there have been some major developments in the Shawn Colmes criminal case including that Federal authorities may be traveling to the UK to find more alleged victims we're going to break it down for you right now welcome to sidebar presented by law on crime I'm Jesse Weber well it's officially been two weeks since Shawn Diddy Colmes was arrested after a grand jury indicted him on federal charges out in New York he's facing charges of racketeering conspiracy sex trafficking by force fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution essentially that Colmes allegedly engaged in a campaign
of criminal activity including sex trafficking and abusing women for years that he was operating a criminal Enterprise and more specifically that he would use drugs and violence and threats to force people to engage in these sexual performances called freak offs usually or a lot of the times male sex workers that he would film these encounters without people knowing that's another allegation in the indictment and the letters from the government and prosecutors say that they have interviewed over 50 Witnesses and victims and that they have obtained a wealth of electronic data that they say Chronicles this
alleged criminal activity including videos of the freak offs and there have been some developments in this case that we want to get into and I'm going to start with a major one right now so as the rapper and media Mogul sits in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center on these federal charges it is being reported that Federal prosecutors from the southern district of New York where this case is being prosecuted are now traveling across the pond to London that they are looking for more possible victims over there the US Sun reporting that a team of detectives
have arrived in London that they came last week that this is based on allegations that comes may have Abused Women in the UK and after all when you think about it comes has been in London regularly for years if we attach it to the time frame that was laid out by prosecutors in their indictment because they alleg that he was abusing women since 2009 while comes for example back in 2010 was promoting his film Get Him to the Greek in June of 2010 he launched sha Jan in London and at the time he said I
have always enjoyed traveling throughout Europe and spend much of my vacation time here and London truly feels like a second home to me now few things to note here about this report One how can this tie back to the current charges well in the charges that he currently faces there is an element of transporting people either across state lines or International lines for the purposes of forced or coerced commercial sex and prostitution and for the racketeering charge prosecutors explain how this criminal Enterprise that he allegedly was the leader of engaged in activities that affected foreign
Commerce so in other words if this abuse occurred abroad if this is another pattern of abuse that maybe emanated in the United States and then went abroad and came back or if there are witnesses to this abuse abroad maybe American citizens were being abused abroad and then you have Witnesses in the UK or maybe Colmes was transporting people from London back to the United States for criminal purposes you could see how prosecutors would be interested in such evidence as a form of sex trafficking or transportation of people for the purposes of prostitution or a racketeering
conspiracy in fact A source told the mirror quote given the huge amount of time he spent in London there are concerns that the alleged off in was not confined to America's Shores prosecutors are imploring anyone in the UK who may have information they feel could help the investigation to get in touch and this by the way is consistent with what a lot of us in the legal Community have been saying that we should expect the possibility of a superseding indictment in com's case this is when you have additional information you go back to the grand
jury to get a new amended indictment that he could be charged with addition additional crimes that there could be more victims perhaps even more defendants are named something very similar happened in the R Kelly situation he was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison for his own sex trafficking and racketeering charges remember he was charged in a superseding indictment in New York federal court by the way the allegations the lawsuits the criminal case that has had quite an effect on Shan colm's businesses and his career too we actually dedicated previous sidebars to that but
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the way there are other Federal statutes that could potentially come into play if we're talking about London we're talking about things that might have happened abroad if we're talking about additional chart charges especially if it has anything to do with minors and to be clear there are no allegations about minors by prosecutors there have been allegations about minors in the civil lawsuits but if prosecutors want to bring charges regarding the abuse of minors if we take that as an assumption for now if we put that on the table under federal law there is a charge
with respect to enticing miners to travel to engage in illegal sex acts abuse in another country that can tie back to that that's what happened with glain Maxwell the woman who's convicted of federal sexual abuse of minor charges in New York and sentenced to 20 years in prison Jeffrey Epstein's Madam that's what Maxwell was convicted of in her case prosecutors say she encouraged a minor to give Epstein massages in London now to be clear back to coms again this is speculation at this point when it comes to miners he has not been charged with respect
