The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Monday (November 17) it’s investigating a new sexual battery allegation against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs. The music mogul is serving a four-year prison sentence on prostitution-related convictions. He was transferred to Fort Dix in October, and his mugshot went viral shortly afterward.
Male Producer Alleges Diddy Sexually Exposed Himself
A male music producer and publicist claims he was asked to come to a photo shoot in 2020 at a Los Angeles warehouse. His name is redacted in the police report. At the warehouse, Sean Combs allegedly exposed himself while masturbating. Diddy allegedly told the accuser to assist, according to NBC News, citing a police report. Combs then tossed a dirty shirt at the man, the producer said.
The accuser said he did not tell anyone for several years because he felt embarrassed. However, he came forward to the police in Largo, Florida. That happened on September 20.
Combs’ lawyer did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment on the latest allegations.
Producer Also Says Sean Combs Confronted Him For Being A “Snitch”
The LA County Sheriff’s Department said it received an official copy of the report from the Florida department on Friday. In response, it will be investigating the allegations. The report also details an incident from March 2021. In that incident, the accuser claims two men covered his head before Sean Combs came into the room and called him a snitch, according to NBC.
What’s The Latest On The Producer?
Sean Combs was convicted in July of flying his girlfriends and male sex workers around the country to engage in drug-fueled sexual encounters over many years. However, he was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life. He was initially set to be released in May 2028, but Page Six recently reported that officials pushed the date back to June 4, 2028.
In the meantime, he can earn reductions in his sentence through his participation in substance abuse treatment and other prison programs. Reports from last month state that he is employed at Fort Dix in the prison chapel, and is in an intense drug and rehab program.
Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is serving four years in federal prison for using prostitutes in “freak-offs,” is under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in connection with new allegations of sexual assault. A record producer alleges Combs assaulted him on two occasions.
The sheriff’s Special Victims Unit initiated the probe because one of the incidents occurred in East Los Angeles, according to Nicole Nishida, a department spokeswoman. The producer reported the incidents to police in Largo, Fla.
Florida-based music producer John Hay revealed in media interviews that he was the “John Doe” plaintiff from a civil lawsuit filed in July alleging assault.
The producer, who was not named by law enforcement investigating the allegations, alleged he was subjected to sex acts in 2020 and 2021 while working on a remix project of music by Biggie Smalls, a.k.a. Christopher Wallace, which put him into contact with Bad Boy Records and company executive Combs.
A spokesman for Combs did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment on the investigation.
The lawsuit states that, in December 2020, the producer was at a warehouse in Los Angeles that housed some of Notorious B.I.G.’s clothing. The items were being donated to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame later that year, when Biggie would eventually be inducted.
Combs “provided drugs to everyone present. Everyone there was running around the warehouse and tripping on the drugs,” the lawsuit alleges. Combs “started watching porn on his cell phone, grabbed one of Biggie’s shirts off a rack, and began to masturbate with it in front of the plaintiff,” the suit states.
Combs subsequently threw the shirt over the producer’s lap and arm, laughed and said “Rest in peace, Biggie” before leaving the room.
In an incident in March 2021, the plaintiff claims that he was set up. He states in the lawsuit he was lured to a meeting by Biggie’s son, Christopher “CJ” Wallace Jr., and music producer Willie Mack.
But upon his arrival, his head was covered, and Combs appeared and began yelling and ordered everyone to leave, the lawsuit alleges. Combs then allegedly attempted “to force plaintiff to perform oral copulation on Combs, while plaintiff’s head was still covered.”
“I’m pushing for criminal charges to be filed against Combs at a state and federal level,” Hay told ShockYa earlier this month in an interview where he stated he was the civil suit plaintiff.
According to a police report first obtained last month by People magazine, Hay reported the allegations on Sept. 20 of this year to Largo, Fla., police.
Gary Dordick, the producer’s lawyer, said “we intend to present out client’s case to a jury in California and we are confident that the truth will prevail.” Dordick said in a message to The Times that he would not comment further given that a defamation lawsuit was filed last week by Wallace.
Wallace, the son of Biggie Smalls and singer Faith Evans, sued Hay for defamation in a Florida federal court last week, calling Hay’s recent interviews “a calculated smear campaign” that included false statements that he attended Combs’ so-called freak-off parties and “conspired to lure Hay to a location where Combs purportedly assaulted him.”
An attorney for Mack could not immediately be reached for comment.
Wallace says in his defamation action that Hay worked on the remix project, titled “Ready to Dance,” with Wallace and Mack in 2020. A single was released, but the remaining songs were not, due to a lack of interest.
According to the suit, Hay was upset over the decision not to release the music he worked on and began accusing Mack of “inappropriate and abusive behavior” in 2021. But Hay never made an assault allegation, the suit claims.
Combs is currently incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution Fort Dixon, a New Jersey low-security federal penitentiary.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced Friday to four years and two months in a federal criminal case that exposed the hip-hop mogul’s use of paid sex workers for drug-fueled, sometimes violent sex parties he called “freak-offs.”
Combs, 55, was convicted in July of flying people around the country, including his girlfriends and male sex workers, to engage in sexual encounters.
He was acquitted of sex trafficking and racketeering charges that could have put him behind bars for life, but the sentence will nonetheless keep one of the biggest names in music out of the limelight and behind bars for years to come. Prosecutors had sought an 11-year sentence.
In a final word before the judge issued a sentence, Combs called his past behavior “disgusting, shameful” and “sick,” while apologizing to the people he hurt physically and mentally, as well as his children in the audience. He said his acts of domestic violence are a burden he will have to carry for the rest of his life.
Combs’ defense lawyers have argued the sexual encounters were consensual and wanted Combs freed immediately after more than a year in detention, which forced him to get sober and fueled his remorse. They played an 11-minute video in court Friday portraying Combs’ family life, career and philanthropy before his arrest.
At one point during the video, Combs put a hand on his face and began to cry, his shoulders at times heaving. Combs was expected to speak in court later Friday.
The video was part of an atypical presentation by the defense team, reflecting Combs’ unique status as a wealthy celebrity client who’s well-versed in shaping his image.
His nearly two-month trial in a federal court in Manhattan featured testimony from women who said Combs beat, threatened, sexually assaulted and blackmailed them. Prosecutor Christy Slavik told the judge that sparing Combs serious prison time would excuse years of violence.
“It’s a case about a man who did horrible things to real people to satisfy his own sexual gratification,” she said. “He didn’t need the money. His currency was control.”
Slavik also blasted Combs for allegedly booking speaking gig in South Florida next week, calling it “the height of hubris.” Defense lawyer Xavier Donaldson later said the proposed community events were meant to show what the business mogul could be doing “if the court let Mr. Combs out.”
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, who has twice denied bail, has already signaled Combs is unlikely to leave custody soon. He said acquittals did not absolve the music mogul of underlying conduct, including violence and coercion.
Several of Combs children pleaded with him for leniency.
His daughters Chance and D’Lila Combs cried as they spoke, with D’Lila saying she feared losing her father after the death of their mother, Kim Porter, in 2018. Six of Combs’ seven children addressed the judge.
“Please, your honor, please,” D’Lila said through tears, “give our family the chance to heal together, to rebuild, to change, to move forward, not as a headline, but as human beings.”
Outside the courthouse, journalists and onlookers swarmed the sidewalks as TV crews stood in a long row across the street, echoing scenes from Combs’ trial.
Combs was convicted under the Mann Act, which bans transporting people across state lines for prostitution. Defense attorney Jason Driscoll argued the law was misapplied.
During testimony at the trial, former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura told jurors that Combs ordered her to have “disgusting” sex with strangers hundreds of times during their decade Jong relationship. Jurors saw video of him dragging and beating her in a Los Angeles hotel hallway after one such multiday “freak-off.
Another woman, identified as “ Jane,” testified she was pressured into sex with male workers during drug-fueled “hotel nights” while Combs watched and sometimes filmed.
The only accuser scheduled to speak Friday, a former assistant known as “Mia,” withdrew after defense objections. She has accused Combs of raping her in 2010 and asked the judge for a sentence that reflects “the ongoing danger my abuser poses.”
Prosecutors also introduced testimony at the trial about other alleged violence. One of Cassie’s friends said Combs dangled her from 17th-floor balcony. Rapper Kid Cudi said Combs broke into his home after learning he was dating Cassie.
Another lawyer for Combs, Brian Steel, urged the judge to see the case through the prism of the “untreated trauma” and “ferocious drug addiction” that he says contributed to the hip-hop mogul’s misconduct.
“His good outweighs his bad, by far,” Steel said.
In a letter to the judge Thursday, Combs wrote: “The old me died in jail and a new version of me was reborn,” promising he would never commit another crime.
Cassie, in her own letter, described him as an abuser who “will always be the same cruel, power-hungry, manipulative man that he is.”
At a hearing last week, Combs told his mother and children he was “getting closer to going home.”
When Sean “Diddy” Combs was charged last month in a federal sex-trafficking probe, it unleashed a wave of lawsuits detailing how the music industry mogul allegedly drugged and assaulted men and women for years undeterred.
But the piecemeal allegations leveled in the criminal and civil cases stopped short of answering an essential question that’s been hinted at by attorneys, investigators and internet sleuths: Who else was involved?
This week, for the first time, celebrities other than Combs have been accused in civil lawsuits of participating in assaults during parties hosted by the Bad Boy Records founder. The stars, however, have not been identified by name.
A federal lawsuit filed this week in the Southern District of New York involves a woman, identified as Jane Doe, who says she was 13 when she was raped by Combs and a male celebrity, identified only as Celebrity A, while a female celebrity, referred to as Celebrity B in court papers, watched.
The woman alleges in the legal filing that the night of Sept. 7, 2000, began with her outside Radio City Music Hall in New York City, trying to talk her way into the Video Music Awards. She approached several limousine drivers, including one who claimed to work for Combs, she said.
“He told her that Combs liked younger girls and she ‘fit what Diddy was looking for,’” the lawsuit states. The driver invited her to an afterparty and told her to return later that night.
When she did, the driver took her to a large white house with a gated U-shaped driveway and, once inside, she was told to sign a nondisclosure agreement, the suit says. A luxurious party was unfolding inside. Waitstaff carried trays of drinks, loud music blasted throughout the house and partygoers were snorting cocaine and using marijuana, according to the lawsuit.
After finishing one drink — a concoction of orange juice, cranberry juice and something bitter — she says she began to feel lightheaded and found an empty bedroom to rest. Combs walked into the room with two celebrities. He approached her “with a crazed look in his eyes, grabbed her and said ‘You are ready to party!’” the lawsuit states.
The unnamed male celebrity raped the girl, while Combs and the unidentified female celebrity allegedly watched. Combs then raped the girl as the other two celebrities watched, according to the lawsuit.
Combs’ attorneys denied the latest allegations in a statement.
“The press conference and 1-800 number that preceded [Sunday’s] barrage of filings were clear attempts to garner publicity,” they said. “Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone — adult or minor, man or woman.”
Attorney Tony Buzbee, who is representing more than 100 people who say they were victimized by Combs, has previously vowed to name celebrities who had been involved in the alleged sexual abuse. He said during a news conference last month that the names contained in the suits would “shock.”
“Many of you came here thinking or hoping or perhaps believing that I may start naming names,” Buzbee said last month. “That day will come, but it won’t be today.”
But it hasn’t happened.
Several sources involved in representing Hollywood A-listers told The Times they feared their clients being implicated even by mere association with Combs. Many have clients who went to Combs’ parties.
Buzbee, they allege, is playing on the fear of implication. The Texas-based attorney has already claimed to have made deals with “a handful” of notable individuals who could be linked to Combs.
Buzbee did not return a phone call from The Times seeking additional comment.
David Ring, who has represented sex crime survivors in some of California’s biggest cases, said that not naming celebrities who may have been involved in wrongdoing gives the victims’ lawyers leverage to negotiate settlements.
“If they are publicly identified, the celebrity will likely dig in and deny all charges and fight until the end,” he said. “However, if they are given the opportunity to quickly settle and prevent their name from ever being announced publicly, many of them will jump at that opportunity.”
In another lawsuit Buzbee filed this week against Combs, a personal trainer identified only as John Doe alleges he was drugged and forced to perform oral sex on an unnamed male celebrity during an awards show afterparty at Combs’ house in the Hollywood Hills in June 2022.
“While in and out of consciousness, individuals at the party forced Plaintiff into sexual acts with both men and woman. Plaintiff’s physical disposition made it impossible for him to reject their advances or otherwise control his body. These individuals, including Combs, essentially passed Plaintiff’s drugged body around like a party favor for their sexual enjoyment,” the lawsuit states.
U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman ordered Buzbee this week to file a motion seeking to allow the personal trainer to proceed in the case using a pseudonym. He also required a declaration to be filed under seal “disclosing his identity and the identity of any party that is not named in the complaint to the court.”
Combs, 54, remains in custody at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has denied multiple abuse claims that have been outlined in at least 18 civil lawsuits filed against him in the past year.
The criminal case laid out by federal prosecutors alleged an extensive network that would have required multiple people to recruit victims, organize the sex performances called “freak-offs,” clean up and cover tracks to avoid outside scrutiny.
“Combs did not do this all on his own,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in announcing the charges. “He used his business and employees of that business and other close associates to get his way.”
Federal prosecutors said early this month that Combs may face a superseding indictment that would open the door to more charges for Combs and possibly other defendants.
Federal authorities possess “several terabytes of electronic data from Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs” and his empire as part of the sex trafficking and racketeering prosecution of the 54-year-old hip-hop mogul who was arrested last month, officials said.
The “voluminous” amount of data taken during discovery in the sweeping sex abuse and racketeering case against Combs was revealed in a letter filed by the U.S Atty. for the Southern District of New York and comes as Combs’ lawyers are making a third bid to get him released from a Brooklyn jail on $50 million in bonds.
The data came from more than 40 electronic devices and five cloud storage services associated with Combs. Prosecutors say they continue to seek even more data as part of the investigation. Combs’ lawyers are pushing back, demanding copies of the seized data.
In a filing with the court, Combs’ legal team also questioned how information from the grand jury indictment of Combs for sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution was leaked.
“At some point today, Mr. Combs intends to file a motion for a hearing and other remedies related to unauthorized and prejudicial leaks of grand jury information,” his lawyers noted in the filing.
Combs is accused of using his entertainment empire since as far back as 2009 to lure female victims and use violence, coercion and drugs to get women to take part in what were known as “freak off” parties — elaborate sex performances that often were recorded and sometimes lasted days. Prosecutors allege the music icon’s business network was ultimately about furthering his criminal conduct. Combs has denied any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors informed U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian that during search warrants, Homeland Security Investigations seized “several terabytes of electronic material” from cellphones, laptops, tablets, hard drives, and cloud service accounts as well as business records and physical evidence as part of its investigation into the alleged decades-long sex trafficking and forced sexual acts in the sex parties.
Federal prosecutors say they are still “copying over forty devices and the other five iCloud reports belonging to the defendant, which is expected to take several days due to the volume of the materials.”
Prosecutors told the court that their forensic team is working “expediently as possible since their seizure,” and expects to turn over the data in discovery to Combs’ attorneys “on a rolling basis by the end of the year.”
Combs lawyers, however, say they intend “to ask the Court to require the government to immediately produce certain categories of information – namely, copies of Mr. Combs’ electronic devices that were seized over six months ago.”
“The government also seized additional devices belonging to Mr. Combs at the time of his arrest about three weeks ago,” Combs’ lawyers said in the filing. “We also understand that the government is only now beginning to review and copy these electronic devices, including those that were seized in March 2024.”
Combs’ lawyers reiterated Wednesday said they want a trial as soon as possible. “Mr. Combs continues to assert his right to a speedy trial and intends to request a trial date in April or May 2025,” they told the judge.
The investigation involves more than 50 witnesses and 300 warrants all of which unfolded since last fall, when Combs’ former girlfriend, Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura, filed a lawsuit against him alleging sex abuse and sex trafficking. Combs settled the suit with significant payout within 24 hours, according to his lawyers.
Howard University trustees on Friday voted to rescind an honorary degree granted to Sean “Diddy” Combs, citing a recently surfaced video of the hip-hop mogul repeatedly attacking Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
Trustees of the Washington, D.C., university also disbanded a scholarship in Combs’ name and terminated a 2016 “gift agreement” in which Combs had contributed $1 million through his foundation, according to a university statement. His foundation’s future financial pledges have also been canceled.
The university, which Combs attended, said the vote “to accept the return … of the honorary degree conferred upon him in 2014” was unanimous.
“Mr. Combs’ behavior as captured in a recently released video is so fundamentally incompatible with Howard University’s core values and beliefs that he is deemed no longer worthy to hold the institution’s highest honor,” the statement continued. “The university is unwavering in its opposition to all acts of interpersonal violence.”
Friday’s decision is the latest setback for Combs, and comes as federal prosecutors in New York are considering whether a Homeland Security Investigations probe into alleged sex trafficking should result in criminal charges.
In the 2016 video, obtained and published by CNN last month, Combs is seen chasing, kicking, dragging and hurling a glass vase at Ventura, who was his girlfriend at the time. The video seemed to confirm at least some of the physical abuse allegations against the singer detailed in a lawsuit filed in November — accusations Combs had denied.
That lawsuit was settled a day after it was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In it, Ventura alleged that Combs “became extremely intoxicated and punched” her in the face, “giving her a black eye” during an attack in March 2016.
In a video statement posted on Instagram days after the video’s release, Combs said, “My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.”
“I was disgusted then when I did it. I’m disgusted now,” he added. “I went and I sought out professional help. I got into going to therapy, going to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I’m so sorry. But I’m committed to be a better man each and every day. I’m not asking for forgiveness. I’m truly sorry.”
Federal prosecutors are preparing grand jury subpoenas for witnesses to testify in the sex-trafficking investigation against Combs, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Investigators have already interviewed several witnesses and told them to be prepared to testify, the source said, though it remains unclear when that testimony will occur or how far federal officials are in determining whether to bring charges. The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing.
Combs has not been charged with any crime and has denied any wrongdoing. The probe was launched after three women, including Ventura, accused him of rape, assault and other abuses dating back three decades.
In March, investigators searching Combs’ Holmby Hills mansion emptied safes, dismantled electronics and left papers strewn in some rooms, sources told The Times.
Combs’ lawyers have strongly criticized the federal probe, calling the searches of his homes “militarized” and a “witch hunt.”
He was convicted not only of sex trafficking but also of racketeering — charges that specify a person’s “enterprise” was used to carry out criminal conduct.
Sean “Diddy” Combs now faces a similar federal investigation, though the accusations against him are significantly different and it remains unclear whether they will result in criminal charges.
Authorities have said little about the probe. But law enforcement sources have confirmed to The Times that Combs is under investigation for sex-trafficking tied at least in part to civil lawsuits filed by several women who have accused him of misconduct.
Combs has denied any wrongdoing, and his attorneys have slammed the investigation as unwarranted.
After federal agents searched the artist’s homes in Florida and Los Angeles several weeks ago, his attorney decried a “premature rush to judgment of Mr. Combs” and said the investigation “is nothing more than a witch hunt based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”
Still, previous high-profile sex-trafficking cases could offer a window into how the feds typically build a case and can provide clues into what officials would need to bring charges.
“The playbook for these types of cases is R. Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein, Larry Ray and NXIVM’s founder Keith Raniere,” said Elizabeth Geddes, who delivered a six-hour closing argument in Kelly’s conviction.
Since then, three other women have sued Combs, accusing him of rape, sex trafficking, assault and other abuses. One of the allegations involved a minor. A male producer also has sued him over unwanted sexual contact.
Geddes, who is not involved in the Combs case, said she believes Ventura might have been the trigger for the federal investigation.
She said the docuseries about Kelly spurred the Eastern District of New York to act — and that type of high-level investigation often requires an outside catalyst. In Kelly’s case, he had been acquitted in 2008 and as a result, many of his accusers lost confidence in law enforcement. But the documentary re-engaged authorities.
“Nothing puts pressure on law enforcement like a front-page story on the major newspaper in the city,” Geddes said.
Combs’ investigation, led by Homeland Security, is several months old, according to sources, and many connected to the case — including accusers and alleged witnesses — have already been interviewed.
Geddes said Homeland Security Investigations also worked the Kelly case, and its agents tend to have years of experience working with sex-trafficking victims.
She said sex trafficking requires either “force, fraud or coercion to cause a person to engage in a commercial sex act” or the trafficking of minors under 18.
“There is no statute of limitations,” Geddes said, and the key law enacted in the 2000s applies to acts from 2001 forward.
Geddes said that in addition to the sex charges against Kelly, she and her colleagues secured a racketeering indictment against the singer. The charge has famously been applied to mob bosses like John Gotti and James “Whitey” Bulger.
