Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal intercourse trafficking trial opened in Manhattan on Monday, with prosectors losing no time in portraying the music mogul as a predator and sharing alleged particulars of a few of his most hideous crimes.
“Throughout this trial, you’re going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes,” prosecutor Emily A. Johnson informed the jury in her opening assertion. “However he didn’t do it alone. He had an internal circle of bodyguards and high-ranking staff who helped him commit crimes and helped him cowl them up.”
Combs faces federal expenses of racketeering conspiracy, intercourse trafficking, and violating federal prostitution legal guidelines. If convicted on all counts, he may spend the remainder of his life in jail.
In line with the New York Instances, the prosecution focusing closely on Combs’ relationship together with his ex-girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, who was simply 19 once they met within the mid-2000s. Johnson described a number of harrowing acts of violence dedicated towards Cassie, together with a 2009 incident wherein Combs allegedly “threw Ventura to the ground of an SUV and stomped repeatedly on her face.” She additionally alleged that Combs compelled a male escort to urinate into Ventura’s mouth throughout one of many rapper’s notorious Freak-Off events. Ventura plans to take the stand and testify towards Combs in the course of the trial.
One other alleged sufferer, known as “Mia” by prosecutors, additionally plans to testify in the course of the trial. Described as a former worker of Combs, she has mentioned that he “compelled himself on her sexually,” together with sneaking into her mattress to “penetrate her towards her will.
Along with the victims’ testimonies, prosecutors intend to show their case with textual content messages wherein Combs directed his workers to pay for prostitutes; surveillance footage of Combs assaulting Ventura (which he later allegedly tried to buy from a resort in hopes of stopping its launch); and video footage of his Freak-Offs.
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In her personal opening assertion, Combs’ protection legal professional, Teny Geragos, acknowledged her consumer is “flawed,” and was a part of a “poisonous, dysfunctional relationship” with Ventura that included “home violence.” Nonetheless, she denied that Combs engaged within the crimes he has been charged with.
“Sean Combs is an advanced man, however this isn’t an advanced case,” Geragos informed the jury. “We take full accountability that there was home violence. Home violence is just not intercourse trafficking.”
The protection characterised Combs’ accusers as “keen” members in his “swinger life-style,” emphasizing that these had been “consensual” relationships involving “succesful, sturdy” girls who had been “in love with him.”
“This case is about Sean Combs’s non-public, private intercourse life,” Geragos argued, “which has nothing to do together with his lawful companies.”
“He isn’t charged with being imply. He isn’t charged with being a jerk. He’s charged with working a racketeering enterprise,” Geragos added.
The trial is predicted to final two months.