Sean “Diddy” Combs pleads not guilty against accusations of ‘freak offs’

NEW YORK: Rapper, record producer, and record executive Sean “Diddy” Combs has pleaded not guilty in a court appearance on Tuesday after being charged with racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution.

Arrest

Comb’s history of verbal and physical abuse against women began as early as 2008. Now, the hip-hop musician faces a sentence of 15 years after being arrested in New York at the Park Hyatt Hotel. Combs is being remanded in custody at the prosecutors request as they called him “a serious flight risk”.

Criminal Enterprise

Court documents detailed Combs acts in which he coerced women and others around him for his sexual desires. In what is being labelled ‘freak offs’, Combs would arrange and direct sex performances between his victims and male sex workers for his pleasure.

The women and sex workers were reportedly drugged in order to keep them compliant. These encounters would be recorded and later used as blackmail for the participants silence.

These incidences were part of Comb’s alleged criminal enterprise, in which he also is said to have engaged in kidnapping, arson, and bribery, along with forced labour, prostitution-related coercion, and sex trafficking.

Coercion

The indictment also implicated Combs security and household staff, personal assistants and other supervisors. They are said to have worked to preserve Combs’ power through the use of violent threats which include the use of firearms to intimidate. Other facets of his coercive strategy included leveraging participant’s careers and his financial support.

Comb’s defence lawyer stated that while the rapper is not a perfect person, citing his use of drugs and involvement in toxic relationships, he was not involved in sex trafficking. Angifilo stated that the acts were consensual that “we believe in him wholeheartedly.”

The warm tradition of ‘suspended coffee’