to that but again if we're thinking of ways prosecutors could potentially charge him for conduct abroad this is why I'm bringing up federal statutes like this okay but there's another point to this development too and it was echoed by Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave arenburg last week when we had him here on sidebar it is important for prosecutors in New York to get Colmes locked up on pre-trial detention to be denied bail to be in the Metropolitan Detention Center why so that more accusers could feel safe to come forward in other words comes can't
hurt you he can't intimidate you he can't call you which by the way were the allegations laid out by prosecutors for why he should be denied bail they claimed that he was contacting Witnesses and victims providing them false narratives as a way to silence them so with him being locked up more people whether in the United States or abroad may feel safe to come forward that has to be something on Prosecutor's mind if you take these allegations against Colmes as true in fact that's why it's perhaps not surprising that we saw another lawsuit after Colmes
was arrested and denied bail Talia Graves talk about another major development she filed a lawsuit in New York federal court accusing Colmes and his bodyguard Joseph Sherman of drugging and sexually assaulting her back in 2001 and filming this encounter too she claims that after being offered a glass of wine and feeling lightheaded and busy and physically weak she lost Consciousness wakes up naked she's in a Manhattan recording studio tied up where she alleges Colmes and Sherman assaulted her both sexually and physically Sherman by the way denied the allegations calling them in a statement quote false
and baseless and that this was a quote clear attempt at a money grab now I should tell you as well one other reason why United States Federal authorities may be in London as well assuming these reports are true by the way is perhaps they are working with UK prosecutors to build a case over there not outside the realm of possibility that UK prosecutors may be planning to bring a case against Colmes there too but again speculation we do not know for sure but talking about what other additional charges Colmes could face or what's happening behind
the scenes another big development is when an attorney for a new comes accuser claimed that she had been contacted regarding the sale of one of the Diddy tapes referring to sex tapes I'm talking about attorney Ariel Mitchell kid who appeared on Banfield on news Nation she claimed without naming names that the person on this alleged sex tape that was being distributed or trying to be distributed was someone quote more high-profile she said quote there already have been tapes leaking around Hollywood being shopped around but one particular person contact me to shop a particular video I
can tell the video was pornographic this was was in his Atlanta home and it does seem like the person isn't looking into the video to me it doesn't seem like that person knows they're being videotaped now assuming this is true because this is simply an allegation but assuming this is true aside from the fact that Distributing and selling content like this is itself potentially a crime linking this back to the current charges that Colmes faces prosecutors remember they alleged that Colmes would film people having sex with commercial sex workers during these freak offs without their
knowledge going back to the government's letter regarding baale they State quote the evidence against the defendant which would be made public at trial includes substantial evidence that is highly sensitive and has the potential to significantly and negatively impact the defendant's reputation for example dozens of video recordings created by the defendant of freak offs with victims now Mitchell kit also explained that one of her new clients was raped back in 2018 which by the way is within that time frame listed by prosecutors of when this sex trafficking and racketeering and abuse happened so she says that
this unnamed client alleges that when she was at a friend's house this is somebody in the industry Shan Colmes came over and she started to feel woozy after taking a drink and then Colmes allegedly sexually assaulted her and then directed another man to sexually assault her while Colmes watched and touched himself consistent with the theme of the freak offs from the indictment by the way Colmes has denied the allegations here in fact his attorney Mark andilo said he is an imperfect person but he is not a criminal and he asked everybody to reserve judgment all
indications by the way are Colmes plans to fight these charges Mr agnifilo indicating that Colmes has no plans to take a deal in this case that's one of the latest developments too which I must tell you is not entirely surprising because if you read this indictment prosecutors are essentially saying that Colmes is at the top of this criminal Enterprise that he's the boss that he was directing this criminal conspiracy and that he had all these per people working under him to facilitate this criminal activity so it doesn't seem likely to me that he would be
offered a deal by federal prosecutors that wouldn't include significant prison time I mean think about what they're alleging here currently he's facing 15 years to life in prison after the allegations in the indictment and the wrong words from United States Attorney Damen Williams during his press conference after the announcement of the arrest and indictment how can they offer comes a light deal doesn't make sense listen to this a year ago Shan comes stood in Time Square and was handed a key to New York City today he's been indicted and will face Justice in the southern
district of New York as alleged combms used Force threats of force and coercion to cause victims to engage in extended sexual performances with male commercial sex workers some of whom he transported or caused to be transported over state lines Colmes allegedly planned and controlled the sex performances which he called freak offs and he often electronically recorded them the Freak off sometimes lasted days at a time involved multiple commercial sex workers and often involved a variety of Narcotics such as ketamine ecstasy and GHB which coms distributed to the victims to keep them obedient and compliant as
