The jury at Sean “Diddy” Combs ’ intercourse trafficking trial seen extra video recordings on Monday of the intercourse marathons which have performed a distinguished function in a prosecution that was more likely to relaxation by Tuesday.
Assistant U.S. Lawyer Maurene Comey typically referred to the principally 1- or 2-minute clips filmed by the music mogul as “explicit” movies, a sign for jurors to placed on headsets that enabled them to listen to and examine the recordings with out them being heard or seen by spectators within the Manhattan courtroom.
Prosecutors have cited the drug-fueled multi-day occasions as proof of intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy prices, saying Combs relied on workers, associates and his enterprise accounts to fly male intercourse employees to Miami, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York, the place his employees arrange lodge rooms for the encounters and cleaned up afterward.
Final week, prosecutors confirmed jurors about 2 minutes of the footage from 2012 and 2014 involving Combs’ then-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a male intercourse employee and Combs. Cassie earlier testified that she participated in lots of of the “freak-off” occasions. She and Combs had been in a relationship from 2007 till 2018.
Cassie sued Combs in 2023 alleging years of abuse. He settled inside hours, and dozens of comparable lawsuits adopted.
The Related Press doesn’t typically establish individuals who say they’re victims of sexual abuse except they arrive ahead publicly, as Cassie has accomplished.
Protection legal professionals final week confirmed the jury about 18 minutes of video clips from the intercourse performances involving Cassie after a lawyer stated in opening statements that the movies show sexual exercise was consensual and never proof of against the law.
On Monday, prosecutors aired practically 20 minutes of recordings from 2021 and 2022 of a single mom who was recognized solely by the pseudonym “Jane,” male intercourse employees and Combs. Jane testified for six days earlier within the trial that she was romantically concerned with Combs from 2021 till his September arrest at a New York lodge room.
Joseph Cerciello, a Homeland Safety Investigations agent, testified that dozens of the recordings from late 2021 till final August lasted many hours. Comey completed questioning Cerciello within the early afternoon Monday. After a cross-examination by the protection, the prosecution was anticipated to relaxation.
The trial is in its seventh week, with closing arguments tentatively scheduled for Thursday after what was anticipated to be a short protection presentation.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible. He is been lively in his protection, writing notes to his attorneys and typically influencing once they cease questioning witnesses.
Sources for victims of sexual assault can be found by means of the Nationwide Sexual Violence Sources Middle and the Nationwide Sexual Assault Phone Hotline at 800-656-4673.
