NEW YORK (AP) — The sixth week of the Sean “Diddy” Combs’ intercourse trafficking trial was shortened by a vacation and a juror’s sickness as prosecutors almost concluded their case, setting the stage for a one- or two-day protection presentation subsequent week.
Within the trial’s first 5 weeks, jurors repeatedly heard testimony about drug-fueled marathon intercourse occasions described as “freak-offs” by one in all Combs’ ex-girlfriends and as “hotel nights” by one other. Within the sixth week, they have been proven about 20 minutes of video recordings from the dayslong occasions.
Combs, the founding father of Unhealthy Boy Leisure, has pleaded not responsible to intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy expenses within the trial, which continues Monday.
Listed here are key moments from the previous week:
Jurors watch movies of ‘freak-off’ intercourse marathons that they had heard a lot about
Jurors largely stored their reactions muted after they have been proven about 20 minutes of recordings made by Combs of his then-girlfriends having intercourse with male intercourse staff on the elaborately staged “freak-offs” or “hotel nights.”
Prosecutors say the occasions have been proof of intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy expenses as a result of Combs coerced his workers, associates and even his girlfriends to recruit and organize flights for intercourse staff whereas his staff obtained medicine, stocked lodge rooms with child oil, lubricant, condoms, candles and liquor and delivered money.
In her opening assertion, protection lawyer Teny Geragos had referred to as the movies “powerful evidence that the sexual conduct in this case was consensual and not based on coercion.”
Prosecutors performed about 2 minutes of the recordings earlier than the protection group aired about 18 minutes of the movies.
The general public and the press have been unable to watch whether or not the prosecutors or protection legal professionals had the higher arguments after the choose dominated that neither the recordings nor the sound might be seen or heard by anybody besides legal professionals, the choose and the jury.
A number of jurors appeared to solid their eyes and generally flip their our bodies away from the screens straight in entrance of them whereas the recordings performed. The jurors listened via earphones equipped by the court docket, as did Combs and legal professionals.
A juror is ejected from the panel by a choose who questions whether or not he has an agenda
Choose Arun Subramanian began the week by dismissing a juror whose conflicting solutions about whether or not he lived in New Jersey or New York satisfied the choose he was a menace to the integrity of the trial.
Subramanian mentioned the juror’s solutions throughout jury choice and within the week earlier than he was excused “raised serious concerns as to the juror’s candor and whether he shaded answers to get on and stay on the jury.”
“The inconsistencies — where the juror has lived and with whom — go to straightforward issues as to which there should not have been any doubts, and the answers also go to something vital: the basic qualifications of a juror to serve,” the choose mentioned.
Residents of New Jersey wouldn’t be permitted to sit down on a New York federal jury.
A day earlier than Subramanian dominated, protection legal professionals argued fiercely towards dismissal, saying that changing the Black juror with a white alternate juror so late within the trial would change the varied demographics of the jury and require a mistrial.
The jurors are nameless for the Combs trial.
It wasn’t the one problem concerning jurors for the week. The choose, angered by a media report in regards to the questioning of one other juror the week earlier than that occurred in a sealed continuing, warned legal professionals that they might face civil and legal sanctions if such a leak occurred once more. That juror was not dismissed.
And Wednesday’s court docket session needed to be canceled after a juror reported “vertigo symptoms” on the way in which to the courthouse.
A protection lawyer predicts a presentation measured in hours moderately than days
Protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo appeared to shut the door on any likelihood Combs would testify when he mentioned Friday that the protection presentation could be completed Tuesday or Wednesday the next week, even when prosecutors do not relaxation till late Monday.
It’s not unusual for defendants to decide on to not testify at legal trials. Moreover being uncovered to cross-examination by prosecutors, the testimony can be utilized by the federal government towards the defendant ought to there be a necessity for a retrial. Additionally, if there’s a conviction, the choose can conclude that the jury believed the defendant lied on the stand.
One other former Combs’ worker requires immunity to testify about working for him
Brendan Paul, contemporary off the school basketball courts the place he as soon as performed in a cameo position for Syracuse College, joined Combs’ firms as a private assistant in late 2022 and was warned by a good friend who had labored for Combs about what was forward.
“He told me to get in and get out,” Paul recalled for the jury, citing the infinite days and always-on-edge existence. “If you have a girlfriend, break up with her. And you’re never going to see your family.”
The good friend additionally instructed him to “build a rolodex of clientele and get out,” he mentioned.
Paul mentioned he labored 80 to 100 hours per week for a music energy dealer who obtained “thousands and thousands” of textual content messages and emails a day. He was paid $75,000 wage initially, but it surely was raised in January 2024 to $100,000.
He mentioned Combs instructed him he “doesn’t take no for an answer” and wished his workers to “move like Seal Team Six.”
A number of occasions, Paul mentioned, he picked up medicine for Combs and knew to maintain his boss out of the drug commerce as a result of “it was very important to keep his profile low. He’s a celebrity.”
The job got here to an abrupt finish in March 2024 when Paul was arrested at a Miami airport on drug expenses after a small quantity of cocaine that he mentioned he picked up in Combs’ room that morning was mistakenly put in his journey bag as he ready to hitch Combs on a visit to the Bahamas. The costs have been later dropped in a pretrial diversion program.
Paul mentioned he hadn’t seen Combs since.