alleged when coms didn't get his way he was violent and he subjected victims to physical emotional and verbal abuse so that they would participate in the freak offs and that Combs hit kicked through objects at and dragged victims at times by their hair so again I don't think he would be offered a deal that wouldn't include significant prison time maybe 10 years in prison even if as people have been saying online that he's going to name names and come out and mention high-profile people a I don't know if they even need him for that if
they have a lot of corroborating Witnesses and they have electronic data what more could he provide but B even if he were to Spill the Beans about people he wouldn't get off the hook so I'm not surpris that he's saying or his attorney is saying he's not going to agree to a deal right now and for Colmes also he probably doesn't want to agree to any prison time first he may legitimately believe he can beat this case and there are a number of defenses he can raise with the current charges he could say there's no
conspiracy there was no actual agreement with anyone to form a criminal Enterprise talking racketeering he could say there's no criminal organization there was no common scheme there was no common purpose that the prosecutions alleging a number of isolated incidents they're trying to Umbrella them all together and to one thing doesn't make sense sex trafficking a victim one whoever this person may be he can argue there was no fraud there was no coercion there was no Force use these weren't illegal commercial sex acts for instance if victim one is Cassie Cassandra Ventura col's ex-girlfriend who filed
the initial lawsuit against him back in November of 2023 and there's an argument to be made that she is victim one in this indictment could he not say hey she was my girlfriend yeah I flew her around yeah we were intimate yes engaged in freak offs but she agreed everything was consensual there was no sex workers there was no illicit drug use I wasn't sex trafficking I wasn't forcing her to engage in these sex acts with male sex workers yeah there were freak offs yeah I called them freak offs but everyone agreed to it it
was consensual no one felt threatened no one was harmed he can make those defenses we'll see if he can again just a sampling of what a defense could be and what Colmes may feel he can win on he may feel he can win this case so why take a plea deal and another reason he may not want to take a plea deal is because again prison is certainly not a place he wants to be at all while there were conflicting reports about his time so far in federal lockup at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn
it's our understanding that at one point he had been subjected to intense monitoring for his safety although according to latest reports he's been visited by his family lawyer for Colmes told people he's very focused he's very strong he's concentrating on his defense he's preparing for for his trial and I've said this before in the months leading up to his arrest when he surrendered his passport to lawyers they were in constant communication with prosecutors from the southern district of New York about what he was doing what his travel plans were when he came to New York
to voluntarily surrender it seems to me he legitimately believed he could make bail I don't think he anticipated being locked up he probably thought I'll be on home confinement for a year two years as I await trial reports indicate he was in shock when he was denied bail especially since he offered an attractive bail package it included a $50 million Bond secured by a property providing the court with visitor logs having his phone and internet use taken away having a third-party security team monitor him but two different judges were not persuaded given the gravity of
the charges the weight of the evidence and moreover the allegations that he had been contacting Witnesses and victims I don't think he was anticipating being in lockup and I don't think it's a place that he was preparing on being now I want to mention this too in another development one of the latest people to comment on Sean com situation is Shark Tank star and investor mark cubin on the latest episode of Theo Von's this past weekend podcast cubin who was the guest said I'm sure glad that I didn't hang out with him meaning sha Colmes
he went on to say actually back in 2003 he reached out to me to the Mavs and wanted to design a uniform for us and I never met him we did it all via email and so he had some of his designers get in touch with me and they put together some and it was a cool looking uniform right Cuban said we used it for a couple years but that was the extent of my connection to Diddy and then he claimed that com's parties really weren't his scene and what's interesting about this is how silent
a number of high-profile celebrities have been not only in the wake of com's arrest and indictment but also in the wake of all those civil lawsuits and the raids on his properties this was happening for a while and there are a number of reasons why celebrities and high-profile people haven't spoken out maybe they're talking with investigators maybe they plan to maybe they're cooperating Witnesses and will testify at trial maybe they're part of the case have they provided evidence or on the other hand do they just simply not want to be talking about anything related to
Shawn Colmes from a PR and career point of view but to have Mark Cuban come out and say I have no connection to sha Colmes that's something we really haven't heard tooo much of lately so those are some of the latest developments in the case stay with us here on sidebar as we plan to continue to follow more for you as new details come out all right that's all we have for you right now everybody please subscribe on Apple podcast Spotify YouTube wherever you get your podcast I'm Jesse Weber I'll speak to you next time
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