Sean “Diddy” Combs will remain in custody ahead of his sentencing on prostitution offenses, a Manhattan judge ordered Monday in denying his latest request for bail.
Federal Judge Arun Subramanian said Combs’ request, which asked the court to free him to house arrest in Miami, Fla., on a $50 million bond ahead of his Oct. 3 sentencing, did not lay out exceptional circumstances warranting his release and failed to prove he did not pose a risk of flight or a danger to the community.
The rapper has been held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since his September arrest.
“Combs fails to meet his burden by clear and convincing evidence,” Subramanian wrote. “Increasing the amount of the bond or devising additional conditions doesn’t change the calculus given the circumstances and heavy burden of proof that Combs bears.”
Combs, 55, was found guilty on July 2 of two counts of transporting people for prostitution in violation of the federal Mann Act, each of which carries a maximum prison term of 10 years.
The hip-hop entrepreneur was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have carried a life sentence. Prosecutors initially said federal guidelines suggested Combs should serve four to five years in prison, but last week indicated they’d seek a substantially higher term than that.
In his latest motion for bail, the rap mogul argued that the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office had misapplied the Mann Act charges and criminalized an innocent “swingers’ lifestyle,” saying Combs was the only “john” being held in a U.S. prison for hiring male escorts for him and his girlfriends.
His lawyers said the sordid, so-called “freak off” sessions where jurors heard he directed male performers to engage in sex acts with his partners — usually while he watched, masturbated, and filmed — were the equivalent of “amateur pornography” made for private viewing.
Prosecutors pushed back on that framing Friday, saying Combs was no “ordinary john” but an overtly violent person who held debased sex parties where participants were drugged and brutalized. They said the law was clear that his continued detention was mandatory under the Bail Reform Act.
“Combs’s Mann Act arguments might have traction in a case that didn’t involve evidence of violence, coercion, or subjugation in connection with the acts of prostitution at issue, but the record here contains evidence of all three,” the judge’s Monday order said.
After Combs was found guilty but acquitted of the more serious charges, the judge declined to release him, citing admissions his lawyers made during the case about his history of assaulting women. They had argued that he wasn’t charged with such, and the evidence of beatings had no bearing on the crimes in the indictment.
Lawyers and reps for Combs did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment.
Originally Published:
