Combs: Lopez's Protector

10/30/1998 at 12:00 AM EST

When he was locked up in a New York City jail cell after a Dec. 27 Times Square nightclub shooting, rap entrepreneur Sean "Puffy" Combs was more concerned about his girlfriend, singer-actress Jennifer Lopez, than himself, say court records. Combs, who yesterday pleaded not guilty to weapons charges stemming from the incident, "repeatedly and spontaneously . . . asked officers why Jennifer Lopez was being arrested," the documents reveal. (Lopez was released without being charged.) Attorneys Johnnie Cochran and Benjamin Brafman said that Combs's remarks on the night of his arrest have no bearing on his innocence. Lopez, meanwhile, serves as Talk magazine's cover girl for March. She is posed aiming her fingers as if she were pulling the trigger of a gun.