MIAMI – Embattled music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs was reportedly placed on suicide watch at the New York federal jail where he’s being held, awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to sex trafficking charges.
On Friday, Local 10 News spoke with several people who attended his infamous parties, who said they were not surprised by the allegations against Combs.
It comes as federal authorities’ attention shifts to friends and employees.
Local 10 News spoke to someone in the music industry on condition of anonymity.
He showed clips of Diddy holding parties at his homes in Miami Beach and Los Angeles.
He and the others described parties lasting in upwards of 24 hours at a time.
“Sometimes they provide breakfast in the morning and it’s like you can chill,” the man said. “I’m just wowed on how he’s just able to keep all that energy. He just has a lot of energy like to be that age and to be throwing these parties so frequently.”
5 p.m. report:
Two different judges denied Combs bond over claims of human trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, all tied to “freak-offs,” elaborate sex events he had organized, allegedly fueled by drugs, blackmail and violence.
“The ‘freak-offs’ sometimes lasted days at a time, involved multiple commercial sex workers and when Combs didn’t get his way, he was violent,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York said.
The man Local 10 News spoke to said he didn’t have any first-hand knowledge of the sex events. He said there were often parties within those big parties, with private spaces and private after-parties.
Word had been spreading long before the arrest, he said.
“There’s always two parties: It’s the public one that you know about, and then it’s a private one. (It’s) maybe something like, you know, sometimes it’s like the VIP or the like the high-end celebrities, they go in the house” he said. “Yeah, that’s common knowledge.”
Combs’ downward spiral followed allegations from several different victims and several different lawsuits, including from ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, before a violent video emerged.
Then came the raids on his homes, including on Star Island, that netted guns and ammo, video recordings and even 1,000 bottles of baby oil.
Authorities are also looking into his staff. A search warrant was issued for electronics belonging to Diddy’s head of security.
They maintain that Combs didn’t orchestrate all of this alone.