NEW YORK– Sean “Diddy” Combs was denied bail Wednesday ahead of a May sex trafficking trial by a judge who presented evidence showing he posed a “serious risk” for witness tampering and banned evidence he attempted while in captivity conceal communications with third parties.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian ruled last week in a five-page order after a bail hearing. During the hearing, the hip-hop mogul’s lawyers argued that a $50 million bail package they proposed would be enough to ensure Combs does not flee or try to intimidate future witnesses.
Two other judges previously agreed with prosecutors that the Bad Boy Records founder would be a danger to the community if he is not behind bars. Subramanian agreed.
“There is compelling evidence of Combs’ propensity for violence,” Subramanian wrote.
Attorneys for Combs did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on the decision. Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for prosecutors, declined comment.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty accuses him of coercing and abusing women been helped by employees and collaborators for years. An indictment alleges he silenced victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical abuse.
A federal appeals court judge last month denied Combs’ immediate release while a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan considers his bail request. That appeal was put on hold while Subramanian, newly appointed to the case after a previous judge stepped aside, considered the bail application for the first time.
Subramanian said he looked again at all the bail arguments and the evidence to make his decision.
Prosecutors have emphasized that no amount of bail would be enough to protect the public and prevent the “I’ll Be Missing You” singer from fleeing.
They say that even in a federal lockup in Brooklyn, Combs has orchestrated social media campaigns intended to influence potential jurors and attempted to publicly leak material he believes could help his case. They say he also contacted potential witnesses through third parties.
Attorneys for Combs say that any alleged sexual abuse detailed in the indictment occurred during consensual relationships between adults and that new evidence refutes allegations that Combs is “power and prestige” induce female victims in drugged, elaborately produced sexual performances with male sex workers, known as ‘Freak Offs’.
Subramanian said evidence shows Combs poses a “serious risk of witness tampering,” especially after he communicated with a grand jury witness last summer and deleted some of his texts with the witness.
The judge also cited evidence showing that Combs violated Bureau of Prisons rules while in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn when he paid other inmates to use their phone numbers so he could call individuals who did not answer his approved contact list.
He said there was also evidence that he had instructed family members and counsel to add other people to three-way calls so their communications would be harder to trace, and that he had made efforts to influence his trial’s jury pool or to deter potential reach witnesses.
Subramanian said his “willingness to circumvent prison rules to conceal communications” was “strong evidence” that any conditions of release would not prevent similar behavior.
The judge said defense claims that Combs stopped using a particular phone technique criticized by prosecutors were belied by the fact that Combs apparently used it again on Sunday, two days after his bail hearing last week.
Even a bail proposal that would include the strictest form of house arrest seemed insufficient, the judge said.
“Given the nature of the allegations in this case and the information provided by the government, the Court questions the adequacy of any conditions placing reliance on Combs and individuals in his employ – such as a private security detail – to meet those conditions,” Subramanian wrote.