Sean "Puffy" Combs Indicted
Sean "Puffy" Combs, the rapper and music producer known for hanging around hip hoppers and the Hamptons, has been indicted by a Grand Jury on weapons charges, CBS News Correspondent Bobbi Harley reports.
The charges come two weeks after police found the Grammy-winning rap entrepreneur and a handgun inside a sports utility vehicle owned by his record label.
Two of Combs' associates were also named in the indictment: his rapping protégé, Jamal "Shyne" Barrow, for attempted murder, and bodyguard Anthony Jones on a weapons charge, said Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau.
Combs, 30, has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence since his arrest after the Dec. 27 shooting inside the crowded Club NY. The late night shooting left three people injured. Witnesses have said that Combs was throwing money in the club and, a few minutes later, shots were fired.
Combs was taken into custody, along with his girlfriend Jennifer Lopez, as they drove away from the midtown club following the 2:30 a.m. gunfire. Lopez was later released without charges.
Combs, who earned an estimated $53 million through his rap empire in 1998, was released on $10,000 bail after his arrest. He is due back in court Feb. 14. As of Thursday, he has hired two well-known lawyers, Johnnie Cochran and Benjamin Brafman, to represent him.
At a Thursday evening news conference, Combs re-affirmed his innocence in the situation, saying only, "I do not own a gun, nor did I possess a gun that night." Attorney Johnnie Cochran, famous for having defended O.J. Simpson in 1995, said at the same news conference,"Sean Combs had nothing whatsoever to do with the shooting that occurred inside Club New York on December 27th 1999."
Combs and Lopez, the singer/actress who starred in the films Selena and Out of Sight, were arrested when officers stopped a 1999 sports utility car that had run at least one red light while fleeing the club.
Police found the couple in the back seat and a stolen 9 mm pistol in the front seat. Also in the vehicle were a driver and bodyguard Anthony Jones, also indicted.
Combs' attorney, Harvey Slovis, has said the couple was fleeing the nightclub in fear of their lives and that Combs did not own the weapon found in the vehicle.
It was Combs' second arrest of 1999. The rap impresario was arrested in April for allegedly beating a fellow music executive, leaving the victim with a broken arm and jaw. Combs pleaded guilty to harassment in the case and was ordered to undergo counseling.