BBC Information, New York City
Reuters The sex trafficking and racketeering situation versus hip-hop magnate Sean “Diddy” Combs was “severely, severely overemphasized”, his legal representative informed a panel of 12 New york city jurors on Friday.
In his closing, Marc Agnifilo suggested for 4 hours that the federal government was criminalising Combs and his sweethearts’ “swingers way of life” in what totaled up to a “phony test”.
His 55-year-old customer begged innocent to costs of sex trafficking, racketeering and transport to participate in hooking.
“The federal government targeted Sean Combs,” Mr Agnifilo informed the court, resulting in an argument – later on continual – from district attorneys.
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Attorney Christy Slavik spoke with jurors for five-and-a-half hours in the prosecution’s closing debates on Thursday, informing them that Combs abused his power and organization realm to sex website traffic females and dedicate various other criminal offenses.
The prosecution asserted Combs layered his ex-spouse sweethearts with medicines, and made use of physical violence and various other methods to persuade them right into supposed “freak-offs” – Combs’ name for occasions where he saw and recorded while they made love with male companions.
While Ms Slavik was tranquil and systematic throughout a led electronic discussion, Mr Agnifilo was computer animated – pacing backward and forward, and often breaking jokes.
He started by striking the reputation of Combs’ ex-girlfriends that indicated versus him, Casandra Ventura and confidential witness “Jane”.
He called Combs’ 11-year-relationship with Ms Ventura – in which she affirms he defeat her consistently – “among the fantastic modern-day romance”. She was an eager individual in their sex lives, he claimed.
“She’s a female that really suches as sex – great for her,” Mr Agnifilo claimed. “She’s attractive, she should.”
He suggested Ms Ventura was no target, as Combs was currently behind bars and she cleared up a civil legal action versus him for physical misuse and sex-related threat for numerous bucks.
“If you needed to select a champion in this entire point, it’s difficult not to select Cassie,” he claimed.
The troubles in their partnership totaled up to residential physical violence – and not sex trafficking, Mr Agnifilo claimed. He attempted to call into question district attorneys’ debate that the rap artist made use of physical violence to persuade Ms Ventura right into joining freak-offs.
The federal government has actually concentrated on a 2016 security video clip of Combs defeating Ms Ventura in the corridor of a Los Angeles resort, apparently after she attempted to leave a freak-off.
REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg Playing the video clip for jurors once more, Mr Agnifilo suggested it can not have actually been a circumstances of sex trafficking due to the fact that Ms Ventura showed up to motion Combs back to their area when a guard showed up on the scene.
There was “absolutely nothing frightening in the area”, he claimed, including that freak-offs were “attractive nights” with wonderful songs and well-decorated spaces.
Mr Agnifilo additionally tried to try Jane’s statement, mentioning one evening where she affirms the rap artist was terrible with her prior to a freak-off.
“Her tale absolutely makes no feeling,” he claimed.
Combs’ legal representative assaulted the federal government’s racketeering situation, the claims that Brushes counted on his dedicated workers to aid him dedicate sex trafficking and various other criminal offenses, after that cover them up.
There was a “open absence of proof” that Combs and his workers ran some kind of criminal venture, which there were any kind of accomplices, he claimed.
Combs’ previous chief-of-staff, Kristina Khorram, whom district attorneys have actually indicated as an accomplice, is a “handy” female that every person enjoyed, Agnifilo informed the court.
An actual accomplice, he asserted, would certainly have assisted kick the door down when Combs is affirmed to have actually attempted to get into his ex-girlfriend’s home.
In reaction to the transport to participate in hooking cost, Mr Agnifilo suggested that male companions the hip-hop magnate and his sweethearts worked with were paid “for their time” with the pair, and except sex.
At the end of his debates, Combs, using a beige coat, embraced his lawyer. His family members, including his twin little girls and mommy, were seated behind him for the 2nd day straight.
REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg In a defense to the protection’s closing on Friday, district attorney Maurene Comey took a much more hostile tone than Ms Slavik’s, knocking Combs’ attorneys for recommending his ex-girlfriends were existing which they wished to participate in freak-offs after being defeated.
“There is no dividing the physical violence from the sex,” Ms Comey claimed. “They were caught psychologically, literally and economically.”
She kept in mind Ms Ventura’s legal action negotiation, asking, “why danger all of it by perjuring herself at a government test?”
Jurors will certainly reunite on Monday for the court’s directions on exactly how to consider the situation versus the hip-hop magnate. Considerations are anticipated to start not long after.
Combs is dealing with life behind bars over one of the most severe costs of racketeering and sex trafficking.
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