Oct. 9 (UPI) — Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs is making another appeal to be released from a New York jail after previous denials awaiting trial facing multiple allegations, according to new information.
On Tuesday, lawyers for Combs said the judge’s decision not to grant bail was based on “sensationalism” and “purely speculative” concerns with little evidence.
U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter Jr. on Sept. 18 had denied an initial request by his legal team for Combs, 54, to be released on a $50 million bail after prosecutors argued that Combs is a flight risk, a danger to the community and might have the capacity to intimidate witnesses and obstruct justice.
It’s not clear when a decision will be given. But the actor and music mogul is due back in court Thursday. His attorneys have requested a trial for spring.
This will be his third attempt after past denials to get out of Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he’s been incarcerated since Sept. 16.
Carter, who has since been replaced as judge on the case, ruled that Combs must remain jailed until his trial on a series of charges including sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation charges.
“If denying accusations by civil plaintiffs could justify pre-trial detention,” Combs lawyers Alexandra A.E. Shapiro and Jason A. Driscoll wrote the 2nd Circuit federal appeals court, “the liberty protections of the Bail Reform Act and the Constitution — not to mention the First Amendment — would be meaningless.”
His lawyers claim that Combs’ case was “extreme” and “unusual” because he was “detained immediately after he was charged,” they wrote.
“Even though he has been in the spotlight his entire life, with many of his purported antics and episodes being widely reported in the press and known to law enforcement authorities,” they added.
More than 100 of Combs’ alleged victims from across 25 states have recently or will join in legal litigation against the rapper.
“Indeed, hardly a risk of flight, he is a 54-year-old father of seven, a U.S. citizen, an extraordinarily successful artist, businessman, and philanthropist, and one of the most recognizable people on earth,” the Combs legal team stated.
If convicted, Combs faces potentially more than two life sentences in federal prison.
Charged on Sept. 16 in a sprawling three-count indictment, it was alleged that Combs between 2008 and this year had abused, threatened and coerced women and others.
It was further alleged he took part in a racketeering conspiracy that engaged in “sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice and other crimes, according to the U.S. government.
The indictment alleges that Combs had transported commercial sex workers across state and international borders and manipulated women to “participate in highly orchestrated performances of sexual activity with commercial sex workers,” which often included the use of illicit drugs.
