when Colmes 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 the Freak off a term that has now not only become synonymous with Shawn Diddy comes but it is at the center of his Federal sex crimes case we're going to explain some of the major accusations and details surrounding the freak offs and what this could mean for the indicted rapper welcome to sidebar present by law on crime I'm Jesse Weber there is one term that has gone viral since
the indictment of Shawn Diddy combes more than anything else you've heard it here on sidebar you've heard it Amplified in the media it is called a freak off this alleged sexual performance that is at the center of this criminal case facing the rapper and producer sha Diddy Combs and I'm going to go over some of the details of these freak off sessions as laid out in the government's indictment and in their subsequent letters that they filed with the court when they argued against colm's bail which by the way was denied twice now he's currently locked
up in the Brooklyn Detention Center comes is facing charges of racketeering conspiracy sex trafficking by force fraud or coercion transportation to engage in prostitution we've mentioned it before but he could be looking at 15 years to life in prison that's how serious these charges are but the main theme Here the main allegation is that comes led a criminal Enterprise and the goal of this criminal Enterprise other than to operate a global media and entertainment business was to engage in the abuse of women sex trafficking Force labor prostitution the distribution of drugs to use violence and
threats to commit crimes like kidnapping arson bribery obstruction of justice to carry out their goals their missions all the while making sure to satisfy the sexual desires of Shawn Colmes and one of those desires as alleged by the government by prosecutors and also alleged by several Colmes accusers in separate civil lawsuits that they filed against him were the commission of freak offs so with that in mind now we're going to get into these shocking details surrounding these freak offs and I guess we should start with saying what are freak offs right well let's go to
the indictment it says quote comes and other members and Associates of the comes Enterprise wielded the power and Prestige of com's role at the com's business to intimidate threaten and lure female victims into com's orbit often under the pretense of a romantic relationship coms then used Force threats of force and coercion to cause victims to engage in extended sex acts with male commercial sex workers that comes referred to as among other things freak offs freak offs were elaborate and produced sex performances that comes arranged directed pleasured himself during and often electronically recorded now while this
indictment came down I said at the time this may be a term that is foreign to any person that was not familiar with Shawn comes but for me who's been following this whole Saga for what a year now I have heard this term multiple times because in the Cassandra Ventura lawsuit com's ex-girl and Rodney little Rod Jones lawsuit this is com's former producer they discussed the freak offs in their again their sexual assault lawsuits now Ventura alleged among other things that Colmes would demand her participation in freak offs and that she would have to be
forced to hire the male sex workers and that this could happen at any random moment Jones alleged among other things that com's son Justin comes and DJ and record producer Stevie Jay would engage in freak offs now to be clear those specific allegations those names those details were not mentioned as part of the criminal case I will tell you though that the idea of this freak off now that it is officially part of the criminal case now that it's mentioned multiple times this makes me wonder two things from a legal point of view number one
it is such a wild concept and a phraseology that it's hard to believe that that this is something that was just made up by com's accusers and when I say com's accusers could that be ventor yes could that be Jones yes perhaps the government got this information these this idea of the freak offs originally from them and by the way when I say com's accusers could be Ventura could be Jones perhaps the government got this idea of the freak offs from them originally but we don't know to be clear we do not know for sure
we do not know who the accusers are the victims are in this criminal case who the government's Witnesses are whoever those people may be because we don't know for sure who is cooperating with the government right now but the bottom line is the idea of the Freak off there's enough there to substantiate it that the government is moving forward with this and again it is so wild it's such a wild concept to come up with that I wonder if an argument will be made that look jury this has to be true no one can honor
ly make something like this up and as you'll see it doesn't appear it was just witness testimony that corroborates the idea of the freak offs happening the existence of these freak offs but there's more and I'll get to that but this also leads me to a secondary point that based upon what we are already seeing from com's defense Council during bail arguments they may not deny that these freak offs happened or even that Colmes called them freak offs they may say yeah you know what he engaged in freak offs that's what he called them but
