Prosecutors Claim Texts Show Diddy's Pattern of Sex Abuse: 'I'm Not a Rag Doll. I’m Someone’s Child'

Federal prosecutors used Sean “Diddy” Combs’ own words — and those of women who say the rapper sexually assaulted them — against him in federal court this week to ensure he remains behind bars pending trial on racketeering and sex crimes charges.

“I’m not a rag doll. I’m somebody’s child,” Assistant United States Attorney Emily A. Johnson said, quoting the unnamed woman’s message from the podium in Manhattan federal court on Wednesday, Sept. 18.

Combs — who pleaded not guilty to three counts at his arraignment Tuesday — sat silently between his lawyers wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and striped gray sweatpants during a detention hearing Wednesday where he was denied bail for the second time.

Sean Combs (center) next to his attorney, Marco Agnifilo (left) at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024.

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“There is a longstanding pattern of abuse here,” Johnson told the judge Wednesday.

Johnson read the messages in which the woman claimed she was “heavily drugged” during the sexual relationship with the singer. Prosecutors said in the indictment that multiple women said Combs used the tapes of those encounters as blackmail.

In a message Johnson attributed to Combs, he allegedly instructed an associate to “make sure” the woman’s rent was “paid on time,” which Johnson claimed was a payment.

Sean Combs with Dawn Richard and Kalenna Harper in London, England on Thursday, January 20, 2011. In September, Richard filed a civil suit alleging that Combs sexually assaulted her.

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Much of the rapper’s federal case centers on singer Cassie Ventura, who dated Combs for a decade.

Although Ventura was not named in court documents, widely circulated surveillance footage showing Combs — dressed in socks with a towel wrapped around his waist — kicking, stomping and dragging her by the arm through the hallway of the now-shuttered InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles in 2016 was attached as evidence in federal court filings and was frequently cited in early court proceedings.

Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Shareif Ziyadat/Getty

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Shortly after that attack — which Combs apologized for after the posted video went viral, calling his behavior “inexcusable” in a since-deleted Instagram video in May — Ventura allegedly texted the rapper, describing her injuries.

“I have a bruised eye and a fat lip,” Johnson read from Ventura’s message. “You’re sick when you think what you did was okay.”

Cassie Ventura and Sean “Diddy” Combs at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 2, 2015.

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Johnson also read into the record a note allegedly written by Combs shortly after the violence at the hotel, telling a close associate: “Call me. The police are here. I have six children. Yo, please call. I am surrounded. Will you leave me alone?”

Johnson explained to the court that Combs’ reference to the police response was not necessarily accurate, but, she said, illustrated his fear of being held criminally responsible for his actions. (No charges were brought against the singer in 2016.)

On November 16, 2023, Ventura filed a civil lawsuit against Combs in US District Court in Manhattan, alleging years of sexual abuse.

Three days later, Johnson said in court, another woman texted the rapper about the suit, telling him: “I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma. It makes me sick,” adding that she saw a mirror image of Ventura’s alleged experience: “my anxiety.”

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.

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