Law&Crime Sidebar - 6 Wild Allegations P. Diddy’s Son King Combs Faces in Sex Assault Lawsuit

Episode Date: September 30, 2024

Christian “King” Combs has shown support for his father Sean “Diddy” Combs both in court and online as the music mogul faces racketeering and sex crimes charges. But King Combs, who is following in his father’s footsteps and pursuing a rap career, is facing sexual assault accusations of his own. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber discusses the father-son legal dynamic with trial attorney Fortunato Perri.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Download the FREE Upside App at https://upside.app.link/sidebar to get an extra 25 cents back for every gallon on your first tank of gas.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger and Christina FalconeScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Christian King Combs, one of the sons of rapper and music mogul Sean Diddy Combs, is facing his own scrutiny as investigators dig deeper into what exactly happened behind closed doors at Sean Combs' infamous parties. We're analyzing the allegations against Christian, some interesting responses from him, as this legal development has continued,

as he tries to keep his modeling and rap careers on track. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. The allegations against music icon Sean Diddy Combs are having quite a ripple effect, as his family members visit him in jail or in a detention center to be more accurate. Most of his associates, employees, friends, even immediate family members are all facing questions about what they knew and when did they know it.

And some are even facing their own legal action. And I say this despite the fact that these are all allegations at this point. Okay. One of those people includes Christian King Combs. This is Combs' biological son that he had with Kim Porter, who is pursuing his own rap career as well as modeling. 26-year-old is signed with IMG models in New York. He's walked runways in places like New York, Paris, Milan. He released his debut mixtape under the name King Combs six years ago, and since then, he's collaborated with other big names in the rap industry, including Kodak Black, Ty Dala Seim, Chris Brown.

Since his father's arrest, though, on September 16th, Christian has not exactly kept a low profile. He continues to share videos and photos with his nearly 3 million followers on Instagram, was recently seen attending an event in support of his girlfriend's clothing line. He's also attended his father's court hearings alongside his brothers, Justin and Quincy. And as we know, Sean Combs is charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, transportation, to engage in prostitution, all very serious felony charges which were filed with the Southern District of New York. Prosecutors alleged that Combs was the head of a criminal enterprise that was engaged in a legal activity to satisfy Combs apparently never-ending sexual appetite. And if convicted, Combs could spend between 15 years to life in prison. Right now, he's in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center while he awaits trial after two different judges denied him bail. Combs has denied all wrongdoing.

His legal team says they're not considering taking a plea deal at this time. And their client might even take the stand. His next scheduled court appearance is for a status conference on October 10th. Now, to be clear, Christian hasn't spoken publicly about the charges against his dad specifically, but he seems to have responded via his music. And we told you that Christian and his brother Justin, We're taken out of Combs, Los Angeles Mansion, when home and security investigators raided the home in March. They were put into handcuffs as agents made sure everything was secured, but they weren't arrested.

They weren't charged. Then in May, weeks after the raids, Christian released a new song called Pick Aside. And in it, he rapped, police raid the crib like they think we sell in crack, but we out here selling tracks, multi-million dollar plaques. Knock these doors down like them fetti boys running both our cribs, too bad. they ain't no we bought the one next door because that's the one they missed well after the release 50 cent another rap superstar who's had a longstanding few with sean combs posted on social media now why would you say something like this when you know the feds are investigating is you stupid or is you dumb l-o-l something else adding to the drama was opposed to social media by christian's publicist

linda luna she wrote in part this diddy controversy is truly so unfortunate i work with his son christian as his in the music area area i've been to his parties and after parties and i've never seen what they are claiming i do feel like maybe he was trying to change over the past year but it seems like it was too late and his past transgressions have come to light and now he has to face the consequences there are a lot of other powerful men in this in this industry that i've witnessed do worse if not the same as the allegations in this case so anyways god bless him and the family and the victims as they deserve justice for what is truth in all of this And after her comments were reported on, Luna said the post was supposed to be for friends and family on her personal Facebook page and not as an official statement.