they were consensual that's the idea they were consensual this is not a crime talking about sha comes and these allegations does it not show you just how scary the world can be how unpredictable the world can be and you know what you know what one of the most unpredictable things can be in life something that is truly terrifying that comes out of nowhere if you get injured right that comes out of nowhere but it's important to realize that at those moments what your rights are and whether you could be compensated for your injury well that's
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sometimes lasted multiple days and often involved mult multiple commercial sex workers during freak offs comes distributed a variety of Controlled Substances to victims in part to keep the victims obedient and compliant sometimes unbeknownst to the victims Colmes kept videos he filmed of victims engaging in sex acts with commercial sex workers after freak offs Colmes and the victims typically received IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion and drug use that is something and the government would allege that these freak offs they have been happening since 2009 that those drugs consisted of ketamine GHB ecstasy now
in terms of the defense of consent the defense could say well these people knowingly and voluntarily took drugs but if it's true that combms kept videos that these participants didn't know about that could be problematic for him especially since we learned the government may have the goods to back all of this up in their bail letter to the judge they write quote the evidence against the defendant which would be made public a 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 I mean we wondered what was collected by federal authorities after they raided com's homes in La and Miami back in March there were reports that they collected did digital evidence in fact further on in the government's letter prosecutors write quote setting aside devices seized in connection with the defendants arrest the government has obtained over 90 cell phones laptops cloud storage accounts as well as over 30 other electronic and storage devices such as hard drives thumb drives cameras and a surveillance system the government also wrote
victim testimony regarding freak offs is at times corroborated by other Witness testimony Communications with the defendant and Commercial sex workers travel records Hotel records videos of the freak offs and Records reflecting or indicating payment by the way you're talking about evidence of freak offs prosecutors revealed one other way that they can prove that these freak off events happen because in the government's bail letter it states the defendant arranged freak offs with the assistance of members and Associates of the Enterprise including employees of his business bus and the hotel rooms where they were staged often sustain
significant damages so the prosecution's letter goes on to state that for example in approximately 2012 in Manhattan the defendant paid over $46,000 to cover damages to a penthouse hotel room following a freak off yeah now I imagine the government plans to produce receipts of this some documentation or witness testimony to corroborate that account cuz it'll be tough for the the defense to say why else did that hotel room sustain allegedly $46,000 worth of Damages if it wasn't for this wild sexual performance event but again you could see why the government's putting that evidence forward to
suggest that these freak offs occurred now going back to that idea of consent this defense of consent I couple that with something else that I've been hearing I've seen people say why are these freak offs a crime right you might be wild sexual encounters but why is this sex trafficking why is this racketeering well as laid out in the indictment but also this was articulated by Damen Williams the United States Attorney for the southern district of New York here's what he had to say in a press conference after the unsealing of this indictment as alleged
Combs 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 when Colmes 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 on one occasion in March of 2016 that conduct was captured on video and later reported in the media specifically comes
kicked dragged and threw a vase at a victim in a Los Angeles hotel when the victim was attempting to flee as alleged these assaults often resulted in injuries to the victims which took days or weeks to heal in addition to the violence the indictment alleges that Combs threatened and coerced victims to get them to participate in the freak offs he used the embarrassing and sensitive recordings he made of the freak offs as collateral against the victims and that's the key it's using power violence threats coercion Force to get people to participate in sexual activity that
is illegal sex trafficking is when you use such methods for the purposes of commercial sex usually over state lines commercial sex is when money is offered for sexual services or something else of value and one of the things that the indictment mentions is how coms would allegedly dangle Promises of career opportunities or threatening to withhold financial support to get people to do what he wanted now you heard Damen Williams mention that 2016 incident so even if you hadn't been following the Colmes legal Saga for the past year everyone saw that video that was published by
CNN of Colmes allegedly beating Cassandra Ventura back in 2016 at the Intercontinental Hotel in La all while wearing a robe this is something that Ventura alleged had happened when she filed her lawsuit back in November of 2023 but when that video was released we all saw with our own eyes what apparently transpired and we know Shan Colmes issued an apology on Instagram two days after the release of that tape but how this ties to the Freak off well the allegation was the reason he was in a towel the reason she was allegedly running away the
