AC Milan gets timely boost with Fonseca's first win ahead of crucial week

MILAN (AP) — New AC Milan coach Paulo Fonseca got his first Serie A win in style. It couldn’t have come at a better time for the Rossoneri.

A devastating opening half an hour set Milan on its way to a convincing 4-0 win over promoted Venezia on Saturday for its first victory of the season after two draws and a loss.

The result and the manner of the victory are a timely confidence boost ahead of a crucial week. Fonseca's team hosts Liverpool in the Champions League on Tuesday followed by a Serie A derby match against defending champion Inter Milan.

Also, Bologna remained winless but came from two goals down to salvage a 2-2 draw against Como.

Juventus drew at Empoli 0-0.

Rafael Leao and Theo Hernandez were benched for Milan’s last match but were back in the starting lineup and the pair combined to score the opener after just 90 seconds.

Hernandez won the ball in midfield and played it to Leao who gave it back to him with a delicious backheeled flick on the half turn. That sent the France international down the left and he squeezed his shot past Jesse Joronen at the near post.

Milan doubled its lead in the 16th minute when Youssouf Fofana headed in a Christian Pulisic corner, and the United States international got on the scoresheet himself in the 25th by converting a penalty after Tammy Abraham was tripped by Joronen.

The Rossoneri were awarded another penalty less than three minutes later after the video assistant referee spotted Venezia defender Joël Schingtienn trodding on Leao’s foot.

This time Abraham stepped up to net his first goal for Milan since joining from Roma last month.

It was the first time Milan scored four times in the first half hour of a Serie A match since 1958.

Francesco Zampano thought he pulled one back for Venezia but it was ruled out and Venezia midfielder Hans Nicolussi Caviglia was shown a second yellow card for a foul on Ruben Loftus-Cheek and sent off.

Bologna’s preparations for its Champions League debut are not going well though it managed to spoil Como’s first Serie A home match in 21 years.

Bologna, which hosts Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday, has just three points from its opening four matches. Its only other appearance in Europe’s top competition was in 1964 in the preliminary round of the old European Cup.

Como made a great start in the fifth minute when Patrick Cutrone attempted to roll the ball across the six-yard box but it took a huge deflection off Bologna defender Nicolò Casale for an own goal.

Bologna improved after the break but found itself further behind when Cutrone raced onto a through ball and cut inside past a defender and fired into the far bottom corner.

Tommaso Pobega hit the post for Bologna, which finally pulled one back in the 76th through substitute Santiago Castro.

Another substitute helped the visitors snatch a point when Samuel Iling-Junior curled a fine strike into the top left corner in stoppage time.

Juventus, and more surprisingly Empoli, are among six unbeaten sides.

Empoli held Monza and Bologna to draws either side of a shock 2-1 win at Roma. Juventus' perfect start to the season was ruined by Roma in a goalless draw before the international break.

On Saturday, there were few clearcut chances in Empoli although home goalkeeper Devis Vásquez made spectacular saves to fingertip out a Federico Gatti header and deny Dusan Vlahovic in a one on one with the Juventus forward.

Empoli had a good opportunity in the 73rd minute following an Alberto Grassi one-two with Pietro Pellegri but the finish was straight at Mattia Perin.

The host could have won it right at the death but Gatti flew in with a great sliding block to keep out Emanuel Gyasi's close-range effort.

Juventus hosts PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Tuesday.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

AC Milan's Tammy Abraham, center, celebrates after he scored during the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Venezia at the San Siro stadium in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

AC Milan's Matteo Gabbia, left, celebrates with teammate Christian Pulisic after scoring in a Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Venezia at the San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)

AC Milan's Theo Hernandez, left, celebrates after he scored with Rafael Leaoduring the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Venezia at the San Siro stadium, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

AC Milan's head coach Paulo Fonseca gives instructions during the Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Venezia at the San Siro stadium, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

AC Milan's Christian Pulisic celebrates after scoring in a Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Venezia at the San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Spada/LaPresse via AP)

Juventus Kenan Yildiz, right, fights for the ball with Empoli's Saba Goglichidze, during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Empoli and Juventus at the Carlo Castellani Stadium in Empoli, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Marco Bucco/LaPresse via AP)

Juventus' Andrea Cambiaso, right, jumps past Empoli's Liam Henderson during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Empoli and Juventus at the Carlo Castellani Stadium in Empoli, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Marco Bucco/LaPresse via AP)

Juventus Dusan Vlahovic, top, is tackled by Empoli's Ardian Ismajli during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Empoli and Juventus at the Carlo Castellani Stadium in Empoli, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Marco Bucco/LaPresse via AP)

Como 1907's Patrick Cutrone celebrates after Bologna's Nicolo Casale scored an own goal, during the Serie A soccer match between Como and Bologna at the Giuseppe Sinigaglia stadium in Como, Italy, Saturday Sept. 14, 2024. (Antonio Saia/LaPresse via AP)

Como's Patrick Cutrone reacts during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Como and Bologna at the Giuseppe Sinigaglia stadium in Como, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Antonio Saia/LaPresse via AP)

Como's head coach Cesc Fabregas gives instructions during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Como and Bologna at the Giuseppe Sinigaglia stadium in Como, Italy, Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Antonio Saia/LaPresse via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — For 10 months, rumblings, lawsuits, law enforcement raids and mounting allegations of widespread sexual abuse had surrounded Sean "Diddy Combs. The business empire, cultural cachet and fatherly image he had cultivated in the decades since he became a hot young hip-hop mogul in the 1990s had begun to erode.

