(New York) Rapper and powerful hip-hop producer Sean “Diddy” Combs remains in jail following his indictment and incarceration Tuesday in New York on sex trafficking charges, a federal court ruled Wednesday.
Judge Andrew Carter rejected the artist’s lawyers’ appeal to have him question his pretrial detention despite a bail offer of $50 million, the value of one of his Miami residences.
Sean Combs is accused by the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office of having used his “empire” at the service of a violent sex trafficking system.
“It didn’t go our way,” his lawyer Marc Agnifilo lamented to the press after the appeal hearing, promising to continue to demand bail and a criminal trial “as soon as possible.”
Arrested Monday evening in Manhattan, Sean Combs, 54, has been the target of multiple complaints of sexual assault for several months and pleaded “not guilty” on Tuesday to charges of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and extortion.
But Judge Robyn Tarnofsky ordered him detained, citing concerns that such “crimes that take place behind closed doors” would continue.
An artist with multiple nicknames and roles in the music and business worlds, P. Diddy is described by his alleged victims as a violent sexual predator who used alcohol and drugs to gain their submission.
“For decades,” Sean Combs, aka “Puff Daddy,” “abused, threatened and coerced women and others around him to satisfy his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his actions,” according to the indictment.
The rapper’s luxury homes in Miami and Los Angeles were raided in March in a high-profile operation that raised the possibility of a federal investigation and criminal case looming.
Under the nicknames Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, or Diddy, he established himself as a figure in East Coast hip-hop, both on the microphone and as a producer. He has amassed immense wealth over the decades, thanks also to his activities in the alcohol industry.