Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is expected in court after New York indictment
NEW YORK — NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Kammen was scheduled to appear before a federal judge in New York on Tuesday after being arraigned on unspecified criminal charges.
The music mogul was arrested Monday evening in Manhattan, about six months after federal authorities launched a sex trafficking investigation his luxurious homes have been robbed in Los Angeles and Miami.
According to US Attorney Damian Williams, the charges are expected to be made public on Tuesday morning.
Over the past year, Combs has has been sued by people who say he physically or sexually abused them. He has denied many of the allegations, and his attorney, Marc Agnifilo, called the new charges an “unjust prosecution.”
“He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal,” Agnifilo said in a statement Monday night.
Combs, 54, was considered one of the most influential figures in hip-hop until a flurry of allegations over the past year made him a pariah in the hip-hop industry.
In November his ex-girlfriend, the R&B-singer Cassiewhose legal name is Casandra Ventura, has filed a lawsuit saying he had beaten and raped her for yearsShe accused Combs of forcing her and others into unwanted sex in drug-fueled settings.
The suit was arranged in one day but months later CNN aired hotel security footage showing Combs hitting and kicking Cassie and throw her to the floor. After the video aired, Combs apologizedand said, “I felt disgusted when I did it.”
However, Combs and his attorneys denied similar allegations made by others in a series of lawsuits.
Douglas Wigdor, an attorney for Cassie, said in a statement Tuesday that “neither Ms. Ventura nor I have any comment.”
“We appreciate your understanding and if that changes, we will certainly let you know,” he added.
A woman said Combs raped her twenty years ago when she was 17. A music producer filed a lawsuit because Combs forced him to have sex with prostitutes. Another woman, April Lampros, said Combs subjected her to “terrifying sexual encounters” beginning when she was a college student in 1994.
Normally, the AP does not name people who say they were sexually abused unless they report it publicly, as Cassie and Lampros did.
Combs, the founder of Bad Boy Records, has gotten out of legal trouble before.
In 2001, he was acquitted of charges related to a shooting at a Manhattan nightclub two years earlier, in which three people were injured. His then-protégé, Shyne, was convicted of assault and other charges and served about eight years in prison.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that Combs is 54 years old, not 58.
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Andrew Dalton, an Associated Press editor in Los Angeles, contributed to this report.