On Tuesday, those ripples became a wave with the unsealing of a sweeping indictment alleging years of sex trafficking and conspiracy, to which he pleaded not guilty before a federal magistrate ordered him jailed without bail as he awaits trial.

The indictment accuses Combs of presiding over a sordid empire of sexual crimes that used his “power and prestige” for “sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, drug offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice.”

It describes the inducement of female victims and male sex workers into drugged-up, elaborately produced sexual performances dubbed “Freak Offs" that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during and often recorded. The events would sometimes last days and require IVs to recover from, the indictment said, and Combs used his employees as though they were a film crew.

It alleges he coerced and abused women for years while using blackmail, including the videos he shot, and shocking acts of violence to keep his victims in line, coordinated and facilitated from the top down by a network of associates and employees.

Combs' attorney Marc Agnifilo declared his client's innocence, and said they would appeal the bail decision, with a hearing expected Wednesday afternoon. Combs, 54, was led out of court without handcuffs, and turned to his family as he left.

“Sean Combs has never evaded, avoided, eluded or run from a challenge in his life,” the defense said in a court filing. “He will not start now."

For all the revelations that came Tuesday, most of the acts it outlines had been described in detail in the original November lawsuit filed by his former longtime girlfriend and protege, the R&B singer Cassie, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura. The suit was settled the following day, but its allegations would do anything but go away.

Its descriptions of beatings, sexual assaults, silencing tactics and “Freak Offs” were echoed throughout the criminal indictment, though it did not use her name or the names of any other women.

Agnifilo, also without naming Ventura but clearly referring to her, argued at Tuesday's arraignment that the entire criminal case is an outgrowth of one long-term, troubled-but-consensual relationship that faltered amid infidelity.

The “Freak Offs,” Agnifilo contended, were an expansion of that relationship, and not coercive.

“Is it sex trafficking?" Agnifilo asked. “Not if everybody wants to be there.”

Prosecutors, however, portrayed the scope as far larger. They said in court papers that they had interviewed more than 50 victims and witnesses and expect the number to grow.

Like many aging hip-hop figures — including many of those he beefed with in the bi-coastal rap feuds of the 1990s alongside the Notorious B.I.G. — the Bad Boy Records founder Combs had established a gentler, more worldly public image, as a doting father to seven children and a respected international businessman, whose annual “White Party” in the Hamptons was once a must-have invitation for the jet-setting elite.

But prosecutors said he used the same companies, people and methods he used to build his business and cultural power to facilitate his crimes. They said they would prove it with financial, travel and billing records, electronic data and communications and videos of the “Freak Offs” to prove their case.

Both Ventura's lawsuit and a Tuesday court filing from prosecutors say Combs set fire to someone’s vehicle by slicing open its convertible top and dropping in a Molotov cocktail, and describe his punching Ventura, dragging her by her hair and kicking her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.

Security video aired by CNN in May showed that beating. Combs soon apologized, saying, “I was disgusted when I did it.” But it would be a major turning point in public perception. He returned a key to the city at the request of New York Mayor Eric Adams, and Howard University cut ties with him.

“A year ago, Sean Combs stood in Times Square and was handed a key to New York City," Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said at a news conference Tuesday. "Today, he’s been indicted and will face justice.”

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as Ventura did.

Combs was arrested late Monday in a Manhattan hotel, roughly six months after federal authorities raided his luxurious homes in Los Angeles and Miami and revealed they were conducting a sex trafficking investigation.

During the searches, law enforcement seized narcotics, videos of the “Freak Offs” and more than 1,000 bottles of baby oil and lubricant, according to prosecutors. They said agents also seized firearms and ammunition, including three AR-15s with defaced serial numbers.

The indictment portrays Combs as so violent that he caused injuries that often took days or weeks to heal. His employees and associates sometimes witnessed his violence and kept victims from leaving or tracked down those who tried, the indictment said.

A conviction on every charge in the indictment would require a mandatory 15 years in prison with the possibility of a life sentence.

Combs and his attorneys denied similar allegations made by others in a string of lawsuits filed after Ventura's.

Dalton reported from Los Angeles.

From right, Justin Dior Combs, Quincy Brown and King Combs, arrive at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams speaks about federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges against Sean "Diddy" Combs during a news conference, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

FILE - Sean "Diddy" Combs appears at the premiere of "Can't Stop, Won't Stop: A Bad Boy Story" on June 21, 2017, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

Marc Agnifilo, attorney for Sean "Diddy" Combs, arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

From left, King Combs, Quincy Brown and Justin Dior Combs arrive at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

In this courtroom sketch, Sean Combs, center, is flanked by his defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, left, and Teny Garagos, in Manhattan Federal Court, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams speaks about federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges against Sean "Diddy" Combs during a news conference, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

FILE -Sean 'Diddy' Combs participates in "The Four" panel during the FOX Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif., Jan. 4, 2018. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

In this courtroom sketch, Sean Combs, seated right, looks at his attorney, Marc Agnifilo, left, as he delivers his bail argument as Combs' family in the gallery, background, raise their hands indicating to Judge Tarnofsky that they are in attendance, to bolster the defense attorney's bail argument, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, in Manhattan Federal Court in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)