The prosecution rested Tuesday at Sean “Diddy” Combs ’ intercourse trafficking trial, capping a greater than six-week-long presentation of proof towards the hip-hop maven that confronted him with former staff and two former girlfriends who expressed remorse at his remedy of them over the previous twenty years.
After the prosecution rested, Combs’ attorneys requested U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian to halt the trial instantly and throw out the fees, arguing the fees weren’t confirmed.
The authorities rested after defence lawyer Teny Geragos completed questioning the prosecution’s ultimate witness: Joseph Cerciello, a Homeland Security Investigations agent.
Prosecutors have cited the “freakoffs” as proof of the intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy fees that resulted in Combs’ arrest final September.
Defence attorneys, although, say they have been consensual sexual encounters per the swingers life-style.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible and has remained incarcerated with out bail in a federal lockup in Brooklyn after a number of judges concluded final fall that he was a hazard to the neighborhood.
The authorities’s case consisted of 34 witnesses, together with former staff of Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment firms, however the bulk of its proof has come from the testimony of two former girlfriends: Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a mannequin and web character recognized to jurors solely by the pseudonym “Jane.”
Ventura, 38, testified for 4 days in the course of the trial’s first week, saying she felt pressured to interact in a whole bunch of “freak offs” as a result of the encounters would allow her to be intimate with Combs after performing sexually with male intercourse staff whereas he watched them slather each other with child oil and typically filmed the encounters.
Jane testified for six days concerning the sexual performances she labeled “hotel nights,” saying that she was placing them into perspective after starting remedy three months in the past. She stated she felt coerced into partaking in them as not too long ago as final August, however did so as a result of she cherished and nonetheless loves Combs.
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Ventura was in a relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018, whereas Jane was often with him from 2021 till his arrest, which cancelled her plan to fulfill him on the New York lodge the place he was taken into custody.
The Associated Press doesn’t usually establish individuals who say they’re victims of sexual abuse until they arrive ahead publicly, as Ventura has finished.
After prosecutors rested Tuesday, the jury was despatched to lunch. When they return, a defence presentation was anticipated to be accomplished by the tip of the day with none witnesses.
Throughout the trial, defence attorneys have made their case for exoneration via their questioning of witnesses, together with a number of who testified reluctantly or solely after they have been granted immunity from any crimes they could have dedicated.
Combs has been energetic in his defence, writing notes to his attorneys and typically serving to them resolve when to cease questioning a witness.
He was admonished as soon as by the decide for nodding enthusiastically towards jurors throughout a profitable stretch of cross-examination by considered one of his attorneys. Prosecutors complained that his gestures have been a type of testifying with out being topic to cross-examination. The decide warned that he could possibly be excluded from his trial if it occurred once more.
In the previous week, prosecutors and defence attorneys have proven jurors over 40 minutes of recordings Combs made from the “freak offs” or “hotel nights.”
Several jurors sometimes appeared squeamish as they considered and listened to audio of the encounters, however most didn’t appear to react.
In her opening assertion, Geragos had known as the movies “powerful evidence that the sexual conduct in this case was consensual and not based on coercion.”
Closing arguments have been tentatively scheduled for Thursday.
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