In 1991, the rap mogul was investigated in a deadly stampede at a New York charity basketball game he organized. In 1997, his best friend, Christopher "Notorious B.I.G." Wallace, was gunned down. Last year, Combs was charged with the assault of a record executive.

Now the self-made millionaire is poised to take on his biggest legal battle yet. The 30-year-old will face 15 years behind bars if convicted of weapons and bribery charges.

The trial promises to be as high profile as Combs' life. His singer-actress girlfriend Jennifer Lopez will likely appear as a witness, and "Dream Team" lawyer Johnnie Cochran, Jr., will be among his defense attorneys.

From Sipping Champagne to a Car Chase

The charges Combs faces stem from a shooting at Club New York, a Manhattan nightspot near Times Square. On Dec. 27, 1999, Combs and Lopez were enjoying themselves in the club's VIP area, sipping champagne and talking with friends.

The night turned ugly just before 3 a.m. when, according to prosecutors, Combs and his 19-year-old rap protege, Jamal "Shyne" Barrow, began arguing with another club patron. A wad of money was thrown at Combs — a sign of disrespect — and according to the prosecution, Combs and Barrow pulled out semiautomatic pistols, and Barrow began firing.

Three people were shot — the club's bouncer, Julius Jones, 27, and patron Robert Thompson, 39, were each struck in the shoulder, while Natanya Reuben, 29, was shot in the cheek. None of these injuries were life threatening.

Police arrived at the scene and arrested Barrow, who they say had a gun in his waistband. By that time, Combs and Lopez had fled the club in his gray 1999 Lincoln Navigator with Anthony Jones, Combs' bodyguard, and his driver, Wardel Fenderson.

Police arrived as the sport utility vehicle was driving away and ordered the vehicle to stop. Instead, prosecutors maintain, the Navigator swerved around a patrol car blocking 43rd Street, where the club is located, making it to 54th Street before police forced it to stop. Police say that a 9mm handgun was sitting on the front seat of Combs' car.

Police arrested all four occupants of the vehicle and had already apprehended Barrow at the scene. Investigators obtained a third weapon several days later. According to court papers, a pedestrian who claims the gun was hurled from the SUV turned the weapon over to an FBI agent, who in turn gave it to local police.

Lopez was questioned and released, but the Bad Boy Entertainment CEO remained under suspicion. Days after his arrest, he told reporters, "I do not own a gun nor did I have possession of a gun that night."

When he appeared in front of a grand jury Jan. 4, 2000, he reiterated his personal reasons for not owning a gun.

Combs reasoned, "My father ... got killed through gunfire when I was 3 years old. My best friend [Notorious B.I.G] got killed and one of my biggest artists got killed two and a half years ago to gunfire ... I would never, never, never disrespect the life of my father or my best friend by owning or possessing a gun."

Combs was 3 when his father — an alleged drug dealer — was shot dead. Combs went on to Howard University but dropped out to take an internship at Uptown/MCA records. He was later fired for insubordination, but started his own label which he built into a $250 million hip-hop empire.

Despite Combs' explanation, the jury found enough evidence to indict him on weapons charges. Jones was indicted on weapons charges, and Barrow on a slew of charges, attempted murder the most serious.

Later, prosecutors hit Puffy and Jones with another charge — bribing a witness. They are accused of offering the driver $50,000 and a diamond ring — a gift from Lopez — to say he owned the handgun that police allegedly found in his car.

Prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos said the defendants put "relentless" pressure on driver Wardel Fenderson. Authorities said Combs and Jones offered Fenderson money three times following the shooting. In an answering machine message Combs left for the 41-year-old driver, the rapper said, "I just wanna make you feel comfortable ... make your family feel comfortable and let you know everything is gonna be all right."

The Defense

Benjamin Brafman, who with Cochran represents Combs, called the bribery charge a baseless attempt to shore up a weak gun case against his client. Combs' top-notch defense team claims the rapper-producer was simply trying to get away from a dangerous situation when he and girlfriend Lopez fled the scene of Club New York last December. The lawyers emphasize that no weapon was found on Combs' person that night and there is insufficient proof that one or both of the guns found after the shooting belong to the rapper.

During a pretrial hearing in January, Brafman said he had witnesses who were within inches of Combs at the time of the shooting and saw no gun. Some of these witnesses, Brafman said, were actually lying on top of Combs, shielding him from the gunfire.

Additionally, Brafman and Cochran find fault with Combs' cross-examination before a grand jury. According to court documents, Combs was vigorously cross-examined regarding the facts of his 1999 assault charge involving record executive Steven Stoute.

"The prosecutor's cross-examination of defendant Combs as to other crimes impaired the integrity of the grand jury," the attorneys claim in the documents.

Fenderson, who filed a $3 million suit against Combs as a result of the incident, claims that Combs did try to bribe him, but says the gun did not belong to the rap mogul but Jones, his bodyguard.

Barrow signed an affidavit stating that Puffy was never in possession of a gun in the hours surrounding the shooting. Barrow also pledged to testify to that fact — provided that the trials were severed. He did not want to take the stand at his own trial and risk incriminating himself in front of a jury deciding his fate as well.

Armed with the affidavit, Puffy's lawyers asked that Combs be tried separately from the other two defendants, but that bid was unsuccessful.

"Bad Boy" Record

In 1995, Combs was arrested for criminal possession of a weapon and robbery, but later pleaded guilty to criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, and paid a $1,000 fine.

Only months before the shooting, Combs pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment in connection with an alleged attack on a record company executive. He was sentenced to take an anger management course, and if he stayed out of trouble for a year, the charges would be dismissed.

He initially faced seven years behind bars for an alleged April 15, 1999, assault on Universal/Interscope Records executive Steve Stoute.

"It was a situation where I felt my friend betrayed me and we got in a fist fight," Combs told the grand jury. He said a video Stoute produced for rapper Nas "went against my religious beliefs."

Stoute claims that Puffy and two associates beat him, breaking his jaw and his arm in the process. While Combs admits that some unpleasantness unfolded, he contends that things weren't as severe as first reported.

Combs' name also popped up in hip-hop rumors surrounding the murder of his friend Notorious B.I.G. and rival Tupac Shakur.

Notorious B.I.G. was riding in the passenger seat of his GMC Suburban when he was shot and killed by a single shooter with a 9mm handgun on March 9, 1997. Investigators believe the assassin fled via a carefully designed escape route. He was described by a witness as a young, well-dressed African American man.

In April 1999, investigators linked jailed music producer Marion "Suge" Knight with B.I.G.'s shooting. Although Knight was in jail at the time of Wallace's death, police sources said that the shooting was payback for previous altercations between Beverly Hills-based Death Row Records and Combs' New York-based Bad Boy Entertainment.

Knight, founder of Death Row Records, was seated next to rapper Tupac Shakur when the Death Row rapper was gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996. Knight was only slightly injured; six months later Bad Boy's B.I.G. was dead.

According to authorities, Knight believes people at Bad Boy Entertainment may have been behind that attack. Shakur's death has never been linked to Combs' people.

Before the murders of Wallace and Shakur, the two rap camps blamed each other for several other shootings and even a murder.

Knight is serving a nine-year prison term for a 1992 attack on two aspiring rappers in a Hollywood recording studio. Although his sentence was initially suspended, Knight was ordered to serve time after he violated his probation in a 1996 fight.

Long before the club shooting, in one of his chart-topping songs, Combs included the lyrics, "Ain't nobody gonna hold me down, I've got to keep on moving."

But a jury of his peers might decide otherwise.