NEW YORK (AP) — For seven weeks, a jury in Manhattan has listened as prosecutors laid out a felony intercourse trafficking and racketeering case towards rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs. They heard his ex-girlfriends and different witnesses ship surprising accounts of violence and drug-fueled sexual marathons.
On Monday, jurors are set to start deliberating, in the end deciding whether or not Combs was working a felony enterprise, as the federal government says, or — as his lawyer insists — merely dwelling a swinger way of life that included leisure drug use and, regrettably, home violence.
The reply will decide the way forward for one of many largest music moguls and cultural figures of the previous 4 many years. If convicted, Combs, 55, would face 15 years to life in jail.
Right here’s what to know in regards to the case:
What are the fees?
The three-time Grammy Award winner has pleaded not responsible to 5 felony fees: one depend of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of intercourse trafficking by pressure, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to interact in prostitution.
Prosecutors say Combs coerced ladies into abusive intercourse events involving employed male intercourse staff, ensured their compliance with medicine like cocaine and threats to their careers, and silenced victims via blackmail and violence that included kidnapping, arson and beatings.
“He’s the chief of a felony enterprise. He doesn’t take no for a solution,” Assistant U.S. Lawyer Christy Slavik stated in her closing arguments on Thursday.
Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, portrayed the Dangerous Boys Information founder because the sufferer of overzealous prosecutors who exaggerated components of his way of life and leisure drug use to deliver fees that resulted in what he referred to as a “fake trial.”
What’s racketeering?
Probably the most severe cost, racketeering conspiracy, alleges that Combs ran a felony enterprise for twenty years that relied on bodyguards, family workers, private assistants and others in his orbit to facilitate and canopy up crimes.
Federal prosecutors introduced the cost below the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. Congress handed the federal regulation in 1970 with the declared function of focusing on organized crime, however its use has been extra widespread.
To show the cost, prosecutors should present that an enterprise existed and was concerned in a sample of racketeering exercise. On this case, that alleged exercise consists of kidnapping, arson, bribery and intercourse trafficking.
Key items of proof
Early within the trial, prosecutors confirmed jurors 2016 safety video of Combs beating and kicking his former longtime girlfriend Cassie at a Los Angeles resort. Cassie, an R&B singer whose authorized title is Casandra Ventura, testified the assault happened as she was making an attempt to depart one of many sexual encounters, which witnesses say he known as “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.”
Jurors noticed quite a few express clips of such encounters, some involving Cassie and others involving a later girlfriend who was recognized solely by the the pseudonym “Jane.”
Each ladies took the stand.
Cassie testified over 4 days that she participated in lots of of the occasions with paid intercourse staff whereas she and Combs had been in a relationship from 2007 till 2018, typically feeling like she did not have a selection. She sued Combs in 2023, alleging years of abuse. He settled inside hours, and dozens of comparable lawsuits adopted.
Jane testified over six days that she was romantically concerned with Combs from 2021 till his September arrest at a New York resort, and that she, too, felt pressured to have intercourse with the employed strangers in multiday intercourse marathons whereas Combs watched.
The Related Press doesn’t typically determine individuals who say they’re victims of sexual abuse except they arrive ahead publicly, as Cassie has achieved.
Testimony additionally included hours of textual content message exchanges, a few of which concerned Combs or different individuals in his orbit, that had been learn aloud by a Homeland Safety Investigations agent.
In all, 34 individuals took the stand, all of them referred to as by the prosecution.
Combs didn’t testify.
How will jury deliberations work?
Choose Arun Subramanian will give directions to the jurors on Monday earlier than sending them off to deliberate contained in the Manhattan federal courthouse.
The jury of 8 males and 4 ladies should unanimously determine responsible or not responsible on every depend.
Which means all 12 jurors should agree. If jurors don’t attain an settlement, they may come again and say they’re deadlocked.
Historically, the decide would then encourage them to proceed deliberating, but when they will’t attain a consensus, it might be as much as the decide to determine whether or not to declare a mistrial.
