Judge delays decision on bail for Sean 'Diddy' Combs until next week
Diddy back in court: Judge delays bail decision
Sean "Diddy" Combs returned to federal court in Lower Manhattan for a heated bail hearing as prosecutors argued to keep him behind bars. His defense team proposed a $50 million bail package, including house arrest, but the judge deferred a decision, asking both sides for additional information. FOX 5's Lisa Evers has the story.
NEW YORK - Lawyers for Sean "Diddy" Combs tried for a third time Friday to persuade a judge to let him leave jail while he awaits his sex trafficking trial, but a decision won’t come until next week.
Judge Arun Subramanian said at a hearing that he will release his decision on Combs' latest request for bail after Combs’ lawyers and federal prosecutors file letters addressing outstanding issues. Those letters are due at noon on Monday, Subramanian said.
Combs’ lawyers pitched having him await trial under around-the-clock surveillance either his mansion on an island near Miami Beach or — after the judge scoffed at that location — an apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Their plan essentially amounts to putting Combs on house arrest, with strict limits on who he has contact with. But prosecutors argue that Combs has routinely flouted jail rules and can't be trusted not to interfere with witnesses or the judicial process.
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"The argument that he’s a lawless person who doesn’t follow instructions isn’t factually accurate," Combs lawyer Anthony Ricco argued. "The idea that he’s an out-of-control individual who has to be detained isn’t factually accurate."
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he coerced and abused women for years with help from a network of associates and employees while silencing victims through blackmail and violence, including kidnapping, arson and physical beatings. His trial is slated to begin May 5.
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The Bad Boy Records founder remains locked up at a Brooklyn federal jail, where he spent his Nov. 4 birthday.
Two other judges previously concluded that Combs would be a danger to the community if he is released and an appeals court judge last month denied Combs’ immediate release while a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals weighs his bail request.
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Combs' lawyers have accusing federal prosecutors of editing video to falsely depict him assaulting Cassie Ventura and claim that agents illegally seized privileged materials from his Brooklyn jail cell, which should be protected under attorney-client privilege.
They claim the raid, supposedly to seize drugs and weapons, was actually a cover to inspect personal legal notes. Prosecutors admitted to taking photos of 19 pages of these notes.
On Tuesday, a judge blocked prosecutors from using as evidence papers that were seized from his cell during jail-wide sweep for contraband and weapons at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
When will Diddy be released?
Two judges have concluded that Combs would be a threat to the community if released.
At a bail hearing last month, a $50 million bail offer, including home detention and electronic monitoring, was denied after concerns that Combs could interfere with witnesses and obstruct the investigation.
'What did Diddy do?'
In a blistering 3-count indictment, Diddy is accused of running an enterprise to fulfill his sexual desires.
From around 2008 and for years, he allegedly assaulted women by striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects, and kicking them.
The indictment claims he operated under "The Combs Enterprise," which includes Bad Boy Entertainment, Combs Enterprises, and Combs Global, involving individuals and activities affecting interstate and foreign commerce.
It also details Diddy's "Freak Off parties," where he and his associates allegedly lured female victims and then coerced them into sex acts with commercial sex workers.
Diddy faces racketeering, sex trafficking by force, and transportation to engage in prostitution charges.
Diddy, 55, also faces potential litigation in a handful of civil suits and one criminal lawsuit.
With the Associated Press.