Violence, music, money, a meteoric rise and a faster fall. Sean 'Diddy' Combs had it all until his life and crimes brought him back to the boroughs of New York City for a sordid court case.
The streets of Harlem have changed a lot in the half century since Janice Combs brought home her baby son Sean.
A jury of 12 New Yorkers — not the stars and celebrities he spent his life surrounded by — has decided his fate. His mother relocated the family there after Sean's father Melvin Combs — a drug dealer — was shot to death. Hip hop, R&B and rap were about to have a huge cultural moment and Diddy made sure he was front and centre.Combs founded Bad Boy Records in 1993 and had an early success that would thrust him into the centre of the hip hop scene and the violent East Coast-West Coast rivalry.
Just as he had in life, Combs capitalised on his friendship with the rapper in death, releasing the chart-topping song "I'll Be Missing You", which sampled The Police's Every Breath You Take, penetrated American mainstream music and found him new fans.According to Shuter, Combs threw parties to "make himself the king of New York".
The guest lists crossed industries and genres — a rolodex of the biggest names of the 90s and early 2000s. Using a MeToo era law that temporarily allowed alleged victims to file civil claims outside of the statute of limitations, Combs' former long-term partner Cassie Ventura sued."With the expiration of New York's Adult Survivors Act fast approaching it became clear that this was an opportunity to speak up," she said at the time.Months later, surveillance video emerged showing Combs grabbing, shoving, dragging and kicking Ventura in a hotel hallway in California in 2016.
Combs' lawyers sought to paint the allegations as merely a swinger's lifestyle, describing his relationship with Ventura as a "modern love story"."I don't call it love if a man is beating his girlfriend, his wife, or a significant other," she said.Ultimately, the jury — made up of eight men and four women — found the prosecution had failed to prove these relationships and the so-called "freak-offs" at the centre of the allegations were not consensual.
Defence Attorney Mitchell Epner said the prosecution had to prove that Combs had an entourage that alongside its legitimate business, had an ongoing criminal purpose as well.He says the reason they may have chosen this charge is to cover the almost two decades of conduct the case covers.
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