Covering all of this Combs family legal developments and allegations can be pretty heavy. So that's why I just want to take a quick minute to tell you guys about something positive. Actually, I think it's something that you're going to really love. The ability to get cash back when you buy daily essentials like gas and groceries. It's called Upside. Awesome app. free app so easy to use upside gets you real cash back money that appears in your upside app that you can transfer straight into your bank account so to give you an example i use upside to find

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So there's a lot going on here. Before we even get into Christian Combs and everything, we haven't had a chance to speak. Your firm famously represented Bill Cosby in a very similar kind of situation. As you saw this case progressive against Sean Combs, you had the civil lawsuits, you had the raids, now you have the arrest and indictment. What are your thoughts? What are your takeaways? Jesse, it's good to be here. So, you know, obviously it's a wide-ranging federal indictment and going through it, it sounds like it's going to be quite a defense that they're going to have to put together here. And, you know, there's no secret that in the Cosby investigation, there were multiple in multiple women who made claims of sexual assault some

resulted in in criminal charges some resulted in civil lawsuits so I I can see kind of some similarities here when you when you're seeing what's unfolding with with Sean Combs do you believe that there are a lot of people who are cooperating with the we know that the government says that they spoke to 50 witnesses, victims, but do you think that there are a lot of high-profile people who have been speaking with the government, who might be cooperating now? One of the things we wonder is after the arrest of Sean Combs, if more people feel comfortable, safe to come forward, even though these are allegations. What do you think is happening behind the scenes? Well, from the sounds

of the indictment, it sounds like some people have already been cooperating, whether they be high-profile individuals. I think they're going to have to make a business to on whether or not they want to jump into the fray here and talk about whatever involvement they may have had in some of these parties and get-togethers and things like that. Some may have no choice. Some may be subpoenaed in front of the grand jury, and then they're going to have to answer questions about whatever their involvement was. But it sounds like a lot of these people are going to have to start making some business

decisions and get out front before they're going to be playing catch-up. How would you defend Coms? He's got the charges right now of racketeering conspiracy, transportation to engage in prostitution, sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion. How would you defend against those charges? Obviously, a lot of the prosecution is going to hinge on cooperating witnesses. So that's an opportunity for the defense to cross-examine and challenge these cooperators to see whatever criminal exposure they may have that caused them to then turn. become a cooperating witness. So that's always the first thing you look at here.

But there may very well be audio and video recordings that are going to be very difficult to defend if that's part of this case. But, you know, I think the first thing you do is see who's cooperating, what exposure they had initially that caused them to get involved in this investigation. But, you know, I think it's kind of too early on to see exactly what needs to be done to defend him at this point. So I, and we'll get to Christian Combs in the second. What I've heard from his legal team, what we're seeing so far, aside from, you put aside

the idea of say there's no racketeering conspiracy, there's no conspiracy, there's no criminal agreement, there's no criminal enterprise, you say this was all consensual. There is no sacks trafficking, a victim one. Assuming for a moment, this is Cassandra Ventura. She was my girlfriend. Of course, I flew her from A to B. We engaged in sexual activity. maybe we engaged in freak-offs.

I called them freak-ups, but there weren't any sex workers. There was no, I wasn't threatening her. I wasn't using force to get her. I wasn't physically attacking her to be involved in this. I wasn't, even the drug use was consensual. Again, I think his team is saying consent is going to be the main theme here. Everybody agreed to that. Is that a viable defense?

It's certainly a viable defense until you're facing. three, four, five, maybe a dozen people telling the same exact story. And now, now the jury's going to hear the same story from 12 different people. And if, I'm just making that number up, but if 12 different people, then it was not consensual, that we were drugged, that we were transported under false pretenses, that we were going to be working at some kind of a, you know, a party that didn't involve the sex activities you know you can do that one-on-one maybe two or three people on that come forward but once you start getting the numbers right

then I think you have a problem all right let's focus now on Christian Combs so first let me ask you do you think it's surprising that given all this is happening he's still quite active on social media is living his life normal as always well keep in mind Jesse that this is a civil complaint this is not something. And I'd be curious to know whether or not this was brought to law enforcement. And if law enforcement investigated this most recent allegation. You're talking about what I'm about to get into the Gras-O-Markey lawsuit. So we'll get into that in a second. But yeah, I hear what you're saying. This is a civil case. So he doesn't maybe feel the need to be silent,

