated the rap producer raped her twenty years in the past when she was 17.
One other lady who filed a lawsuit, April Lampros, stated she was a university pupil in 1994 when she met Combs, and a sequence of “terrifying sexual encounters” with Combs and people round him started that lasted for years.
Combs and his attorneys denied almost all the lawsuits’ allegations.
Whereas authorities didn’t publicly say that the lawsuits set off the legal investigation, Dyer stated when the warrants have been served that the case was based mostly on “meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”
The AP doesn’t sometimes identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused until they arrive ahead publicly as Cassie and Lampros did.
Because the founding father of Dangerous Boy Data, Combs turned one of the influential hip-hop producers and executives of the previous three a long time Together with the Infamous B.I.G. he labored with a slew of top-tier artists together with Mary J. Blige, Usher, Lil Kim, Religion Evans and 112.
Combs’ roles in his companies past music — together with profitable private-label spirits, a media firm and the Sean John Style line — took main hits when the allegations arose.
The results have been even better when the leaked beating video emerged. Howard College minimize ties with him, and he returned his key to the town of New York on the request of the mayor.
Combs has confronted varied arrests earlier than, and a long time in the past he was on the middle of one of many greatest hip-hop trade trials of its period.
That trial stemmed from a Manhattan nightclub capturing that injured three individuals in 1999. His then-girlfriend, singer and actor Jennifer Lopez, was additionally there when the pictures rang out.
Combs in the end was acquitted of prices that he took an unlawful gun into the membership and tried to bribe his driver to take the autumn for the weapon. His then-protégé, Shyne, was convicted of assault and different prices within the capturing and served about eight years in jail. Now going by Moses Barrow, he’s a member of the Home of Representatives in his native Belize.
Additionally in 1999, Combs was arrested on a cost of beating up a report govt in New York. Combs pleaded responsible to harassment, which is a violation, and was sentenced to an anger administration class.
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Dalton reported from Los Angeles.
Initially Printed: September 16, 2024 at 7:23 p.m.
