Sean “Diddy” Combs He has been placed on regular suicide watch as he awaits trial at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, a source told Fox News Digital.
The source said that “this is common for high-profile individuals as they are admitted into a federal facility, and is not an indication of their mental state.”
Combs was arrested in the lobby of a New York hotel on Monday, as another source previously confirmed to Fox News Digital. The indictment unsealed on Tuesday charges him with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
In a statement to Fox News Digital on Friday, a spokesperson for Diddy said, “Mr. Combs is strong, healthy and focused on his defense. He is committed to fighting this case and has full confidence in both his legal team and the truth.”
The indictment unsealed Tuesday charges Sean “Diddy” Combs with sex trafficking by fraud or coercion, and transportation, fraud or coercion to induce prostitution. (Munawwar Hussain)
The rapper pleaded not guilty just hours after an indictment detailing his alleged sex crimes was unsealed. On Wednesday, a judge denied a request from Combs’ lawyers to allow him to await trial under house arrest at his $48 million home on an island in Miami Beach, Florida, rather than the Brooklyn federal lockup where he was scheduled to be.
When Fox News Digital reached out to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for comment about Diddy being placed on regular suicide watch, their team responded, “For privacy, safety and security reasons, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) does not provide information about confinement conditions or internal security practices for any particular incarcerated individual.”
“Mr. Combs is strong, healthy and focused on his defense. He is committed to fighting this case and has full confidence in both his legal team and the truth.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs has pleaded not guilty to federal charges. (Reuters/Jane Rosenberg, Getty Images)
Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center has been home to several high-profile inmates, including R. Kelly and Ghislaine Maxwell.
In 2022, Kelly was kept On suicide watch in a federal detention facility after being convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking.
Diddy denied bail after pleading not guilty to sex trafficking charges
In 2022, R. Kelly was placed on suicide watch at a federal detention facility after being found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking at his most recent trial in New York. His attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, told Fox News Digital at the time that he was “placed on suicide watch for purely punitive reasons in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights.” (Photo: Kamil Krzacinski/AFP)
His attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, told Fox News Digital at the time that “he was placed on suicide watch for purely punitive reasons in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights.”
Days later, Kelly was taken off suicide watch at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and sentenced to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay a $100,000 fine on June 29, 2022.
What do you like to read? Click here for more entertainment news
Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of helping ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse girls, was placed on suicide watch days before her sentencing hearing, though she was not trying to commit suicide, her lawyers announced in June 2022. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Within the same month, Maxwellwho was convicted of helping her ex-boyfriend Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse girls, was placed on suicide watch just days before her sentencing hearing despite not attempting suicide, her lawyers announced in June 2022.
Lawyers, who had previously complained about Maxwell’s detention, argued that their client was “not suicidal.”
“Ms. Maxwell was abruptly removed from general population and returned to solitary confinement, this time without any clothing, toothpaste, soap, legal papers, etc. She was provided with a ‘suicide smock’ and a few sheets of toilet paper upon request,” he added in the letter. “A psychologist evaluated Ms. Maxwell and determined that she was not suicidal.”
Click here to sign up for the Entertainment newsletter
“I met with Ms. Maxwell … (after a 97-minute delay following my arrival at the facility). She does not appear to be suicidal,” attorney Bobby C. Sternheim wrote at the time.
The Bureau of Prisons opened the facility, known as MDC Brooklyn, as a jail in the early 1990s. It is used primarily to detain people after arrest who are awaiting trial in federal courts in Manhattan or Brooklyn. Other inmates remain there to serve short sentences after conviction.
The prison, located in an industrial area on the Brooklyn waterfront, houses about 1,200 inmates.
Click here to get the Fox News app
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
