NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Prosecutors added details to their indictment against on Thursday, saying the hip-hop star scheduled for a May trial is accused of sex trafficking at least three women and of once dangling someone off a hotel balcony during a two-decade racketeering conspiracy.
The refreshed indictment was filed in Manhattan federal court. An attorney for Combs, Marc Agnifilo, noted that the superseding indictment contains no new charges.
Combs, 55, has to sex trafficking charges lodged against him after his September arrest. He remains incarcerated without bail, awaiting a May 5 trial.
In the superseding indictment, prosecutors added four years to the length of the alleged racketeering conspiracy, saying it lasted from about 2004 to 2024. The original indictment said the conspiracy began by 2008.
The indictment specified that there are at least three female victims, listing them only as 鈥淰ictim-1,鈥� 鈥淰ictim-2鈥� and 鈥淰ictim-3.鈥�
Prosecutors said Combs used the 鈥減ower and prestige鈥� he wielded as a music mogul to intimidate, threaten and lure women into his orbit, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship.
The indictment said he then used force, threats and coercion to cause victims, including the three women, to engage in commercial sex acts.
It said he subjected his victims to violence, threats of violence, threats of financial and reputational harm and verbal abuse.
鈥淥n multiple occasions, Combs threw both objects and people, as well as hit, dragged, choked and shoved others,鈥� it said. 鈥淥n one occasion, Combs dangled a victim over an apartment balcony.鈥�
Prosecutors offered no other information about that allegation.
Agnifilo, in a statement, said Combs remains committed to fighting the charges.
鈥淭he government has added the ridiculous theory that two of Mr. Combs鈥� former girlfriends were not girlfriends at all but were prostitutes. 鈥�
Earlier this month, defense lawyers said in court papers that the allegations described in the indictment were a 鈥渟exist and puritanical鈥� reaction by prosecutors to consensual sex acts between willing adults.
They wrote that "the government鈥檚 theory perpetuates stereotypes of female victimhood and lack of agency.鈥�
They said the government鈥檚 view depends on the characterization of the sex performances as 鈥渄irty, disgusting, or inherently unsavory鈥� and shows that the government 鈥渟eeks to police non-conforming sexual activity and that it assumes 鈥� despite all evidence to the contrary 鈥� that a woman鈥檚 willing participation must have been coerced.鈥�
Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press
