Sean “Diddy” Combs is staying locked up after a judge rejected the hip-hop mogul’s proposal that he await his sex trafficking trial in the luxury of his Florida mansion instead of a grim Brooklyn federal jail.
US District Judge Andrew L Carter on Wednesday ruled that Combs' plan - which included a $US50 million ($A74 million) bail offer, GPS monitoring and strict limitations on visitors - was “insufficient” to ensure the safety of the community and the integrity of his case.
Carter, agreeing with prosecutors who fought to keep Combs in jail, found that "no condition or set of conditions” governing his release could guard against the risk of him threatening or harming witnesses - a central charge in his case.
Combs' lawyers were making their second attempt in as many days to release him from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he has been held in the special housing unit since pleading not guilty on Tuesday to charges he physically and sexually abused women for years.
A federal magistrate rejected Combs' initial request for bail on Tuesday. On Wednesday, he and his lawyers struck out with Carter, the judge who will preside over his trial.
An indictment accuses Combs, 54, of using his “power and prestige” to induce female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs” that Combs arranged, participated in and often recorded. The events would sometimes last days, the indictment said.
The indictment alleges he coerced and abused women for years, with the help of a network of associates and employees, while using blackmail and violent acts including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings to keep victims from speaking out.
Combs has been in federal custody since his arrest on Monday night at a Manhattan hotel.
Arguing to keep him locked up, prosecutor Emily Johnson told Carter that the once-celebrated rapper has a long history of intimidating both accusers and witnesses to his alleged abuse. She cited text messages from women who said Combs forced them into “Freak Offs” and then threatened to leak videos of them engaging in sex acts.
Johnson said Combs' defence team was “minimising and horrifically understating" Combs' propensity for violence, taking issue with his lawyer's portrayal of a 2016 assault at a Los Angeles hotel as a lovers’ quarrel. Security video of the event showed Combs hitting his then-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, in a hotel hallway.
Johnson seized on a text message from a woman who said Combs dragged her down a hallway by her hair. According to Johnson, the woman told the rapper: “I’m not a rag doll, I’m someone’s child.”
Combs is a “danger to the community and poses a serious risk to the integrity” of his case, Johnson argued.
If he had been granted bail, Combs would have had to stay in that house while awaiting trial, according to the offer from his lawyers. Visits would be restricted to family, property caretakers and friends who are not considered co-conspirators, they said.
In March, authorities raided Combs' luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami, seizing narcotics, videos and more than 1000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecutors. They said agents also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers.
A conviction on every charge in the indictment would require a mandatory 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence.