reason he allegedly beat her was because she was trying to escape a freak off and as ventur alleged prosecutor SE Holmes tried to cover up this event in the bail letter prosecutors write quote when a member of hotel security staff intervened the defendant attempted to offer the hotel security officer a stack of cash to ensure his silence after the security guard refused the defendant's bribe and after coordination between the defendant and his employees the defendant staff contacted other members of hotel security at the same time staff members were in close communication with the victim of
the assault as well all in an effort to cover up the defendant's assault and to prevent the incident from being publicly disclosed within days of the incident the surveillance video disappeared from the hotel's server by the way that brings me to another point about the freak offs how many people allegedly helped Combs do this as the indictment reads quote members and Associates of the comes Enterprise including high- ranking supervisors security staff household staff personal assistants and other com's business employees facilitated the freak offs by among other things booking hotel rooms for the freak offs stocking
the hotel rooms in advance with the required freak off supplies including Controlled Substances baby oil lubricant extra Linens and lighting cleaning the hotel rooms after the freak offs to try to mitigate room damage arranging for travel for victims commercial sex workers and combs to and from Freak offs re supplying Combs with requested supplies delivering large sums of cash to Combs to pay the commercial sex workers and scheduling the delivery of IV fluids in or about March 2024 during searches of com's residences in Miami Florida and Los Angeles California law enforcement seized various freak off supplies
including narcotics and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant wow so assuming the government did in fact C all of this evidence again I don't think there's a great defense for why someone would have that much baby oil in lubricant so the defense will probably be like yeah my client engaged in these sexual sessions but hey that's not illegal on its face everyone agreed to it's all consensual but here's the larger Point first you can see how this supports the racketeering conspiracy charge that comes faces right the idea that there was an agreement
to create and further a criminal Enterprise comes can't do this alone prosecutors need to prove he conspired with others in this criminal Enterprise to break the law so you see this alleged coordination between multiple people at his behest but this also helps explain potential witnesses that may be working with the government those people that used to work for Combs associated with Combs help facilitate these alleged freak offs that may now be key Witnesses at a future trial after all what did the prosecution write in their letter to the judge the government has conducted interviews with
over 50 victims and Witnesses many of whom saw or experience the defendants abuse many of these Witnesses corroborate one another and their accounts are similarly consistent with the other types of evidence discussed below the government only expects that number to continue to grow given that the investigation which is now public is ongoing and we did another sidebar on the potential that people will come forward or take deals to cooperate with the government you can check it out on our long crime YouTube page but if you thought that all of that wasn't shocking enough when it
comes to the freak offs I want to leave you with one final allegation regarding these freak offs and this is something that prosecutors mentioned in their second letter regarding bail so let's not forget Colmes was first denied bail by a Magistrate Judge he appealed that decision to a district court judge and that judge is supposed to review this with fresh eyes doesn't have to provide necessarily deference to what this other judge did so the government doubled down to show how much of a danger sha Colmes is how he can't be trusted on the outside how
he needs to be detained pending trial and in their second letter they write quote indeed since at least in or about January 2024 when the defendant was unquestionably aware of the criminal investigation the evidence shows that he is engaged in multiple freak offs some involving the interstate transportation of individuals to participate has continued to use narcotics and has contacted multiple Witnesses so if true the government is saying these freak offs are not years old they are essentially still happening this was after he had already been sued and after the idea of the Freak off had
become publicized through those lawsuits people were talking about in the media and he still allegedly engaged in this Behavior that's huge for prosecutors and of course here we know that Colmes was denied bail Again by that secondary judge so there you have it a full breakdown of the Freak off allegations how they tie into the larger overall case and to be clear I'm sure this is not the last time we will hear this term or we will hear more details surrounding the freak offs that's all we have for you right now here on sidebar everybody
thank you so much for joining us and as always please subscribe on Apple podcast Spotify YouTube wherever you get your podcasts I'm Jesse Weber I'll speak to you next time [Music]
