Diddy should be given bail to live under house arrest in a New York apartment in the Upper East Side with 24/7 monitoring, his lawyers told the court Friday.
The disgraced hip hop mogul’s attorneys made the pitch during his third attempt at getting free while awaiting trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
They said he would have two live-in guards at the three-bedroom property, no access to phones or the Internet and a third security guard downstairs.
Calling it a ‘very, very rigorous set of conditions’, Diddy’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo said that was tougher than his life at the grim Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where the producer is currently being held.
At the federal court in New York, Judge Arun Subramanian said he would decide whether to free Diddy next week.
But he rejected outright the idea of Diddy being under house arrest at his $48.5 mansion on Star Island in Florida, saying: ‘That’s not going to work’.
Depicted in this courtroom sketch, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, center, sits at the defense table with attorneys Marc Agnifilo, left, and Anthony Ricco, right, in a hearing in October
Diddy’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo argued the prison condition’s his client was experiencing were ‘tough’ and argued for him to be released and confined to his Upper East Side apartment with two live-in guards
Prosecutor Christy Slavik said his kid’s birthday post for him was coordinated with Diddy from behind bars and argued he ‘cannot be trusted’
During the two-hour hearing, prosecutor Christy Slavik said that Diddy’s use of illegal means to contact people while in prison was evidence of his continued efforts to ‘subvert the jury process’.
They included a birthday post on Instagram earlier this month by his children that Diddy is alleged to have coordinated with them from behind bars.
Slavik said that in a message concerning the post Diddy said: ‘I want to reach for this jury. I just need one’.
In the messages Diddy’s lawyers expressed ‘trepidation’ and even his family said they shouldn’t have posted the message.
Diddy told them ‘I don’t care. It’s my birthday’, the court heard.
Slavik said: ‘The defendant has demonstrated either he can not or he will not follow rules. The defendant, simply put, cannot be trusted’.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson argues for the prosecution as Diddy and his defense lawyers Agnifilo and Geragos are seated during a bail hearing on September 18
Diddy repeatedly contacted one female witness, an escort who took part in multiple ‘Freak Offs’ and then deleted the messages.
If Diddy were allowed out on a multi-million dollar bail package it would amount to him ‘paying his way out of custody’, Slavik added.
As Diddy’s family listened in, Slavik gave a blunt description of his conduct in the shocking video of him beating up ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a hotel in March 2016.
She said that the incident took place in the middle of a ‘Freak Off’.
Slavik said: ‘We have multiple sources of evidence proving that a commercial sex worker was in the hotel room while the defendant was brutally assaulting this woman in the elevator lobby, trying to drag her back to the hotel room.
‘The government submits this video is evidence the defendant is a violent abuser and he’s a danger to the community.
Slavik gave a blunt description of his conduct in the shocking video of him beating up ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura at a hotel in March 2016
Slavik claimed the brutal video of Diddy attacking singer Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway took place in the middle of a ‘Freak Off’
‘The defendant knows this is devastating evidence against him at trial and this is why he’s throwing anything at the wall to get this tap to go away.’
Slavik added that in recent weeks prosecutors had learned of ‘even more violence committed by the defendant’.
That included ‘punching, kicking, shoving’, she said. ‘Victims include employees, romantic partners, and people who just got too close.
‘The defendant is violent, he’s dangerous and must be remanded on that basis.’
Diddy’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo said that if he were released there was ‘zero percent chance’ he was going to be violent.
He initially asked for Diddy to be held at his $48.5 mansion on Star Island in Florida but the judge shot it down immediately, saying: ‘That’s not going to work’
Diddy is being accused of running a decade-long criminal empire including orgies called ‘Freak Offs’ in which women were drugged and forced into marathon sex sessions, sometimes with male prostitutes
Under-fire rap megastar Diddy looks on top of the world as he and his then-girlfriend Cassie party during the Bad Boy Sound Clash in Kingston, Jamaica, back in January 2013
Agnifilo instead proposed Diddy being under house arrest at a three-bedroom apartment in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
Two security officers would be in the apartment full time with another downstairs. Diddy would not be allowed access to a phone or the Internet unless calling his lawyers and only a vetted list of people, including his family, could go and see him.
Agnifilo called it a ‘very, very rigorous set of conditions’ that was tougher than his life in prison.
Turning to Diddy’s relationship with Ventura, Agnifilo said that they had ’never denied that there has been mutually regrettably physical conduct’ but he claimed that it went in ‘both directions’.
‘It’s our defense that this was a toxic, loving, 11 year relationship,’ he said.
Defense lawyer Alexandra Shapiro tried to argue that Diddy should be released because his case was not as bad as former Abercrombie & Fitch chief executive Mike Jeffries, who is accused of sex trafficking at a court in Long Island.
Agnifilo initially asked for Diddy to be held at his $48.5 mansion on Star Island in Florida but the judge shot it down immediately, saying: ‘That’s not going to work’
Shapiro said that Jeffies is 80 and given Diddy is 55 they are not so far apart in age.
She said: ‘Mr Combs is 55. I hate to say it but that’s not that young.’
Judge Subramanian told both the prosecution and the defense that he wants more clarification on how Diddy has communicated behind bars and gave them till November 25 to submit the information.
Diddy’s family arrived in a large van with blacked-out windows. His mother Janice, 84, emerged holding hands with Diddy’s son Christian ‘King’ Combs, 26, and walked into court.
Diddy himself walked into court from a side door and was wearing a prison-issued tan top and pants
He was not shackled after his lawyers claimed that doing so offended the ‘dignity’ of the court.
Diddy began smiling when he saw seven members of his family in the second row of the public gallery – including his mother Janice, 83, who was wearing sunglasses, adopted son Quincy, 33, Justin, 30, King, Chance, 18 and his twin daughters D’Lila and Jessie, 17.
His mother Janice, 84, emerged from a black van with blacked-out windows, holding hands with Diddy’s son Christian ‘King’ Combs, 26, and walked into court today
The Combs family arrived at the Southern District of New York Federal Court to attend a hearing for Diddy on November 22 – including his (pictured) adopted son Quincy, 33, Chance, 18, and his twin daughters D’Lila and Jessie, 17
He blew them kisses, formed a prayer sign with his hands and tapped his heart before the proceedings started.
Diddy is accused of running a decade-long criminal empire including orgies called ‘Freak Offs’ in which women were drugged and forced into marathon sex sessions, sometimes with male prostitutes.
He has denied the sex trafficking and racketeering among other charges and is due to go on trial in May next year.
Diddy has already been denied bail twice including a $50 million bail package involving round the clock monitoring by security guards and home detention.