Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs has reportedly been placed on suicide watch as he awaits trial.
The 54-year-old star was arrested at a hotel in New York on Monday night, and he has been charged with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.
He has been remanded to Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center after pleading not guilty, and he has twice been denied bail.
According to PEOPLE, Combs is on suicide watch, with sources describing the move as a preventative measure as he is in shock with his mental state unclear.
The U.S Department of Justice National Institute of Corrections describes suicide watch as ‘supervisory precautions taken for suicidal inmates that require frequent observation’.
Combs’ lawyers had argued he should be spared jail while he awaits trial and suggested a $50 million bond with electronic monitoring, weekly drug tests, a visitor log, the surrender of his passport, and no contact with women.
He was initially denied bail on Tuesday after pleading not guilty, and on Wednesday he was denied bail again.
The Judge explained that he was concerned that Combs’ release on bail could affect the case.
‘My bigger concern deals with the danger of obstruction of justice and the danger of witness tampering,’ Judge Andrew Carter said. ‘That is a real concern that I have here.’
During the arraignment on Tuesday afternoon, according to People, his lawyer Marc Agnifilo revealed Combs is in ‘treatment and therapy for things that more respectfully he needs treatment and therapy for and he’s getting that’.
Agnifilo didn’t go into any more detail or confirm what treatment Combs is receiving, as he cited confidentiality.
US Magistrate Judge Robyn F Tarnofsky read through the allegations before asking him if he wished to enter a plea, to which he simply replied: ‘Not guilty.’
If found guilty, the mandatory minimum sentence Combs could face for the charges is 15 years, with a maximum sentence of life in prison.
In deciding whether to deny him bail, the judge said she had ‘very significant concerns’ about his substance abuse and ‘what appears to be anger issues’.
According to AP, she said she considered alternatives to denying him bail, but didn’t think they were sufficient because many of the allegations happened behind closed doors.
His legal team is said to have offered a $50million (£37.8million) package to secure his release on bail.
He will now remain in jail until the trial but his lawyer confirmed plans to appeal the judge’s bail decision at a hearing on Wednesday.
The federal indictment was unsealed this week, and include allegations that Combs coerced multiple alleged victims into sex acts, known as ‘freak offs’.
He allegedly organised and directed the ‘freak offs’, and is accused of ‘directing, masturbating during, and often electronically recording’ them.
It’s said these ‘freak offs’ ‘occurred regularly, sometimes lasted multiple days, and often involved multiple commercial sex workers’.
Combs is accused of ‘distributing a variety of controlled substances to victims, in part to keep the victims obedient and complaint,’ and it is also alleged that he sometimes kept videos unbeknownst to the victims.
The indictment also alleges that Combs and the alleged victims ‘typically received IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion and drug use’.
It has been reported in the indictment that ‘more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant’ were seized from his residences in Miami, Florid and Los Angeles during searches around March this year.
It was previously reported that the music mogul was charged with three counts – racketeering conspiracy, transportation to engage in prostitution, and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion.
The indictment, obtained by CNN, alleges that Combs ‘engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern’ of abuse ‘toward women and other individuals’, and that he ‘assaulted women by, among other things, striking, punching, dragging, throwing objects at, and kicking them’ on multiple occasions from 2009 onwards.
Combs has denied all allegations against him, and his lawyer said via TMZ that he will ‘fight like hell’ to get his client released and insisted that he is innocent.
‘He’s not guilty. He’s innocent of these charges,’ he told reporters on his way into a Manhattan courthouse.
Metro.co.uk has contacted representatives for Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs for comment.
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