even though his father, even though his father's facing criminal charges, and we don't know who else is within prosecutors' orbit. Okay. So let me backtrack to, I think your question was, should he be out there just kind of living his life and doing his thing, knowing that, you know, there's allegations against his father, that there's now going to be allegations in a civil matter with respect to him. And I think he needs to be careful because I've represented hip-hop artists in the past in criminal matters. And a lot of times we're fighting like heck and keep their lyrics out of the case,

you know, lyrics where they're admitting criminal responsibility or criminal liability or, you know, whatever the issues we're dealing with. And we've had a fight to keep those lyrics out of the case and sometimes you're not successful. And the jury hears what you're rapping about, what you're writing about, and that becomes a problem. So him, right, you know, rapping about the raids, probably not the best thing from a legal point of view.

And his publicist making those comments that I mentioned before, again, I don't know what the thought behind that was, but that couldn't have helped any situation. don't believe so, right? No, it makes no sense to me why someone in that position would give that type of a statement. It just makes no sense. I mean, these guys now have some very serious, both criminal and civil issues to deal with. And I think now whoever's in their orbit needs to be careful and do the best to protect their interests under these circumstances. The fact that only Sean Combs was arrested and criminally charged and not anybody else from his circle, and maybe more specifically, not anybody else from his family, does that let you know that they're probably not going to be criminally charged, that they're not implicated in what Combs is accused of doing, or is it too early to say and something could change?

it's way too early to say and every day in the federal criminal system the u.s. attorney's office issues superseding indictments by going back in front of the grand jury with additional information and just adding on to the initial indictment so no i would say it's way too early to say at this point whether or not anybody in his family anybody in his circle are going to be charged criminally with some type of a superseding indictment in this situation The reason I ask is because Christian Combs, as we were talking about, is facing his own legal scrutiny. On April 4th, this was days after the simultaneous raids at Combs' homes in Los Angeles and Miami, a woman named Grace O'Markey filed a civil lawsuit against Christian Combs.

And according to that civil complaint, O'Markey, 25 years old at the time, says that she worked as a steward on the yacht that Combs had rented, and she was in charge of providing food and drinks for a 12-hour period. This was the yacht that Sean Combs had rented. And she believes that the alcohol on that yacht had been laced with drugs because she says women would have one drink and then almost immediately pass out or start falling over, which is kind of consistent with what the allegations are in Sean Combs' criminal indictment. But O'Markey says that Christian Combs had been staying at a villa on the shore, but then would come onto the yachts in the evenings to party. And on December 28, 2022, Christian, according to her, arrives very intoxicated and pressured O'Markey. to take shots of tequila. She claims that she did, and then, according to her,

Christian allegedly tried to get her to drink more in the yachts makeshift recording studio. O'Markey alleges that Christian kissed her neck and face as he groped her legs, breasts in private areas. O'Markey reportedly told Christian, quote, excuse me, you don't touch my legs like that. I'll move my legs where I want to. If I want to do this, then I will.

You don't touch my legs like that. Now, this alleged assault was reportedly witnessed by Rodney Little Rod Jones, a music producer who accompanied Combs basically everywhere for a year while they worked on his latest album, Love Off the Grid. And in his own sexual assault separate lawsuit, Jones says he was in the recording studio when Christian and O'Markey were there and might have even had some of the audio from that interaction recorded. So O'Markey says that she tried to go back to her work, but Christian found her again, wanted her to find him a place to sleep for the night. So she took him to the cinema room of the yacht, and that is when she claims Christian stopped her from

leaving, groped her, took off all of his clothes, and tried to force her to perform oral sex on him. This is the allegation. So a Markey civil lawsuit accuses Christian of assault, battery, sexual assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress. Sean Combs is also named as a defendant. He's accused of aiding and abetting Christian's behavior, as well as having premises liability because he was the leaseholder of the yacht. And premises liability means that you have a duty to keep people on your property safe from injuries. She's seeking unspecified damages in the suit. So let me go back to you, Fortunato, about this. Do you think that this allegation, this incident, Grace O'Markey, this will be part of the criminal case?

