Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs asks to be allowed to stay at home while awaiting trial

Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs asked a judge on Wednesday to let him await his sex trafficking trial at his luxury home on an island near Miami Beach, rather than a federal jail in Brooklyn.

Combs’ lawyers offered a 50 million US dollars (£38 million) bail package – using his mansion as collateral – in exchange for releasing him to home detention with GPS monitoring.

A hearing on the request was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. On Tuesday, a US magistrate judge in Manhattan ordered Combs held without bail.

The hip-hop mogul whose career blossomed in the 1990s was arrested on Monday on charges contained in an indictment that accuses Combs of using his “power and prestige” for “sex trafficking, forced labour, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offences, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice”.

It describes the inducement of female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs” that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during and often recorded.

The events would sometimes last days and require IVs to recover from, the indictment said.

It alleges he coerced and abused women for years while using blackmail, including the videos he shot, and shocking acts of violence to keep his victims in line, co-ordinated and facilitated from the top down by a network of associates and employees.

Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, submitted a letter to Judge Andrew L Carter on Wednesday seeking the release of Combs, 54, on conditions including home detention with GPS monitoring, along with a restriction on all visitors to his residences except for family, property caretakers and friends who are not considered co-conspirators.

Combs’ house is on Star Island, a man-made dollop of land in Biscayne Bay, reachable only by a causeway or boat.

It is among the most expensive places to live in the United States.

Combs’ request echoes that of a long line of wealthy defendants who have offered to pay multimillion-dollar bails in exchange for home detention in luxurious surroundings.

“I am feeling confident. We’re going to go get Mr. Combs out of jail,” Mr Agnifilo said on his way into court on Wednesday. He said Combs is “doing great, he’s focused and he’s ready for his hearing”.

Prosecutors said on Wednesday that Combs’ new bail proposal “fails to adequately protect the community against his dangerousness and ability to interfere with witnesses”.

Combs was expected to re-enter his not guilty plea in his initial appearance before Judge Carter.

So far, prosecutors have successfully argued that he is a danger to the community and a flight risk and should remain incarcerated until trial.

For all the revelations that came with the unsealing of the indictment on Tuesday, most of what it outlines had been described in a November lawsuit filed by his former long-time girlfriend and protege, the R&B singer Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura. The suit was settled the following day, but its allegations have followed Combs since.

Its descriptions of beatings, sexual assaults, silencing tactics and “Freak Offs” were echoed throughout the criminal indictment, though it did not use her name or the names of any other women.

Mr Agnifilo, also without naming Ventura but clearly referring to her, argued at Tuesday’s arraignment that the entire criminal case is an outgrowth of one long-term, troubled-but-consensual relationship that faltered amid infidelity.

The “Freak Offs”, Agnifilo contended, were an expansion of that relationship, and not coercive.

“Is it sex trafficking?” Agnifilo asked. “Not if everybody wants to be there.”

Prosecutors, however, portrayed the scope as far larger. They said in court papers that they had interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses and expect the number to grow.

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ms Ventura did.

Combs was arrested late on Monday in a Manhattan hotel, roughly six months after federal authorities raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami and revealed they were conducting a sex trafficking investigation.

During the searches, law enforcement seized narcotics, videos of the “Freak Offs” and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecutors.

They said agents also seized firearms and ammunition.

The indictment portrays Combs as so violent that he caused injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. His employees and associates sometimes witnessed his violence and kept victims from leaving or tracked down those who tried, the indictment said.

A conviction on every charge in the indictment would require a mandatory 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence.

Combs and his lawyers denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits filed after Ms Ventura’s.