NEW YORK — Key witnesses towards Sean “Diddy” Combs, together with longtime ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, are urging a federal decide to reject leniency for the hip-hop mogul at his sentencing Friday, saying they worry for his or her security if he’s freed.
Prosecutors included letters from R&B singer Cassie, her dad and mom and 4 others with a written submission Tuesday as they search to have Combs sentenced to at the very least 11 years and three months in jail for his conviction on two prostitution-related prices.
Notably absent was the voice of an ex-girlfriend who testified below the pseudonym Jane. Like Cassie, she mentioned Combs subjected her over a number of years to dayslong, drug-fueled sexual performances with male intercourse employees that Combs watched and sometimes filmed.
Late Tuesday, Choose Arun Subramanian denied Combs’ request to have his conviction overturned, rejecting his attorneys’ argument that he was an novice pornographer — not participating in prostitution — and that the responsible verdict violates his First Modification rights.
“Criminal activity can’t be laundered into constitutionally protected exercise,” Subramanian wrote. He known as Combs’ filming “incidental,” pointing to trial proof that confirmed he did not usually give discover or ask for consent for filming, as a movie producer would.
Some who submitted letters expressed disappointment {that a} jury exonerated Combs, 55, of racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking prices that would have put him behind bars for all times, leaving him convicted of two lesser Mann Act prices stemming from interstate commerce associated to prostitution.
“If there may be one factor I’ve discovered from this expertise, it’s that victims and survivors won’t ever be secure,” wrote Cassie, who testified for 4 days at Combs’ trial, describing quite a few assaults that left her bruised and traumatized.
She mentioned she was 19 years previous when Combs “used violence, threats, substances, and management over my profession to entice me in over a decade of abuse.”
A former private assistant who testified below the pseudonym “Mia” that Combs raped her in 2010 requested Subramanian to dispense a sentence “that takes under consideration the continuing hazard my abuser poses to me, and to others.”
“The defendant’s wealth, energy, and fame shouldn’t place him above the legislation,” she mentioned.
Ex-Combs worker Capricorn Clark, who testified {that a} gun-waving Combs pressured her to affix him when he broke into Rapper Child Cudi ‘s house in 2011, recommended he’d profit from spending time in jail.
“The final ray of sunshine is that you just present justice to us,” she instructed the decide. “I really imagine that serving extra time will save Puff’s life, as time away from his cash, medication, and energy is the one punishment he’ll acknowledge.”
Stylist Deonte Nash mentioned he does not anticipate Combs to be in jail ceaselessly however was “praying for a sentence that permits the victims to heal and encourages Mr. Combs to genuinely change.”
Combs’ “has left an extended path of victims, a lot of whom nonetheless dwell in worry,” Nash wrote.
Jourdan-Cha’Taun Atkinson, Combs’ private chef from 2007 to 2010, mentioned she was set to testify however prosecutors pulled her on the final minute. She mentioned federal brokers served her a subpoena in March 2024 and Combs knew about it inside two weeks, providing to cowl her authorized charges.
“I used to be extraordinarily terrified,” she wrote. “As a result of how did Sean Combs even know I used to be contacted?”
Calling for the utmost sentence, she mentioned she knew Combs “to be a really harmful, and spiteful man. With an extended reminiscence, and a panache for payback.”
Combs’ attorneys have requested for not more than 14 months in jail, which might free him nearly instantly. They argue that Combs has suffered sufficient throughout his almost 13 months in a Brooklyn federal lockup.
Combs has grow to be a modified man in jail, they mentioned. He is been below fixed suicide watch and has discovered to react calmly to threats, even when confronted with a shiv. They mentioned Combs has realized that his overuse of medication, some prescribed by medical doctors, had contributed to his violence.
Cassie wrote that she has each day nightmares and flashbacks and requires psychological care to manage.
“My worries that Sean Combs or his associates will come after me and my household is my actuality,” Cassie mentioned. “I’ve in truth moved my household out of the New York space and am protecting as non-public and quiet as I presumably can as a result of I’m so scared that if he walks free, his first actions can be swift retribution in direction of me and others who spoke up about his abuse at trial.”
The Related Press doesn’t usually title individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused except they arrive ahead publicly, as Cassie has.
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