Disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly was as soon as value lots of of tens of millions of {dollars} however is now serving what quantities to a life sentence in federal jail.
After a long time of intercourse abuse allegations and an acquittal on baby pornography prices, a documentary collection titled “Surviving R. Kelly” lastly gave his accusers a voice and helped convey down the singer. Inside six months of its airing, Kelly was going through federal prosecution in New York.
He was convicted not solely of intercourse trafficking but in addition of racketeering — prices that specify an individual’s “enterprise” was used to hold out felony conduct.
Sean “Diddy” Combs now faces an analogous federal investigation, although the accusations in opposition to him are considerably totally different and it stays unclear whether or not they are going to lead to felony prices.
Authorities have mentioned little concerning the probe. However regulation enforcement sources have confirmed to The Occasions that Combs is underneath investigation for sex-trafficking tied at the very least partially to civil lawsuits filed by a number of ladies who’ve accused him of misconduct.
Combs has denied any wrongdoing, and his attorneys have slammed the investigation as unwarranted.
After federal brokers searched the artist’s houses in Florida and Los Angeles a number of weeks in the past, his legal professional decried a “untimely rush to judgment of Mr. Combs” and mentioned the investigation “is nothing greater than a witch hunt primarily based on meritless accusations made in civil lawsuits.”
Nonetheless, earlier high-profile sex-trafficking instances may supply a window into how the feds usually construct a case and may present clues into what officers would want to convey prices.
“The playbook for these kinds of instances is R. Kelly, Jeffrey Epstein, Larry Ray and NXIVM’s founder Keith Raniere,” mentioned Elizabeth Geddes, who delivered a six-hour closing argument in Kelly’s conviction.
In November, Combs’ former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, the singer referred to as Cassie, accused him in a lawsuit of rape. Inside a day, he settled.
Since then, three different ladies have sued Combs, accusing him of rape, intercourse trafficking, assault and different abuses. One of many allegations concerned a minor. A male producer additionally has sued him over undesirable sexual contact.
Geddes, who just isn’t concerned within the Combs case, mentioned she believes Ventura may need been the set off for the federal investigation.
She mentioned the docuseries about Kelly spurred the Japanese District of New York to behave — and that sort of high-level investigation usually requires an outdoor catalyst. In Kelly’s case, he had been acquitted in 2008 and consequently, lots of his accusers misplaced confidence in regulation enforcement. However the documentary re-engaged authorities.
“Nothing places strain on regulation enforcement like a front-page story on the key newspaper within the metropolis,” Geddes mentioned.
Combs’ investigation, led by Homeland Safety, is a number of months outdated, in line with sources, and lots of linked to the case — together with accusers and alleged witnesses — have already been interviewed.
Geddes mentioned Homeland Safety Investigations additionally labored the Kelly case, and its brokers are likely to have years of expertise working with sex-trafficking victims.
She mentioned intercourse trafficking requires both “power, fraud or coercion to trigger an individual to interact in a industrial intercourse act” or the trafficking of minors underneath 18.
“There isn’t any statute of limitations,” Geddes mentioned, and the important thing regulation enacted within the 2000s applies to acts from 2001 ahead.
Geddes mentioned that along with the intercourse prices in opposition to Kelly, she and her colleagues secured a racketeering indictment in opposition to the singer. The cost has famously been utilized to mob bosses like John Gotti and James “Whitey” Bulger.
In racketeering instances, Geddes mentioned, the “enterprise” carries out unlawful conduct and prosecutors search to indicate a broader sample of conduct that stretches over years and entails many contributors. A racketeering case additionally permits a number of victims’ narratives in a single trial.
Racketeering turned a federal crime in 1970 underneath the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO.
Over time, its utilization has expanded. It usually is used in opposition to gangs, starting from the Mexican Mafia to South L.A.’s Crips. Racketeering instances even have been introduced in opposition to rappers related to road gangs, together with Younger Thug, Kay Flock, Casanova, and Fetty Wap.
