Freshly indicted Sean “Diddy” Combs faced a trial in New York City more than 20 years ago for firing off a gun inside a Manhattan club — but he was acquitted by a jury at the time.
Combs, then 31, went before a jury in Manhattan Supreme court over a shooting at the Club New York on West 43rd Street on Dec. 29, 1999 that left three clubgoers injured.
The music mogul was accused of firing a shot into the ceiling of the Midtown dance club and then trying to bribe his chauffeur, Wardel Fenderson, to take the blame for a second gun found inside a getaway car he shared with his then-girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez.
“I thought I was being shot at,” he said from the witness stand at the time.
Combs and his bodyguard, Anthony “Wolf” Jones, who was also charged, were later found not guilty.
The jury deliberated for 22 hours before handing down the verdict on March 16, 2001.
Combs had been facing up to 15 years in prison if convicted on the top charges in the nightclub shooting.
Meanwhile, young rapper Jamal “Shyne” Barrow – who was also embroiled in the ordeal — was convicted of first-degree assault for shooting two bystanders.
Barrow dodged an attempted murder conviction.
Also in 1999, Combs was accused of beating up a record executive in New York. He pleaded down to harassment, a violation, and was sentenced to anger management class.
Combs also pleaded guilty to criminal mischief and paid a $1,000 fine for threatening a New York Post photographer with a gun in 1996.
Details of Combs’ previous brushes with the law resurfaced after the embattled rapper and hip-hop mogul was charged Tuesday with sex-trafficking and racketeering charges over alleged abuse he inflicted on women for more than a decade.
The indictment alleges, in part, that he carried guns to “intimidate and threaten” his victims and those who witnessed the abuse.
When the feds raided his Miami and Los Angeles mansions roughly six months ago as part of the long-running sex-trafficking probe, they seized three AR-15s with “defaced serial numbers”, as well as other guns, ammunition and a drum magazine, the filing alleges.
Combs has long denied the accusations against him and his lawyer said he would plead not guilty to the latest charges.
