Central figure of hip-hop whose opulent festivals attracted the gratin of the show industry, P. Diddy has an appointment on Monday with American justice in New York, accused of having put his empire at the service of a violent and merciless sex traffic system.
His real name Sean Combs, the 55-year-old rapper and flagship producer, who has raised a considerable fortune since the 1990s in music, fashion and alcoholic drinks, risks life for life during this trial, one of the most anticipated in the United States.
The founder of Bad Boy Recordswho had stars under her wing like the queen of hip-hop soul Mary J. Blige or the rapper The Notorious B.I.G. – murdered in 1997 – was tried before the Federal Court of Manhattan for trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation and for transport of people for prostitution purposes as well as for acts of kidnapping, corruption and violence grouped under the indictment of criminal enterprise.
In prison for eight months after his resounding arrest in Manhattan, he crumbled in parallel under the accusations of sexual violence of more than a hundred women and men in the civil justice.
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The house of Miami de Sean “Diddy” Combs was searched as part of a large investigation on March 25, 2024.
Photo : afp via getty Images / Giorgio Vera
P. Diddy, also called Puff Daddy
or Diddy
proclaims his innocence and refused a plea-guilty agreement proposed by the accusation, whose details have not been revealed.
Before getting to the heart of the matter, the trial starts at 8:30 a.m. on Monday by selection of the jury, a stage that could take a week.
Sexual relations under constraint
The famous rapper and producer claims to have had only sexual relations. His lawyer Marc Agnifilo spoke of a lifestyle swinger
.
At the heart of prosecution, which relate to facts which spread over a period from 2004 to 2024, is the organization of sex marathons called freak-offs
fed by taking drugs and where women were forced to long relations with sex workers.
According to the indictment, Sean Combs led
His scenes, sometimes recorded in video, and could be threatening or violent to achieve his ends. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office of Manhattan evokes accomplices without naming them, but Sean Combs will be the only accused.
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More than a hundred complaints for sexual violence have been filed against the rapper.
Photo : Getty Images / Frazer Harrison
The case shakes the American music industry, which has rather escaped the wave #Moi Also, with the exception of the R&B’s fallen star R. Kellysentenced to 30 years in prison for sexual crimes in 2022.
I hope that [le procès] will encourage other victims to come forward
said to theAFP Caroline Heldman, co -founder of the organization Sound Off Coalitionwhich fights against sexual violence in the world of music.
According to her, the music industry is still a world where The effects of fame and power over people. This gives them a deficit in empathy and the feeling that the rules do not apply to them
.
Figurehead of hip-hop
Since the 1990s, P. Diddy has been a central figure in hip-hop of the East Coast
which he helped to register in the musical landscape.
Known to display an ostentatious luxury, he used to give sumptuous parties where the gratin of industry was pressed on the upper coast Hamptonson the big island of Long Islandeast of New York. Despite a violent reputation, this native of Harlfather of seven children, has long maintained his aura in the world of hip-hop.
His trial opens, like a symbol, the same day as the famous gala of Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) from New York, a worldly meeting par excellence where he had still climbed the steps in 2023 in the midst of dozens of other celebrities.
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In a civilian complaint in November 2023, Cassie had accused his ex-companion, rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, of rape in 2018 as well as “violent behavior” and “deviant” for a decade.
Photo : Getty Images / Alberto E. Rodriguez
The singer of R&B Cassie, who was in a relationship with Diddy, will be one of the most anticipated witnesses. A video broadcast last year by CNN And captured by surveillance cameras had shown Sean Combs raging violently against her in 2016 in a hotel in Los Angeles.
Cassie had opened the valves against the winner of several prizes Grammy By filing a civil complaint in 2023, saying that his former companion had submitted him to more than a decade of violence and rape in 2018.
The case had immediately settled amicably, but it paved the way for a long series of accusations of sexual assault and rape.