In racketeering cases, Geddes said, the “enterprise” carries out illegal conduct and prosecutors seek to show a broader pattern of conduct that stretches over years and involves many participants. A racketeering case also allows multiple victims’ narratives in one trial.
A law enforcement agent carries a bag of evidence as federal agents stand at the entrance to a property belonging to Sean “Diddy” Combs in Miami on March 25.
(Rebecca Blackwell / Associated Press)
But it is unclear what evidence the feds have against Combs and whether there is enough to bring charges.
Few details are available, other than sources saying investigators left his two homes with electronics, data devices and other records.
Legal experts have told The Times that evidence in sex-trafficking cases must be extensive as such charges can be hard to prove.
“Sex trafficking for adults usually involves some sort of coercion or other restraints,” L.A. defense attorney Dmitry Gorin said. Prosecutors would need to show you “encouraged somebody to engage in sexual activity for money or some other inducement.”
Aaron Dyer, one of Combs’ lawyers, stressed in a statement released after the raids that “there has been no finding of criminal or civil liability with any of these allegations.”
The mother of Combs’ son Justin Dior Combs also slammed the investigation and the raids.
“The overzealous and overtly militarized force used against my sons Justin and Christian is deplorable,” designer Misa Hylton said after releasing video showing federal agents dressed in military gear pointing a gun at Combs’ sons. “If these were the sons of a non-Black celebrity, they would not have been handled with the same aggression. The attempt to humiliate and terrorize these innocent young Black men is despicable!”
Federal sex-trafficking and sexual assault laws also allow prosecutors to present evidence that shows a modus operandi.
“In the R. Kelly trial, several women testified about what Kelly did to them as part of a pattern of behavior. It is very much the same thing people saw in Harvey Weinstein’s prosecution,” Geddes said.
If prosecutors do file charges against Combs, they also could allege the use of forced labor under threat, Geddes said. Ventura, Combs’ former girlfriend, alleged she was forced into sex acts with other men and suffered physical harm for complaining. If true, this could be considered forced labor, Geddes said.
Kelly was convicted of eight counts of the Mann Act, which was passed in 1910 and sought to criminalize what’s now known as human trafficking. The law initially banned transporting a woman or girl across state lines “for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.”
The Mann Act now covers transportation across state lines “with [the] intent that such individual engages in prostitution, or in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense.”
In the allegations against Combs, one woman said she was brought from Detroit as a 17-year-old to Combs’ studios so he could rape her along with his cohorts, Geddes said.
Before the highly publicized searches of Combs’ properties were executed, Geddes said, prosecutors and HSI agents had to “have made some headway into the investigations.”
“What we can say at this stage is there was enough probable cause to convince a magistrate to issue a search warrant,” she said. “Before getting such a warrant, agents have typically interviewed multiple witnesses.”
Geddes said those types of searches typically seek corroboration of evidence because high-profile individuals tend to work with others to commit such crimes. In Kelly’s case, Geddes said, his storage facility proved to be a goldmine. He kept message slips, handwritten notations and emails to pick up women and girls. And there were “videos, lots of videos,” she said.
“We had so much evidence presented in Kelly, it was hard to fit it all into the closing,” Geddes said. “He used his money and public persona to hide his crimes in plain sight,” she told jurors at the time.
Homeland Security agents conducted searches of Holmby Hills and Miami mansions owned by Sean “Diddy” Combs on Monday as part of a federal inquiry into sex trafficking allegations involving the hip-hop and liquor mogul, law enforcement sources said.
The 17,000-square-foot mansion where Combs debuted his last album a year ago was flooded with Homeland Security Investigations agents, who served a search warrant and gathered evidence on behalf of an investigation being run by the prosecutors in the Southern District of New York, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the inquiry.
“Earlier today, Homeland Security Investigations New York executed law enforcement actions as part of an ongoing investigation, with assistance from HSI Los Angeles, HSI Miami, and our local law enforcement partners. We will provide further information as it becomes available,” an HSI spokesman said in a statement.
Two of Combs’ sons were seen being detained on the Holmby Hills property as agents searched the mansion in footage captured by FOX11 Los Angeles
Shawn Holley, an attorney for Combs, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A hip-hop star turned entrepreneur, Combs has become the focus of sexual assault and sex trafficking allegations in the last year. The raid is the latest and most serious threat to his gilded lifestyle.
