NEW YORK (AP) — The prosecution rested Tuesday at Sean “Diddy” Combs ’ intercourse trafficking trial, capping a greater than six-week-long presentation of proof towards the hip-hop maven that confronted him with former workers and two former girlfriends who expressed remorse at his remedy of them over the previous 20 years.
After the prosecution rested, Combs’ legal professionals requested U.S. District Choose Arun Subramanian to halt the trial instantly and throw out the fees, arguing the fees weren’t confirmed.
The federal government rested after protection lawyer Teny Geragos completed questioning the prosecution’s remaining witness: Joseph Cerciello, a Homeland Safety Investigations agent.
Prosecutors have cited the “freakoffs” as proof of the intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy fees that resulted in Combs’ arrest final September.
Protection legal professionals, although, say they have been consensual sexual encounters in step with the swingers life-style.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible and has remained incarcerated with out bail in a federal lockup in Brooklyn after a number of judges concluded final fall that he was a hazard to the group.
The federal government’s case consisted of 34 witnesses, together with former workers of Combs’ Unhealthy Boy Leisure corporations, however the bulk of its proof has come from the testimony of two former girlfriends: Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a mannequin and web persona identified to jurors solely by the pseudonym “Jane.”
Ventura, 38, testified for 4 days throughout the trial’s first week, saying she felt pressured to interact in lots of of “freak offs” as a result of the encounters would allow her to be intimate with Combs after performing sexually with male intercourse staff whereas he watched them slather each other with child oil and typically filmed the encounters.
Jane testified for six days in regards to the sexual performances she labeled “hotel nights,” saying that she was placing them into perspective after starting remedy three months in the past. She stated she felt coerced into partaking in them as just lately as final August, however did so as a result of she cherished and nonetheless loves Combs.
Ventura was in a relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018, whereas Jane was ceaselessly with him from 2021 till his arrest, which canceled her plan to fulfill him on the New York lodge the place he was taken into custody.
The Related Press doesn’t usually establish individuals who say they’re victims of sexual abuse except they arrive ahead publicly, as Cassie has executed.
After prosecutors rested Tuesday, the jury was despatched to lunch. Once they return, a protection presentation was anticipated to be accomplished by the top of the day with none witnesses.
All through the trial, protection legal professionals have made their case for exoneration by means of their questioning of witnesses, together with a number of who testified reluctantly or solely after they have been granted immunity from any crimes they could have dedicated.
Combs has been lively in his protection, writing notes to his legal professionals and typically serving to them determine when to cease questioning a witness.
He was admonished as soon as by the decide for nodding enthusiastically towards jurors throughout a profitable stretch of cross-examination by one among his legal professionals. Prosecutors complained that his gestures have been a type of testifying with out being topic to cross-examination. The decide warned that he could possibly be excluded from his trial if it occurred once more.
Previously week, prosecutors and protection legal professionals have proven jurors over 40 minutes of recordings Combs made from the “freak offs” or “hotel nights.”
A number of jurors sometimes appeared squeamish as they seen and listened to audio of the encounters, however most didn’t appear to react.
In her opening assertion, Geragos had referred to as the movies “powerful evidence that the sexual conduct in this case was consensual and not based on coercion.”
Closing arguments have been tentatively scheduled for Thursday.