Because so much of the criminal case facing Combs, we don't know the details. A lot of it is general. Do you think that this is going to make its way into that case? Yes, it's certainly possible. And I would love to know if law enforcement was ever given this information, before a lawsuit was filed. If I'm defending Christian, the first thing I say is, why did you wait so long to make an allegation

in this civil lawsuit? Did you wait and did you, did you see what happened with the father, with the indictment, with the allegations, and then just try and pile on to try and get yourself a payday. That would be my position. So just to be clear, this came out, this became out before the arrest indictment,

but it came out after the civil lawsuits after the raids. So there was the idea that we knew he was going to probably going to be charged, but he hadn't been charged yet. Yeah, I think it was all part of us as things were kind of percolated. Yeah, yeah. Cases against them. And we saw what those allegations were, kind of what the details of those allegations were. And my question would be to this, the plaintiff in this case, why did you wait so long? Why didn't you report it right away? And did they report it to law

enforcement? That to me is crucial because if they reported this to law enforcement and law enforcement kind of prude it and thought there were credibility issues there, I think that's going to, you know, severely hamper the plaintiff's case moving forward. But maybe law enforcement has had this and they've been sitting on it and they're going to make it part of this whole federal indictment. Then, you know, that's that's where the problems arise. I also think it's interesting how they structured the case. Not every incident of physical violence or sexual assault is a part of the criminal case. It's more about the freak-offs. It's more about these very specific alleged sexual episodes. And while they allege that basically Combs engaged in the

campaign of abusive women, where the focus remains is the freak-offs. This is not necessarily a freak-off. It's not. So it makes me wonder how broad their case will be or can be. They're federal prosecutors. They're not state prosecutors. They're not charging sexual battery or sexual assault, but they can include that as part of a larger racketeering case that Combs was operating a criminal organization that engaged in a number of different crimes. Sexual assault, kidnapping, sexual, you know, obstruction of justice, arson. So again, I think that that part about is interesting too. Can they or even will they? You know, what's their ability to do? What's their ability to include this.

Well, they can either charge it specifically as a separate act under the racketeering portion of the indictment, or they could introduce it as other crimes evidence that Sean Combs was creating this environment where women were being sexually assaulted by people, including his son. Now, right now, son's not charging this federal indictment, so they'd have to show that Sean Combs was somehow responsible criminally. for what happened with this woman, you know, the sexual assault with this woman. So there's two ways they could do it.

They could, you know, charge it as a predicate act, or they could introduce it pre-trial as some other crimes evidence of criminal activity. Interesting. And just generally speaking about this lawsuit that Christian Combs faces, any takeaways from it in terms of, I mean, you mentioned it before about her timing of filing the lawsuit, But in terms of its strength, in terms of the idea that Rodney, Little Rod Jones might be a corroborating witness to this alleged assault, you know, in terms of the strength of the actual lawsuit, what do you take away from it? Well, a lot of it is going to hinge on, you know, what I've seen that there may be potential audio of some of her discussions with Christian. So if they are authentic, that certainly makes her case a lot stronger.

But, you know, Rodney's fainted. I think he has his own lawsuit that he's filed against Sean Combs. So if there's some question about the authenticity of this audio of the woman making complaints in real time while it's happening, you know, that's where this case is going to hinge. I mean, if you have an expert from the defense come in and say, hey, that's not her voice. that's that's you know that's been tinkered with the order has been tinkered with that's going to be a you know a positive for the defense but if that comes in as an authentic audio recording of her in real time making complaints about what christian is doing i think he's going to have a problem

defending this thing it's a really good point um look i'm interested to see where all these cases progress and if they have an effect on the criminal case we're still in the early stages i know It's been two weeks now, but, you know, look, it's still, it's still shocking to see the situation that he finds himself in and where it might go. Fortunata Perry, thank you so much for coming on. Great seeing you. Really appreciate you taking the time, sir. My pleasure, Jesse.

Anytime. All right, everybody, that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus.

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