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Social Media Manager: Olivia Beaudette
Email: obeaudette@umassd.edu
Sean Combs (AKA P-Diddy) has been accused of multiple sexual assault charges over the last few months. He is charged $100 million and has been arrested for multiple crimes.
Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith is the inmate who has come forward with sexual assault accusations against Combs. Cardello-Smith is serving time in prison until at least 2036 for first-degree criminal sexual conduct and kidnapping unrelated to Combs’s case.
Cardello-Smith claims that Combs drugged and sexually assaulted him in 1997 at a Detroit party. Shortly after the assault, Cardello-Smith filed a police report, and he claims that Combs paid ”Detroit and Monroe police officers to keep it hidden.
A motion hearing was held on August 7, where Cardello-Smith revealed that Combs visited him in prison. Also, on a separate occasion, a financial advisor visited on Combs’ behalf.
Cardello-Smith claims that Combs offered him $2.3 million to dismiss the lawsuit. He rejected the offer.
On September 9, there was a virtual hearing, but Combs did not appear.
Because Combs failed to appear at the hearing, the Lenawee County Circuit Court Judge Anna Marie Anzalone awarded Cardello-Smith a default judgment. This awarded Cardello-Smith $100 million. Judge Anna Marie Anzalone decided that starting in October, Combs will need to pay $10 million a month for ten months to Cardello-Smith.
An attorney for Combs released a statement that Cardello-Smith is “a convicted felon and sexual predator.” The attorney also accused Cardello-Smith of “committing fraud on the court from prison” and called for the judgment to be dismissed.
But as of now, the charges have been reversed due to Combs not serving the complaint properly, and the limitations of the case have expired.
These events led to Sean Combs’s recent arrest: On Monday, September 16, Combs was arrested while staying at a Manhattan hotel after being indicted by a grand jury. At his hearing, he pleaded “not guilty.”
He was charged with sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, sexual abuse, and rape. He was denied bail and remains in custody.
Prosecutors stated that since 2008, Combs was part of a criminal organization that participated in sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, obstruction of justice, and other offenses. He was also accused of assaulting women since 2009 on multiple occasions.
Combs filmed what he called “freak offs,” which involved giving controlled substances to his victims, who were primarily trafficked prostitutes, as a way to make them obedient and compliant to unwanted sexual acts.
Investigators have taken over 90 cell phones, laptops, and cloud storage accounts, as well as 30 storage devices connected to these recordings. There are also (allegedly) dozens of videos of Combs’s “freak offs.” It’s reported that he used drugs like cocaine, ketamine, and oxycodone as ways to get women to participate.
During the raids of Combs’s homes on March 25, investigators found narcotics and over 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant. Multiple AR-15 rifles and large-capacity magazines were also found.
Despite all the evidence, Combs has pleaded not guilty, and one of his lawyers, Marc Agnifilio, claims that Combs is “an innocent man with nothing to hide.”
Among these recent allegations and the arrest of Diddy, the man who killed Tupac has also come forward, accusing the rapper of being involved in the murder of Tupac. Tupac’s killer admitted Combs offered a large amount of money to shoot Tupac.
As of now, Combs is in prison awaiting his trial, where he has now been put on suicide watch for preventative measures due to his being in shock, and his mental state is unclear.