Sean "Diddy" Combs was headed to jail Tuesday to await trial in his federal sex trafficking case, after a judge ordered him to be held without bail in a case that accuses him of presiding over a sordid empire of sexual crimes.
The music mogul pleaded not guilty Tuesday in Washington, D.C., to racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. He's accused of inducing female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, sometimes dayslong sexual performances dubbed "Freak Offs." The indictment against him also refers obliquely to an attack on his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, that was captured on video.
Prosecutors wanted him jailed. His attorneys proposed that he be released on a $50 million bond to home detention with electronic monitoring. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky sided with the government.
Combs, 54, was led out of court without being handcuffed.
The Bad Boy Records founder is accused of striking, punching and dragging women, throwing objects, and kicking them – and getting his personal assistants, security and household staff to help him hide it all.
"Not guilty," Combs told a court, standing to speak after listening to the allegations with his uncuffed hands folded in his lap.
Federal prosecutors called Combs dangerous.
"Mr. Combs physically and sexually abused victims for decades. He used the vast resources of his company to facilitate his abuse and cover up his crimes. Simply put, he is a serial abuser and a serial obstructor," Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told the court. She also said he had an "extensive and exhaustive history of obstruction of justice," including alleged bribery and witness intimidation.
Combs' attorney, Marc Agnifilo, acknowledged Combs was "not a perfect person."
"There has been drug use. He has been in toxic relationships," Agnifilo told the court. He said Combs was receiving "treatment and therapy for things that he needs treatment and therapy for."
Agnifilo had said outside court earlier that Combs is innocent, and he argued in court that "the evidence in this case is extremely problematic."
He maintained the case stemmed from one long-term, consensual relationship that faltered amid infidelity. He didn't name the woman, but the details matched those of Combs' decade-long involvement with Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura.
The "Freak Offs," Agnifilo contended, were an expansion of that relationship, and not coercive.
"Is it sex trafficking? Not if everybody wants to be there," Agnifilo said, arguing that authorities were intruding on his client's private life.
Prosecutors, however, said in court papers that they interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses and expect the number to grow. They said they would use financial, travel and billing records, electronic data and communications and videos of the "Freak Offs" to prove their case.
Combs nodded at times as his attorneys spoke and occasionally leaned over to converse with them when they were not. The impresario watched other parts of the proceeding expressionlessly, looking straight ahead.
Combs was arrested late Monday in Manhattan, roughly six months after federal authorities conducting a sex trafficking investigation, raiding his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami.
A conviction on every charge in the indictment would require a mandatory 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence.
The indictment describes Combs as the head of a criminal enterprise that engaged or attempted to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.
In a court filing, prosecutors accused Combs and an unidentified co-conspirator of kidnapping someone at gunpoint a few days before Christmas in 2011 in order to facilitate a break-in at another person's home. Two weeks later, they wrote, Combs set fire to someone's vehicle by slicing open its convertible top and dropping in a Molotov cocktail.
All of this, prosecutors alleged, was happening behind the facade of Combs' global music, lifestyle and clothing business.