Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs returns to jail while judge considers bail bid

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sean “Diddy” Combs will remain in custody for at least several more days as a U.S. judge considers his bid for $50 million bail to be released from a Brooklyn jail where the music mogul has spent 10 weeks held .

After a nearly two-hour hearing in Manhattan federal court, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said Friday he would rule “immediately” on Combs’ bid for home confinement.

Combs’ lawyers proposed a bail package this month, backed by his $48 million Florida mansion. It also called for Combs to be monitored 24 hours a day by security personnel and to have no contact with alleged victims or witnesses.

Combs has been denied bail three times since his arrest, with multiple judges citing the risk he could tamper with witnesses. The rapper and producer pleaded not guilty on September 17 to charges that he used his business empire, including his record label Bad Boy Entertainment, to sexually abuse women.

During the hearing, defense attorney Marc Agnifilo disputed prosecutors’ claim that a 2016 hotel surveillance video of Combs attacking his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, known as Cassie, showed there was a risk he would act violently if released.

“The chance of that happening is zero percent,” Agnifilo said.

Combs apologized in May after CNN aired the video of him kicking, pushing and dragging Cassie in a hotel hallway. Agnifilo said he never denied the incident, but said the video was not evidence of sex trafficking.

“It is our defense against these allegations that this was a toxic, loving relationship of 11 years,” Agnifilo told the court.

Previously, prosecutor Christine Slavik said Combs tried to bribe hotel staff to remove the surveillance footage, showing he was determined to illegally cover up his crimes.

Even behind bars at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Combs had communicated with his attorneys through unauthorized channels and tried to mount a social media campaign to convince potential jurors, Slavik said.

“The defendant here has demonstrated that he cannot or will not follow the rules,” Slavik said. “The defendant, simply put, cannot be trusted.”

Regarding Combs’ attempted social media campaign, attorney Alexandra Shapiro said he had the right to respond to reporting about the case that could portray him unfavorably to potential jurors.

As Combs was led to the hearing by the U.S. Marshals Service, he, dressed in a beige prison outfit, blew kisses to his family who sat in the second row of the audience in the courtroom.

COMBS DENIES wrongdoing

Prosecutors said the abuse included women participating in recorded sexual performances, so-called “freak offs,” with male sex workers who were sometimes transported across state lines.

Combs, 55, has denied wrongdoing, and his lawyers have argued that the sexual activity described by prosecutors was consensual.

Combs’ attorneys questioned why prison time was necessary when federal prosecutors in Brooklyn last month allowed the pretrial release of a $10 million bond from former Abercrombie and Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries, who has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, which filed the charges against Combs, countered that Jeffries is 80 years old and has no criminal record, while Combs has been arrested before.

They also said federal agents recovered rifles with defaced serial numbers from Combs’ homes.

This week, Subramanian ordered prosecutors to destroy their copies of handwritten notes that Combs took into jail, pending a decision on whether they were covered by attorney-client privilege.

A government investigator photographed the notes during a search of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Combs has been held.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Rod Nickel)