Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs joins list of Hollywood stars charged with sex crimes
Since the #MeToo movement took off, a multitude of male celebrities have been accused of sexual misconduct, but only a handful of those in the music and film industries who have actually faced criminal charges.
Sean “Diddy” Combs has now joined that short list of prosecuted stars.
Here is a list of some of the most prominent men to face criminal charges in recent years and the outcome of those cases:
Harvey Weinstein
The ex-movie mogul was prosecuted in both New York and California after dozens of women came forward to publicly accuse him of sexual assault.
In the Los Angeles case, a jury convicted Weinstein in 2022 of raping and sexually assaulting one of four women he was charged with abusing. The three guilty counts involved an Italian actor and model who said Weinstein appeared at her hotel room, uninvited, during a Los Angeles film festival in 2013.
Weinstein, 72, was later acquitted of a sexual battery allegation made by a massage therapist who treated him at a hotel in 2010. The jury was unable to reach a decision on counts involving two other accusers. A mistrial was declared on those counts.
In the New York case, Weinstein was initially convicted in 2020 of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another, followed weeks of harrowing and graphic testimony from a string of accusers. But his 23-year prison sentence and conviction was overturned earlier this year, with New York’s highest court saying the trial judge unfairly allowed testimony based on allegations that were not part of the case.
A retrial has been scheduled and Manhattan prosecutors this week brought a new indictment with additional allegations from another woman. The trial had been scheduled to start in November but is now unlikely to begin until 2025.
Weinstein, who also faces several civil lawsuits brought by women accusing him of sexual misconduct, denies sexually assaulting anyone and is appealing his California conviction.
Bill Cosby
The former “Cosby Show” star was the first celebrity to go on trial in the #MeToo era.
He was arrested in 2015 when a district attorney armed with newly unsealed evidence — Cosby’s damaging deposition in a lawsuit brought by Temple University sports administrator Andrea Constand — filed charges against him just days before the 12-year statute of limitations was about to run out. Constand accused Cosby of drugging and sexually assaulting her.
The AP does not typically identify sexual assault victims without their permission, which Constand has granted.
Jurors couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict when Cosby was put on trial in 2017. At a second trial in 2018, he was convicted and sentenced to up to a decade in prison. But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2021 said the district attorney who made the decision to arrest Cosby was obligated to stand by a predecessor’s promise not to charge Cosby, though there was no evidence that agreement was ever put in writing.
Cosby, now 87, has been accused of rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment by more than 60 women. He has denied all allegations involving sex crimes.
R. Kelly
Federal juries in Chicago and New York convicted Kelly, now 56, of crimes that include producing child sexual abuse materials and federal sex trafficking charges.
Born Robert Sylvester Kelly, he was sentenced to 30 years in the New York case last year and a mostly concurrent 20-year sentence in February in the Chicago case.
The 57-year-old was accused of using his fame to sexually abuse young fans, including some who were just children, in a systematic scheme that went on for decades.
The Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling songwriter also was accused of using his entourage of managers and aides to meet girls and keep them from speaking out, an operation that prosecutors said amounted to a criminal enterprise.
Attorneys for R. Kelly are appealing his convictions.
Sean “Diddy” Combs
The hip-hop mogul was arrested in New York on Sept. 16 and was accused in an indictment of using his “ power and prestige ” to induce female victims and male sex workers into drug-fueled sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs.”
Prosecutors said he used violence and threats of blackmail to keep people from speaking out. Combs, 54, faces federal racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges that could put him in prison for at least 15 years if he is convicted on all counts.
A judge Wednesday rejected the hip-hop mogul’s proposal that he await his sex trafficking trial in the luxury of his Florida mansion instead of a federal jail in Brooklyn.
Kevin Spacey
Last year, a London jury acquitted the Oscar-winning actor of sexual assault charges stemming from allegations by four men dating back 20 years.
Three men accused Spacey of aggressively grabbing their crotches, describing him as “vile” and a “slippery, snaky” predator. Spacey said he was a “big flirt” who had consensual flings with men and whose only misstep was touching a man’s groin while making a “clumsy pass.”
The court victory in England came after Spacey also successfully defended himself against a civil lawsuit in New York in 2022 brought by “Star Trek: Discovery” actor Anthony Rapp.
Cuba Gooding Jr.
The Oscar-winning “Jerry Maguire” star pleaded guilty in 2022 to forcibly kissing a worker at a New York nightclub in 2018 — and in return prosecutors dropped charges involving two other women that could have led to a possible jail term if the case had gone to trial and resulted in a conviction.
Gooding also publicly apologized for the first time to two other women who accused him of similar behavior in separate encounters, calling himself a “celebrity figure” who meant no harm. His admissions were part of a plea deal that came nearly three years after Gooding was arrested.
Gooding told the judge he “kissed the waitress on her lips” without consent.
Danny Masterson
“That ’70s Show” star is serving a sentence of 30 years to life in prison for raping two women.
After an initial jury failed to reach verdicts on three counts of rape in December 2022 and a mistrial was declared, prosecutors retried Masterson on all three counts.
At his second trial, a jury found Masterson guilty of two of three rape counts on May 31. Both attacks took place in Masterson’s Hollywood-area home in 2003, when he was at the height of his fame.
They could not reach a verdict on the third count, an allegation that Masterson also raped a longtime girlfriend.
Prosecutors alleged that Masterson used his prominence in the Church of Scientology — where all three women were also members at the time — to avoid consequences for decades after the attacks, and the women blamed the church for their hesitancy in going to police about Masterson.
