NEW YORK — Federal prosecutors are urging a federal decide to shortly reject Sean “Diddy” Combs ’ request that he throw out a jury verdict or order a brand new trial after a jury convicted the music maven of two prostitution-related expenses.
Prosecutors stated in papers filed shortly earlier than midnight Wednesday that Combs masterminded elaborate sexual occasions for 2 ex-girlfriends between 2008 and final yr that concerned hiring male intercourse employees who typically had been required to cross a number of state traces to take part.
A jury in July exonerated the Unhealthy Boy Information founding father of racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking expenses that carried the potential penalty of a compulsory 15 years in jail as much as life behind bars. Nevertheless it convicted him of two lesser Mann Act expenses that prohibit interstate commerce associated to prostitution.
The Mann Act expenses every carry a possible penalty of 10 years behind bars. Combs has been denied bail regardless of his attorneys’ arguments that their consumer ought to face little to no further jail time for the convictions. Prosecutors stated he should serve a number of years behind bars.
Combs has been in a federal jail in Brooklyn since his September arrest at a Manhattan lodge. Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 3.
Prosecutors wrote that Combs’ attorneys had been mistaken once they contended in a submission to the decide late final month that the Mann Act was unduly obscure and violates his due course of and First Modification rights.
“Proof of the defendant’s guilt on the Mann Act counts was overwhelming,” prosecutors wrote.
They famous that the multiday, drug-fueled sexual marathons that Combs demanded of his girlfriends concerned hiring male intercourse employees and facilitating their journey throughout a number of states for what grew to become often called “freak-offs” or “lodge nights.”
Prosecutors stated he then used video recordings he manufactured from the sexual occasions to threaten and coerce the girlfriends to proceed collaborating within the typically weekly or month-to-month sexual conferences.
“At trial, there was ample proof to help the jury’s convictions,” prosecutors stated.
They stated Combs “masterminded each facet” of the sexual meetups, paying escorts to journey throughout the nation to take part and directing the sexual exercise that passed off between the lads and his girlfriends “for his personal sexual gratification” whereas typically becoming a member of in.
Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, an R&B artist who dated Combs from 2008 by 2018, testified throughout the trial that Combs typically demanded the sexual meetups with male escorts each week, typically leaving her too exhausted to work on her music profession. She stated she participated in lots of of “freak-offs.”
A girl who testified underneath the pseudonym “Jane” stated she participated in “lodge nights” when she dated Combs from 2021 to final September and that the occasions typically lasted a number of days and required her to have intercourse with male intercourse employees, even when she was not properly.
Each girls testified that Combs had threatened to launch movies he manufactured from the encounters as a manner of controlling their habits.
“Throughout these relationships, he asserted substantial management over Ventura and Jane’s lives. Particularly, he managed and threatened Ventura’s profession, managed her look, and paid for many of her residing bills, taking away bodily gadgets when she didn’t do what he needed,” prosecutors wrote.
“The defendant equally paid Jane’s $10,000 lease and threatened her that he would cease paying her lease if she didn’t comply together with his calls for,” they stated.
Of their submission requesting acquittal or a brand new trial, Combs’ attorneys argued that not one of the parts usually used for Mann Act convictions, together with taking advantage of intercourse work or coercion, existed.
“It’s undisputed that he had no business motive and that every one concerned had been adults,” the attorneys stated. “The boys selected to journey and have interaction within the exercise voluntarily. The decision confirms the ladies weren’t weak or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted.”
The attorneys stated that Combs, “at most, paid to interact in voyeurism as a part of a ‘swingers’ way of life” and argued that “doesn’t represent ‘prostitution’ underneath a correctly restricted definition of the statutory time period.”
This text was generated from an automatic information company feed with out modifications to textual content.