Federal prosecutors have succeeded in racketeering convictions not solely in opposition to Kelly, but in addition in opposition to different intercourse traffickers, together with NXIVM founder Raniere and Larry Ray, whose crimes have been outlined within the docuseries “Stolen Youth: Contained in the Cult at Sarah Lawrence.”
A regulation enforcement agent carries a bag of proof as federal brokers stand on the entrance to a property belonging to Sean “Diddy” Combs in Miami on March 25.
(Rebecca Blackwell / Related Press)
However it’s unclear what proof the feds have in opposition to Combs and whether or not there is sufficient to convey prices.
Few particulars can be found, apart from sources saying investigators left his two houses with electronics, knowledge units and different information.
Authorized specialists have advised The Occasions that proof in sex-trafficking instances have to be intensive as such prices might be exhausting to show.
“Intercourse trafficking for adults often entails some kind of coercion or different restraints,” L.A. protection legal professional Dmitry Gorin mentioned. Prosecutors would want to indicate you “inspired anyone to interact in sexual exercise for cash or another inducement.”
Aaron Dyer, considered one of Combs’ attorneys, careworn in an announcement launched after the raids that “there was no discovering of felony or civil legal responsibility with any of those allegations.”
The mom of Combs’ son Justin Dior Combs additionally slammed the investigation and the raids.
“The overzealous and overtly militarized power used in opposition to my sons Justin and Christian is deplorable,” designer Misa Hylton mentioned after releasing video displaying federal brokers wearing army gear pointing a gun at Combs’ sons. “If these have been the sons of a non-Black superstar, they’d not have been dealt with with the identical aggression. The try to humiliate and terrorize these harmless younger Black males is despicable!”
Federal sex-trafficking and sexual assault legal guidelines additionally enable prosecutors to current proof that reveals a modus operandi.
“Within the R. Kelly trial, a number of ladies testified about what Kelly did to them as a part of a sample of habits. It is extremely a lot the identical factor folks noticed in Harvey Weinstein’s prosecution,” Geddes mentioned.
If prosecutors do file prices in opposition to Combs, additionally they may allege using compelled labor underneath menace, Geddes mentioned. Ventura, Combs’ former girlfriend, alleged she was compelled into intercourse acts with different males and suffered bodily hurt for complaining. If true, this may very well be thought-about compelled labor, Geddes mentioned.
Kelly was convicted of eight counts of the Mann Act, which was handed in 1910 and sought to criminalize what’s now referred to as human trafficking. The regulation initially banned transporting a girl or woman throughout state strains “for the aim of prostitution or debauchery, or for some other immoral function.”
The Mann Act now covers transportation throughout state strains “with [the] intent that such particular person engages in prostitution, or in any sexual exercise for which any particular person might be charged with a felony offense.”
Within the allegations in opposition to Combs, one girl mentioned she was introduced from Detroit as a 17-year-old to Combs’ studios so he may rape her alongside together with his cohorts, Geddes mentioned.
Earlier than the extremely publicized searches of Combs’ properties have been executed, Geddes mentioned, prosecutors and HSI brokers needed to “have made some headway into the investigations.”
“What we will say at this stage is there was sufficient possible trigger to persuade a Justice of the Peace to challenge a search warrant,” she mentioned. “Earlier than getting such a warrant, brokers have usually interviewed a number of witnesses.”
Geddes mentioned these forms of searches usually search corroboration of proof as a result of high-profile people are likely to work with others to commit such crimes. In Kelly’s case, Geddes mentioned, his storage facility proved to be a goldmine. He saved message slips, handwritten notations and emails to select up ladies and ladies. And there have been “movies, plenty of movies,” she mentioned.
“We had a lot proof offered in Kelly, it was exhausting to suit all of it into the closing,” Geddes mentioned. “He used his cash and public persona to cover his crimes in plain sight,” she advised jurors on the time.