Four separate plaintiffs have filed civil lawsuits against Combs accusing him of rape, sex trafficking a minor, assault and a litany of other alleged abuses, imperiling his empire and sending shock waves through the music industry.
Combs, 54, amassed his fortune first as a hip-hop producer, artist and founder of Bad Boy Entertainment, the label that launched the career of the late Notorious B.I.G., among others. He’d later added lucrative fashion and liquor companies to his ventures, most notably Sean John and Cîroc vodka.
His former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, the singer known as Cassie, accused him of rape and repeated physical assaults, and said he forced her to have sex with male prostitutes in front of him. Joi Dickerson-Neal accused Combs in a suit of drugging and raping her in 1991, recording the attack and then distributing the footage without her consent.
Liza Gardner filed a third suit in which she claimed Combs and Guy singer Aaron Hall sexually assaulted her. Hall could not be reached for comment.
The most recent suit alleges Combs and former Bad Boy label president Harve Pierre gang-raped and sex-trafficked a 17-year-old girl. Pierre said in a statement the allegations were “disgusting,” “false” and a “desperate attempt for financial gain.”
Following the filing of the fourth suit, Combs wrote on Instagram, “Enough is enough. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
On Monday, Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for Cassie Ventura and another, unnamed plaintiff, said in response to reports of a search warrant issued on Combs: “We will always support law enforcement when it seeks to prosecute those that have violated the law. Hopefully, this is the beginning of a process that will hold Mr. Combs responsible for his depraved conduct.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs and R&B singer Cassie reached a settlement Friday in an incendiary lawsuit she filed the day before accusing the mogul and entrepreneur of rape and a “cycle of abuse” during their decade-plus relationship.
No details of the settlement were released, though Combs’ attorney previously accused Cassie of seeking an eight-figure payout in recent months. Combs had denied the allegations through his attorney.
Cassie dated the famed hip-hop producer for about 11 years before they split in 2018. She filed her sex trafficking and sexual assault lawsuit against him in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York just days before the expiration of a “lookback window” that allowed adults who alleged they were sexually abused to sue despite the statute of limitations having run out.
“I have decided to resolve this matter amicably on terms that I have some level of control,” the singer, who sued under her legal name Casandra Ventura, said in a statement issued through her legal team. “I want to thank my family, fans and lawyers for their unwavering support.”
Combs issued a similar statement, saying, “We have decided to resolve this matter amicably. I wish Cassie and her family all the best. Love.”
Ventura’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, said he was “very proud of Ms. Ventura for having the strength to go public with her lawsuit. She ought to be commended for doing so.”
In the lawsuit, the 37-year-old Ventura accused Combs, 54, of raping her in her home after she tried to leave him; physically attacking and injuring her; forcing her to engage in sex acts with male sex workers while filming the encounters; running around with a firearm; introducing her to “a lifestyle of excessive alcohol and substance abuse”; and requiring her “to procure illicit prescriptions to satisfy his own addictions.”
According to the lawsuit, Ventura met Combs in 2005, when she was 19 and he was 37. After signing her to his label, the suit alleges, Combs took control of her professional and personal life, and began sexual and physically abusing her with increasing frequency.
“He signed her to his label, Bad Boy Records, and within a few years, lured Ms. Ventura into an ostentatious, fast-paced and drug-fueled lifestyle, and into a romantic relationship with him — her boss, one of the most powerful men in the entertainment industry, and a vicious, cruel, and controlling man nearly two decades her senior,” the lawsuit said.
Diddy’s lawyer, Ben Brafman, said in a statement to The Times Thursday that his client “vehemently” denied the “offensive and outrageous allegations” and accused Ventura of being “persistent” in demanding more than $30 million from Diddy for the last six months.
Brafman added that the lawsuit — which also named Combs’ businesses Bad Boy Entertainment and Bad Boy Records among the defendants, as well as Epic Records and Combs Enterprises LLC — was “riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’ reputation and seeking a payday.”
Times staff writers Nardine Saad, Emily St. Martin and Stacy Perman contributed to this report.
Resources for survivors of sexual assault
If you or someone you know is the victim of sexual violence, you can find support using RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline. Call (800) 656-HOPE or visit online.rainn.org to speak with a trained support specialist.
