Sean “Diddy” Combs arrives on the LA Premiere of “The 4: Battle For Stardom” on the CBS Radford Studio Heart on Could 30, 2018, in Los Angeles.
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Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP
NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested late Monday in New York, the place he faces a sealed felony indictment, prosecutors introduced late Monday.
Particulars of the costs weren’t instantly introduced by prosecutors, however the hip-hop mogul has confronted a stream of allegations by girls in current months who accused him of sexual assault.
The U.S. lawyer in Manhattan, Damian Williams, stated in an announcement that federal brokers arrested Combs. “We anticipate to maneuver to unseal the indictment within the morning and may have extra to say at the moment.”
Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, issued an announcement saying: “We’re dissatisfied with the choice to pursue what we consider is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace.”
He added that Combs had gone to New York final week in anticipation of the costs being introduced.
“He’s an imperfect particular person, however he isn’t a felony,” Agnifilo stated.
Combs was arrested in a Manhattan lodge foyer and is in federal custody, stated an individual conversant in the arrest who spoke with The Related Press on situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to talk publicly.
The felony prices are a significant however not sudden takedown of one of the distinguished producers and most well-known names within the historical past of hip-hop.
The federal investigation of the 58-year-old Combs was revealed when Homeland Safety Investigations brokers served simultaneous search warrants and raided Combs’ mansions in Los Angeles and Miami on March 25.
His protection lawyer Aaron Dyer the day after the raids referred to as them “a gross use of military-level drive,” stated the allegations had been “meritless,” and stated Combs was “harmless and can proceed to combat” to clear his identify.
Combs, then generally known as Puff Daddy, was on the middle of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battles of the Nineties because the associate and producer of the Infamous B.I.G., who was shot and killed in 1997. However like lots 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 distinct 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 gradual stream of intercourse staff in drug-fueled settings the place a few of these concerned had 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 have interaction in pressured sexual acts in a number of jurisdictions” and by participating in “harboring and transportation of Plaintiff for functions of intercourse induced by drive, fraud, or coercion.”
It additionally stated he compelled her to assist him site visitors male intercourse staff Combs would drive Cassie to have intercourse with whereas he filmed.
The go well with was settled settled the next day, however its reverberations would final far longer. Combs misplaced lingering allies, supporters and people reserving judgment when CNN in Could aired a leaked video of him punching Cassie, kicking her and throwing her on the ground in a lodge hallway.
The next 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 used to be disgusted after I did it” and “I am disgusted now.” Cassie’s lawsuit was adopted by no less than 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 20 years in the past when she was 17.
One other lady who filed a lawsuit, April Lampros, stated she was a school scholar 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 practically the entire lawsuits’ allegations.
Whereas authorities didn’t publicly say that the lawsuits set off the felony investigation, Dyer stated when the warrants had been served that the case was primarily based 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 Information, 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 had been even better when the leaked beating video emerged. Howard College lower ties with him, and he returned his key to the town of New York on the request of the mayor.
