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Federal prosecutors in New York should rest their case against Sean “Diddy” CombsWhile the defense team of the musical magnate intends to offer no testimony to its own witnesses, ending the racketeering conspiracy and a trial on sexual traffic sooner than expected.
This combination defense team would decide to call that no one was unexpected but far from unusual legal experts.
“It is more likely that at a trial that the defense will not call any witness,” said Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor of the New Jersey district who now practices criminal defense in New York. “So what you can hear the defense lawyer say during the closing arguments is that the witnesses of the accusation made our cause. We did not have the burden to prove our case, and the counter-interrogation of their witnesses clearly indicates that we are right and that they are wrong.” “”
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Since the start of the trial more than six weeks ago, jurors have heard 34 witnesses who testified to the government’s assertion that Combs, the founder, rapper and entrepreneur of Bad Boy Records, has exploited his businesses as a criminal business “to sexually abuse and exploit women for decades. A jury of eight men and four women examined the text messages, in particular text messages, Videos and receipts, intended to involve combs.
His lawyers said last week that they had about three witnesses they could call, including a former vice-president of operations at Bad Boy Entertainment. But the main defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo said on Monday the American district judge Arun Subramanian that his team would rather submit their own evidence and stipulate several questions before closing the arguments, which could start on Thursday.
After the rest of the accusation, the defense should also ask Subramanian to completely reject the case – a typical request at this stage of the trial but which rarely succeeds.
Legal experts claim that Subramanian should ask the jurors not to give less weight to the defense for having put any witness, because the burden of evidence beyond doubt is still in the accusation.
While Epner said that jurors “should not pay attention to the number of witnesses in place”, they are also “human beings, and they will be careful and be curious to know why they have not heard some people testify”.
What the accusation must prove
Combs, 55, pleaded not guilty to a racketeering chief; two sexual trafficking leaders by force, fraud or coercion; And two transport managers to engage in prostitution. He faces a Long prison sentence If he is found, he is guilty of a single accusation.
Federal prosecutors have managed to use racketeering charges, more often associated with the rings of organized crime, in recent years against high -level figures accused of sexual offenses, especially The R&B singer R. Kelly And NXIVM Cult Leader Keith Raniere. (Agnifilo represented Raniere in his 2019 trial.)
The act of federal accusation against the combs refers specifically to four women who accuse him of sexual abuse and alleys a complisus of racketeering in which a range of predicate or crimes offenses, has been committed, in particular sexual traffic, forced labor, offenses of drugs, kidnapping, criminal fires, patent and obstruction of justice.
At Start of the testThe singer R&B Cassie, the former girlfriend of Combs, testified over several days About educated marathon sex sessions, known as “Freak Offs”, which she said that Combs orchestrated for her with male escorts.
His career has suffered from “Freak offs,” she said, “has become a job”.
Some legal experts who were not initially convinced that the testimony of Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, is equivalent to a racketeering plot, says that the accusation filed on a large business.
“I understood why there was a reaction from the start of” where is the proof of the conspiracy? ” “I haven’t seen it either,” said Jennifer Beidel, a former United States assistant in the South New York district. “If the jury was called to deliberate after the second week or the third week, would they have been convicted of the racketeering? Probably not. Now, it could happen.”
And while Three women testified against the comb – Ventura, a former assistant using the pseudonym “MIA” and an ex -girlfriend going by “Jane” – The accusations are not linked to the accusers as individuals, so that jurors can assess their assertions separately or as a whole.
“You might think that Cassie is credible but decide that Jane is not convincing,” said Beidel. “But even if they do not find a convincing, there could always be enough conviction with the way in which this is billed.”
The federal racketeering status obliges the government to prove that at least two acts of predicate occurred, but the jurors do not agree with those they are, said Beidel. If some jurors do not believe that allegations of sex trafficking because they think that sexual relations between combs and women were consensual, as the defense suggested, the accusation presented “many alternative ways of each juror to obtain the necessary predicate act” for racketeering, she added.
The key testimony may have advanced the case of the accusation, according to legal experts.
The rapper winner of a Grammy, Kid Cudi, who was a romantic rival of Combs, testified on the Bombing of fires from his Porsche In 2012. CUDI, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, said that Combs burst into his home in the Hollywood Hills district of Los Angeles in the weeks preceding the criminal fire act on his car.
A former Personal Assistant in Combs, Capricorn Clark, said Combs was armed with a firearm when he kidnapped him to accompany him to face Cudi while threatening to kill him.
Another former Combs employee, George Kaplan, testified to acting as a drug mail and the hotel rooms where the “Flices” took place with the necessary oil and candles.
Meanwhile, the testimony of Eddy Garcia, a safety supervisor in a hotel in Los Angeles where Combs was seen on Ventura security video In 2016, focused on an allegation that Combs was desperate to obtain the only copy of the video. Garcia said Combs had paid $ 100,000 in cash, which was divided between members of the hotel security team, and that he had signed a non-disclosure agreement that called on his silence in what could be examples of corruption and obstruction of justice, according to legal experts.
The government began to complete its file with a special agent from the American prosecutor’s office, Deleassa Penland, who reviewed the flight files belonging to Jules Theodore. Prosecutors say that Theodore, a male escort, has often been hired to engage in “worlds” with Combs and Ventura and that he traveled between New York and Los Angeles. Penland testified that credit card costs had been paid by a signature bank account held by Bad Boy Entertainment worldwide.
The accusation’s questioning line seemed to be trying to strengthen the two transport managers to engage in prostitution that combines also confronted, according to legal experts.
Defense can sow doubt during closures
During the counter-examination, the defense lawyers prompted certain witnesses of the government to say that they always admire combs, liked working for him and testified only because they were assigned.
Ventura said during her opposite perspective that she does not hate Combs: “I have love for the past and what it was.”
Mark Zauderer, a veteran of trials and appeal lawyer in New York, said that the defense decision not to call anyone at the stand indicates that she “concluded that the testimony of additional witnesses will not help the combs”.
“In this circumstance, the defense will place all its eggs in a single basket, asserting the jury that the government has not proven the elements of its case (of racketeering) beyond all reasonable doubts,” said Zauderer.
He added that not calling Combs is a strategy that his defense bets will be paid.
“He cannot testify without being subjected to a counter-examination withered on other bad acts, which could all expose it to civil liability in the proceedings brought by others,” said Zauderer.
Epner said that the defense could use its fence arguments to suggest not only that government witnesses were useful for combs, but also that key witnesses were simply not reliable.
“The defense will be to attack the credibility of the witnesses of the accusation,” said Epner. “What is absolutely clear for me is that Mia and Jane have been subject to more counter-perspective and, a press reports emerge, a more damaging report than Cassie.”
Defense lawyer Nicole Blank Becker, who helped represent R. Kelly to his 2021 Sexual traffic trialssaid that it will also be important for the defense to distribute combs from some of the decisions that have led to alleged crimes.
“If he looks like a pivot,” said Blank Becker, “he is very easy for a jury to check the culprit.”
Combs has had a “difficult battle” since the trial, she added, when he faces a series of prosecution that included accusations of rape and sexual assault. He vigorously denied such allegations and accused various complainants of having continued rapid “pay days”.
“The accusation threw a witness after the witness – it can be a difficult challenge for the defense to refute, and the cards are stacked against them,” said Blank Becker. “This is how the federals roll. They don’t come after you unless they believe they have you.”
