NEW YORK (AP) — The prosecution rested Tuesday at Sean “Diddy” Combs ’ intercourse trafficking trial, capping a greater than six-week-long presentation of proof in opposition to the hip-hop maven that confronted him with former workers and two former girlfriends who expressed remorse at his remedy of them over the previous 20 years.
After the prosecution rested, Combs’ attorneys requested U.S. District Choose Arun Subramanian to halt the trial instantly and throw out the costs, arguing the costs weren’t confirmed.
The federal government rested after protection lawyer Teny Geragos completed questioning the prosecution’s remaining witness: Joseph Cerciello, a Homeland Safety Investigations agent.
Prosecutors have cited the “freakoffs” as proof of the intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy expenses that resulted in Combs’ arrest final September.
Protection attorneys, although, say they have been consensual sexual encounters in keeping with the swingers way of life.
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 federal government’s case consisted of 34 witnesses, together with former workers of Combs’ Unhealthy Boy Leisure corporations, however the bulk of its proof has come from the testimony of two former girlfriends: Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a mannequin and web persona identified 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 employees whereas he watched them slather each other with child oil and typically filmed the encounters.
Jane testified for six days in regards to the sexual performances she labeled “lodge nights,” saying that she was placing them into perspective after starting remedy three months in the past. She mentioned she felt coerced into participating in them as not too long ago as final August, however did so as a result of she beloved and nonetheless loves Combs.
Ventura was in a relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018, whereas Jane was incessantly with him from 2021 till his arrest, which canceled her plan to fulfill him on the New York lodge the place he was taken into custody.
The Related Press doesn’t typically establish individuals who say they’re victims of sexual abuse until they arrive ahead publicly, as Cassie has completed.
After prosecutors rested Tuesday, the jury was despatched to lunch. Once they return, a protection presentation was anticipated to be accomplished by the tip of the day with none witnesses.
All through the trial, protection attorneys have made their case for exoneration by way of their questioning of witnesses, together with a number of who testified reluctantly or solely after they have been granted immunity from any crimes they might have dedicated.
Combs has been energetic in his protection, 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 choose for nodding enthusiastically towards jurors throughout a profitable stretch of cross-examination by one in all his attorneys. Prosecutors complained that his gestures have been a type of testifying with out being topic to cross-examination. The choose warned that he might be excluded from his trial if it occurred once more.
Up to now week, prosecutors and protection attorneys have proven jurors over 40 minutes of recordings Combs made from the “freak offs” or “lodge nights.”
A number of 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 “highly effective proof that the sexual conduct on this case was consensual and never based mostly on coercion.”
Closing arguments have been tentatively scheduled for Thursday.
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