The mom of the embattled hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs launched a press release Sunday defending her son towards the legal prices and a number of allegations of sexual misconduct he’s at the moment going through whereas in federal custody in New York.
Combs, 54, has been detained on the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn since pleading not responsible on Sept. 17 to federal prices of intercourse trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to have interaction in prostitution.
In a press release launched by means of her attorneys, Janice Smalls Combs says it has been “insufferable” to witness “what appears to be like a public lynching of my son earlier than he has had the chance to show his innocence.”
She then mentions that her son “has made errors in his previous” and refers to an episode caught on safety video that appeared to indicate Combs attacking singer Cassie, his former girlfriend, in a Los Angeles resort hallway in 2016. In Might, Combs apologized for the incident, saying his habits was “inexcusable” and that he took “full duty” for his actions.
In November, Cassie, whose authorized title is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit accusing Combs of rape and abuse throughout their relationship; he denied the accusations. They reached a settlement the next day.
The indictment towards Combs refers back to the incident caught by the resort safety cameras. In keeping with the indictment, Combs tried to bribe a resort safety employees member who intervened within the incident to maintain them quiet.
“My son could not have been totally truthful about sure issues, comparable to denying he has ever gotten violent with an ex-girlfriend when the resort’s surveillance confirmed in any other case,” Janice Smalls Combs says within the assertion. “Typically, the reality and a lie grow to be so carefully intertwined that it turns into terrifying to confess one a part of the story, particularly when that reality is outdoors the norm or is just too sophisticated to be believed. This is the reason I imagine my son’s civil authorized staff opted to settle the ex-girlfriend’s lawsuit as an alternative of contesting it till the top, leading to a ricochet impact because the federal authorities used this resolution towards my son by decoding it as an request for forgiveness.”
She provides that it has been “agonizing” to see folks joke about her son’s scenario “over lies and misconceptions.”
On the finish of the assertion, she asks followers and the general public “to not choose him earlier than you have had the possibility to listen to his facet.”
“My son is just not the monster they’ve painted him to be,” she says. “I can solely pray that I’m alive to see him converse his reality and be vindicated.”
Within the indictment, prosecutors allege that since 2008 Combs has been a part of a legal group that engaged in or tried to have interaction in intercourse trafficking, compelled labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, obstruction of justice and different offenses.
Prosecutors accused Combs of utilizing his enterprise empire as a legal enterprise to hide his alleged abuse of girls at occasions Combs known as “Freak Offs.”
“The ‘Freak Offs’ typically lasted days at a time, concerned a number of industrial intercourse staff and infrequently concerned quite a lot of narcotics, comparable to ketamine, ecstasy and GHB, which Combs distributed to the victims to maintain them obedient and compliant,” U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams, of the Southern District of New York, advised reporters when the indictment was unsealed.
On Oct. 1, Texas lawyer Tony Buzbee mentioned he was representing 120 accusers who’ve come ahead with new sexual misconduct allegations towards Combs. Buzbee mentioned he expects lawsuits to be filed inside the subsequent month. Buzbee described the victims as 60 males and 60 females, and that 25 have been minors on the time of the alleged misconduct.