By LARRY NEUMEISTER
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors urged a New York federal judge Tuesday to send Sean “Diddy” Combs to prison for over 11 years following his conviction on prostitution-related charges, citing one of his accusers who said she lives in fear of the music mogul’s release from detention.
“His crimes of conviction are serious and have warranted sentences over ten years in multiple cases for defendants who, like Sean Combs, engaged in violence and put others in fear,” they wrote in a presentence submission requesting at least 11 years and three months in prison.
They filed their sentencing recommendation shortly after midnight, including letters from some of his accusers describing how his violence and demands had impacted their lives.
They called Combs “unrepentant” and said Combs had conceded his acts of violence and abuse throughout his trial but “incredibly, … he now argues that his victims should shoulder the blame.”
Combs, 55, has remained jailed since his July conviction on charges related to arranging male sex workers to travel to hotels or residences where he directed them to have sex with his girlfriends.
Combs faces sentencing Friday
The elaborate dayslong, drug-fueled sexual events were often filmed by Combs. Defense attorneys have asked that he be sentenced to no more than 14 months in prison. Sentencing is set for Friday.
In July, Combs was convicted of two charges for violating the Mann Act, which outlaws interstate commerce related to prostitution, for arranging the paid sexual encounters between his girlfriends and male sex workers. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
The same jury acquitted the Bad Boy Records founder of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges that could have resulted in a life sentence.
Last week, the defense submitted its presentence arguments, saying Combs has suffered enough during his nearly 13 months behind bars that he should be freed soon.
They wrote that he became a changed man in a Brooklyn federal lockup, where he has been under constant suicide watch and learned to react calmly to threats rather than violently, even when a fellow inmate confronted him with a shiv.
They said Combs has realized that his overuse of drugs, including some prescribed by doctors, had contributed to violent acts he participated in.
Prosecutors say Combs is not the victim
Prosecutors said Combs was now trying to cast himself as a victim.
“He is not the victim,” they wrote. “The Court should focus on the very real effects that the defendant’s conduct had on the lives of the actual victims, his victims.”
At trial, two of Combs’ former girlfriends testified that they felt forced to participate in the drug-fueled sex marathons with male sex workers as Combs watched and sometimes filmed.
R&B singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura described being beaten by Combs when she displeased him during their decadelong relationship. Another ex-girlfriend, testifying under the pseudonym “Jane,” said she felt pressured to perform sexually with male sex workers. She testified that an enraged Combs once put her in a chokehold and punched her in the face.
In a letter accompanying the prosecutors’ submission, Cassie wrote that she testified while nine months pregnant during Combs’ trial “in front of a packed courtroom about the most traumatic and horrifying chapter in my life. I testified that from age nineteen, Sean Combs used violence, threats, substances, and control over my career to trap me in over a decade of abuse.”
Cassie says she still suffers from nightmares
Cassie wrote that Combs controlled her like a puppet.
“These events were degrading and disgusting, leaving me with infections, illnesses, and days of physical and emotional exhaustion before he demanded it all again. Sex acts became my full-time job, used as the only way to stay in his good graces,” she said.
Cassie said she still has nightmares and flashbacks on an everyday basis and requires psychological care to cope.
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“My worries that Sean Combs or his associates will come after me and my family is my reality. I have in fact moved my family out of the New York area and am keeping as private and quiet as I possibly can because I am so scared that if he walks free, his first actions will be swift retribution towards me and others who spoke up about his abuse at trial,” Cassie said.
The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has.
In an indictment, prosecutors asserted that Combs used his fame, wealth and violence to force and manipulate Cassie and Jane, now-ex-girlfriends, into the sexual performances he called “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.”
After Combs was convicted, Judge Arun Subramanian immediately refused a defense request to grant him bail.
He denied it again in August as he rejected Combs’ $50 million bail proposal, saying the hip hop impresario hadn’t proven that he did not pose a flight risk or danger, nor shown an “exceptional circumstance” after a conviction that otherwise requires detention.
