Sean “Diddy” Combs was acquitted Wednesday of intercourse trafficking and racketeering fees however convicted on lesser prostitution-related offenses, marking a dramatic flip within the authorized saga that has upended his public picture and profession.
The combined outcome capped a sordid authorized odyssey that shattered Combs’ affable “Puff Daddy” picture and derailed his profession as a Grammy-winning artist and music government, style entrepreneur, model ambassador and actuality TV star.
As the jury foreman spoke and the “not guilty” verdicts piled up, Combs pumped his fist. As each juror affirmed agreement with the verdict, Combs looked toward the jury and held his hands up in a prayer motion, and he hugged defense lawyer Teny Geragos. Combs’ relatives and supporters in the audience could barely contain their relief, despite the judge’s admonition to avoid outbursts: When the first “not responsible” was learn aloud, somebody shouted, “Yeah!”
Combs, 55, later continued to pump his proper fist subtly, seemingly glad that he was acquitted on probably the most severe fees.
Combs was convicted of flying individuals across the nation, together with his girlfriends and paid male intercourse staff, to have interaction in sexual encounters, a felony violation of the federal Mann Act.
But the jury of eight males and 4 ladies acquitted Combs of racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking fees, associated to allegations that he used his cash, energy and scary bodily power to control his girlfriends into tons of of drug-fueled intercourse marathons with the lads.
Combs’ protection workforce argued that the ladies have been prepared contributors and that none of his violence justified the severity of the fees.
Marc Agnifilo, a lawyer for Combs, requested that his shopper be instantly launched as a result of the federal Mann Act crimes have been of a “vastly completely different nature” than intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. Combs has been behind bars since his September arrest.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey stated he ought to stay incarcerated as a hazard to the group and a risk to flee. She cited proof of bodily abuse and “prolific use and distribution of medication” that emerged throughout the trial.
“I do consider we’ll be searching for a considerable interval of incarceration,” Comey stated.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian stated he would not determine whether or not to free Combs on bail till later within the day after attorneys submit written arguments.
Combs appeared overwhelmed as court docket adjourned for just a few hours. He wiped his face, turning and kneeling at his chair, his head bowed in prayer. In the viewers, his kin stood and applauded as he confronted them.
“I’ll be home soon,” he stated, and “I like you, child.”
“I love you, Mom,” he added.
His kin applauded him and his attorneys, a few of whom had tears of their eyes, as he was led out of court docket.
There’s no date but for sentencing, when the choose will determine on Combs’ punishment for the prostitution conviction.
Federal officers concerned within the case responded to the result by noting that intercourse crimes “are all too current in lots of features of our society.”
“New Yorkers and all Americans need this scourge stopped and perpetrators dropped at justice,” Manhattan-based U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton and Ricky J. Patel, who heads federal Homeland Security Investigations’ New York workplace, stated in a press release.
Jurors deliberated for about 13 hours over three days earlier than saying their verdict. It got here after they stated late Tuesday that they’d selected 4 counts however have been caught on the racketeering one. At that time, the choose instructed them to maintain deliberating and maintain the partial verdict underneath wraps.
Combs didn’t testify at his trial, which featured 34 witnesses in addition to video of the rapper attacking his former girlfriend Cassie, the R&B singer born Casandra Ventura.
Her lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, stated in a press release after the decision that “by coming ahead together with her expertise, Cassie has left an indelible mark on each the leisure business and the battle for justice.”
Cassie testified for 4 days about her turbulent 11-year relationship with Combs, which started after she signed along with his Bad Boy file label.
Cassie stated Combs grew to become obsessive about voyeuristic encounters, organized with the assistance of his workers, that concerned intercourse staff and copious quantities of child oil. During the intercourse occasions, referred to as “freak-offs” or “resort nights,” Combs would order Cassie to do issues with different males that she discovered humiliating, she testified.
When issues didn’t go Combs’ approach, he would beat her, she stated.
“I’m not a rag doll. I’m anyone’s youngster,” Cassie instructed Combs after he dragged her down a resort hallway in 2016.
Another ex-girlfriend, testifying underneath the pseudonym “Jane,” instructed the jury she repeatedly instructed Combs she didn’t need to have intercourse with the lads employed for his or her trysts.
“I’m not an animal. I need a break,” she told him. Nevertheless, she said she felt “obligated” to conform along with his calls for, partly as a result of he paid her lease.
The AP doesn’t sometimes title individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused except they arrive ahead publicly, as Cassie has.
The trial’s most well-known witness, rapper Kid Cudi, stated Combs broke into his dwelling in late 2011 after studying he and Cassie have been courting. After his automotive was firebombed just a few weeks later, Cudi – whose actual title is Scott Mescudi – stated he knew Combs “had one thing to do” with it. Combs denied it.
Combs’ protection workforce acknowledged that he could possibly be violent however argued that prosecutors have been intruding in his private life. In his closing remarks to the jury, Agnifilo stated it wasn’t unlawful for Combs to make “home made porn” along with his girlfriends.
“They go into the person’s bed room. They go into the person’s most non-public life. Where is the crime scene?” Agnifilo stated.
Combs was on the middle of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battles of the Nineties and have become some of the influential hip-hop producers and executives of the previous three a long time, diversifying his pursuits with the Sean John style label, Ciroc vodka, a cable TV channel and a movie and TV studio.
In 2001, Combs was on the middle of one of many largest hip-hop trials of its period, stemming from a Manhattan nightclub taking pictures that injured three individuals in 1999. Combs was acquitted of fees that he took an unlawful gun into the membership and tried to bribe his driver to take the autumn.
His profession recovered rapidly at the moment.
Combs’ popularity might have suffered irreparable injury, although, after Cassie sued him in November 2023, alleging years of sexual and bodily abuse. He settled the following day for $20 million, however extra lawsuits by different men and women adopted.
Most are nonetheless pending.
Source: www.dailysabah.com