NEW YORK (AP) — A federal decide instantly rejected a protection request for a mistrial on Wednesday on the intercourse trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, after his attorneys mentioned prosecutors tried to indicate to a jury that the music mogul interfered with the investigation into rapper Child Cudi’s firebombed Porsche in 2012.
Though such mistrial requests are frequent throughout prolonged federal trials involving tons of of items of proof and dozens of witnesses, this was the primary request at Combs’ trial, which is in its third week of testimony in Manhattan. Combs has been lively in his protection, commonly writing notes to his attorneys, they usually have consulted with him as they questioned witnesses.
Choose Arun Subramanian instructed the jury to ignore testimony concerning the destruction of fingerprint playing cards that occurred months after Cudi’s automotive was set ablaze. Weeks earlier than that firebombing, Combs grew to become enraged when he realized that Cudi was relationship Cassie, the singer who had a virtually 11-year relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018.
The Molotov cocktail used to burn Cudi’s automotive in his Hollywood Hills driveway was common out of a 40-ounce Previous English 800 malt liquor bottle and a designer handkerchief, in response to Lance Jimenez, an arson investigator for the Los Angeles Hearth Division, and pictures proven in court docket.
The protection’s mistrial request got here after Jimenez testified that fingerprints taken from Cudi’s burned up Porsche 911 had been destroyed in August 2012, about eight months after the hearth. Jimenez mentioned somebody within the Los Angeles Police Division who was not concerned within the investigation ordered the fingerprint playing cards destroyed. He mentioned that was not regular protocol.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible to costs that he led a racketeering conspiracy for 20 years that relied on concern and violence to get what he needed. If convicted, he might face 15 years to life in jail. Cassie and different witnesses have testified that she was repeatedly overwhelmed by Combs, and he or she mentioned she was often coerced to have interaction in undesirable intercourse acts.
Protection legal professional Alexandra Shapiro requested for the mistrial throughout a morning break with the jury out of the room. She advised Subramanian that “prosecutorial misconduct” had occurred and mentioned “there’s no way to un-ring this bell.”
She mentioned prosecutors had been on discover throughout jury choice that some potential jurors needed to be eradicated from consideration for the jury as a result of they believed Combs might purchase his manner out of the racketeering conspiracy he is charged with.
“These questions were designed to play right into that,” she mentioned.
Protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo known as the prosecution’s conduct “outrageous.”
Combs’ attorneys argued that the prosecution’s questions and Jimenez’s ensuing testimony was extremely prejudicial as a result of prosecutors had been suggesting that Combs had one thing to do with the destruction of the information.
Assistant U.S. Lawyer Christy Slavik mentioned “a mistrial is absolutely unwarranted here.” She mentioned the topic of fingerprints was raised to counter protection solutions via questions posed to different witnesses that the automotive firebombing was poorly investigated and that the world was not canvassed for fingerprints.
