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MANHATTAN (CN) — A New York federal judge on Wednesday refused to grant mogul music producer Sean Combs’ second request for bail, keeping the self-proclaimed “Bad Boy For Life” jailed pending his trial on a sex trafficking conspiracy indictment because of his potential danger to victims and witnesses.
“He could certainly obstruct justice and intimidate witnesses through those folks, through even coded messages, if necessary,” U.S. District Judge Andrew said at the conclusion of a 100-minute hearing in Manhattan federal court, denying Combs’ request to be released to home detention while he awaits a criminal trial.
Carter, a Barack Obama appointee, appeared particularly concerned by the 2016 surveillance video from InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles showing Combs in a bathrobe violently assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a hallway and his subsequent efforts to bribe hotel security to coverup the attack.
“That video is quite disturbing,” the judge said. “The physical beating … why isn’t that a consideration?"
On Tuesday, New York federal prosecutors unsealed a criminal indictment charging Combs on three counts implicating him in a criminal ring that coerced and intimidated women into drug-fueled sexual exploitation.
Combs, who’s represented by defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, pleaded not guilty at his first appearance on Tuesday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Robyn Tarnofsky denied his first request for release on a proposed $50 million bail package, siding with prosecutors in favor of remanding him to pretrial detention due to his potential for dangerousness, obstruction and risk of flight.
Ahead of the bail appeal hearing Wednesday, lawyers Combs asked Carter to allow Combs to await his sex trafficking trial in home detention at his mansion on an island near Miami Beach, rather than at the Special Housing Unit of the infamous MDC federal jail in south Brooklyn.
The conditions of the proposed bail package include GPS monitoring, weekly drug testing and restricting female visitors to Combs’ residence except for family, or mothers of his children.
Agnifilo urged the judge to find Combs a trustworthy and cooperative defendant. “If he was going to do something reckless and stupid, he would have done it in March," he said.
Federal prosecutors meanwhile maintained that Combs “poses a significant and ongoing danger,” and that no conditions of bail would reasonably assure his appearance and compliance, or the safety of the community.
“In other words, the defendant committed sex trafficking—a crime so serious that Congress has determined that there is presumptively no condition or combination of conditions that will reasonably assure the safety of the community and the defendant’s appearance in court,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office wrote in a letter to the judge Wednesday.
At the bail hearing, prosecutors noted that the proposed bail package with home detention did not sufficiently address their concerns about obstruction of justice and witness tampering.
“The risk of obstruction in this case is heightened because of the defendant’s power,” assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson said. “His influence makes it so difficult for witnesses to share their experiences … and to trust that the government can keep them safe from him”
“Even the most stringent bail conditions will not suffice to ensure the safety of the community,” she concluded.
Combs came to prominence in the early 1990s producing hit debut albums for rapper Notorious B.I.G. and R&B singer Mary J. Blige. He was arrested in a Manhattan hotel lobby on Monday night, six months after federal investigators searched his luxury homes in Los Angeles and Miami.
The next hearing in the case has been set for Oct. 9, 2024.
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