Several women have filed complaints against the rap mogul, which could see him sentenced to life in prison.
Sean “Diddy” Combs
The pattern of abuse keeps repeating itself. Dating, drinking, drugs, disability, rape. Then: abandonment, forgetfulness, shame. But now the complaint is added to the trajectory. More than 130 people, most of them women, have already come forward to face charges against Sean Combs, the once ultra-powerful rapper, music producer, entrepreneur and artistic mentor well-connected to figures such as Usher and Justin Bieber. After a flood of complaints over a period of 10 months, the case saw two significant developments. The first occurred in mid-September, when Combs was arrested and charged with sex trafficking, extortion and transportation for the purpose of prostitution. Those charges, if proven, could land him in prison for life. The second phase occurred when no less than 120 complaints were filed at the beginning of October. Twenty-five of them come from minors up to nine years old. In the United States, the business of Combs, 54, otherwise known as Puff Daddy or Diddy, has gone from shock to outrage. Film producer Harvey Weinstein, who is serving 16 years in prison, has been accused by about 80 women and the number continues to grow. Combs is already the subject of 131 complaints, but the Texas attorneys who filed the last 120 said on Oct. 1 that they had received no fewer than 3,285 calls in just 10 days from people claiming to be victims of its violence. If the Weinstein case generated enough discussion on social media to mobilize the #MeToo movement, the Combs case may go to another level.
“For me, it’s a continuation of #MeToo,” argues Laura Palumbo, spokesperson for the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC) for 15 years. “There’s still a lot to add to #MeToo, in so many different contexts: in the music industry, in the military and on college campuses,” he says.
