NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs used his fame as one of hip-hop’s biggest names to coerce women into demeaning sexual acts as part of a long-running scheme of sex trafficking and racketeering, prosecutors said on Tuesday in bringing three criminal charges against him. Combs, 54, pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court hours after the 14-page indictment was unsealed. U.
S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky denied bail for Combs, granting a prosecution request for continued detention before trial following the music mogul’s arrest on Monday. The rapper and producer used his business empire including his record label Bad Boy Entertainment to transport women, as well as male sex workers, across state lines to take part in recorded sexual performances called “Freak Offs” in which the music mogul would watch and masturbate, prosecutors said.
In a possible preview of defense strategy, Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo called the sexual activity described by prosecutors consensual. “Does everybody have experience with being intimate this way? No. Is it sex trafficking? No.
Not if everybody wants to be there,” Agnifilo told the judge. Combs faces a sentence of up to life in prison, and a minimum of 15 years, if convicted of the three felony counts: racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. Prosecutors said Combs enticed women by giving them drugs such as ketamine and ecstasy, financial support, or promises of career support .