After spending six weeks calling witnesses and presenting proof towards rap and vogue mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs at a decrease Manhattan court docket, the workforce of six girls federal prosecutors informed the jury within the prosecution’s closing arguments that the onetime popular culture titan was, surely, “the chief of a legal enterprise.”
Combs faces 5 counts together with one depend of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of intercourse trafficking by pressure, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to interact in prostitution. He pleaded not responsible after his September arrest and has mentioned that he has not dedicated any of the crimes of which he’s been accused.
On Thursday, Assistant U.S. Legal professional Christy Slavik offered the federal government’s closing salvo, focusing first on the racketeering conspiracy cost Combs faces after which shifting into the intercourse trafficking allegations, particularly concerning two of his ex-girlfriends, Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura and the pseudonymously named “Jane.”
On the racketeering cost, Slavik knowledgeable the jury that they should be unanimous of their voting that Combs knowingly and willfully agreed that he, or a co-conspirator, would commit two acts of racketeering. Slavik mentioned there’s proof of a number of acts dedicated by Combs and his “enterprise”: drug distribution, kidnapping, an arson assault, bribery, facilitating intercourse trafficking, facilitating journey for business intercourse (for Ventura, “Jane” and a number of other male intercourse employees), pressured labor and overlaying up crimes. Slavik then laid out how the previous six weeks of testimony present examples of those acts.
On the medicine accusation, Slavik informed jurors it should be confirmed {that a} co-conspirator knowingly distributed medicine. As soon as medicine (meth, cocaine, ecstasy and different substances) had been delivered by his employees, the court docket discovered, “he gave them to Cassie and Jane,” Slavik mentioned. “That is drug distribution, plain and easy.” The kidnapping allegations associated to testimony from Capricorn Clark that Combs got here to her late at evening and compelled her right into a automotive at gunpoint. They then drove to rapper Child Cudi’s Hollywood Hills residence, the place Combs and a staffer allegedly broke in. Later, reflecting Combs’ earlier threats, Child Cudi’s Porsche was bombed with a Molotov cocktail (this incident allegedly illustrating the arson assault cost).
“After all, the defendant was behind this. Now it shouldn’t come as a shock to you that we’re not suggesting the defendant personally minimize the outlet in Child Cudi’s Porsche,” Slavik mentioned. “You heard the audio notes. The defendant didn’t even purchase his personal soup.”
The bribery cost associated to the harrowing footage, proven over 10 instances all through the trial to jurors, of the second in 2016 when Combs assaulted Ventura in an elevator foyer on the InterContinental Resort. The defendant has beforehand admitted to and apologized for the incident. However, the footage has develop into central to the case towards him and severely broken his public repute when it leaked to CNN final 12 months.
“The defendant knew what he had performed and knew the potential consequence,” Slavik mentioned. “He knew that he may very well be arrested if the police knew what he did to Cassie at that lodge.”
Kristina Khorram, Combs’ former chief of employees, and D-Roc, then his loyal lead safety guard, allegedly led an effort to get the footage from a safety guard. In the end, Khorram tracked down the video surveillance footage and located lodge personnel to talk with about shopping for the one copy — which they did, collectively, for $100,000, paid to a staffer in money and finally cut up between three males working on the lodge. Deputizing Khorram and D-Roc is a chief instance of how Combs operated together with his employees, which prosecutors allege was a “legal enterprise.” Slavik talked about that Combs informed the staffer who took the money to not make any massive purchases with it.
“That second tells you every little thing it is advisable know in regards to the defendant’s function in paying this bribe — take into consideration why the defendant mentioned that,” she informed the jury. “[This incident shows] the defendant’s assault of Cassie throughout a “freak-off” and members of the Combs’ enterprise not stopping at something to ensure the video wouldn’t fall into the fingers of regulation enforcement.”
The intercourse trafficking and compelled labor parts talked about, the prosecutor defined to the jurors, relate to the defendant’s actions in the direction of Ventura and “Jane,” who had been each subjected to Combs’ “freak-off” or “hotel-night” occasions, wherein they engaged in drug-fueled intercourse marathons that will contain employed male intercourse employees, might last as long as 4 days, and at instances left them exhausted, bruised and with infections. This led to the 2 costs Combs can be dealing with concerning intercourse trafficking. Slavik likened participation in “freak-offs” to work and extra particularly, pressured labor. Throughout her marathon testimony, Ventura did the identical, telling the court docket that her “freak-off” attendance — at instances performed to please her boyfriend however at different instances performed to maintain him from lashing out and beating her — was tantamount to a job. It turned simply that, Ventura testifies, as her as soon as promising profession as a singer slipped away.
Medicine, violence and threats of economic hurt and the discharge of the video recordings had been all instruments utilized by Combs to manage and manipulate these two girls, Slavik informed the jurors, and he “counted on silence and disgrace” to make sure that his management over them would endure over time. He additionally relied closely on his employees, who organized the occasions, delivered the provides, helped with logistics of journey and cleaned up the mess made within the varied lodge rooms that had been steadily trashed and lined in “freak-off” wreckage, partitions and flooring smeared with child oil.
The jurors should discover that the defendant used pressure, fraud, threats or coercion to make Ventura and “Jane” take part within the “freak-offs” or “lodge nights”; the women and men of the jury had been informed that any mixture of those or a single tactic will depend as Combs being responsible of trafficking these girls. Slavik outlined how three nights involving “Jane” reveals how this was not a relationship of romance however certainly one of coercive management that started with basic “love bombing.”
“The defendant began grooming Jane, slowly introducing her to the completely different parts of ‘freak-offs,’” Slavik mentioned. After their first lodge evening, “Jane” mentioned that she felt like she opened “Pandora’s field.”
Slavik additionally addressed the competition that each Ventura and ”Jane” at factors willingly participated within the wild orgies, telling jurors, “The truth that a sufferer consents as soon as to a business intercourse act — that doesn’t imply that she consented each time,” the prosecutor mentioned. “You solely want to seek out that certainly one of these ‘lodge nights’ meets the definition of intercourse trafficking right here.”
From right here, Slavik detailed the years of what she mentioned was coercive management by means of threats, violence, intimidation and using his employees that prosecutors imagine match squarely into the costs he faces. Repeatedly, the closing argument hammered that Combs and his inside circle refused to take no for a solution from these girls.
“The defendant’s conduct had one function — to get Jane to comply with do ‘lodge nights,’” Slavik mentioned. “And since the defendant knew precisely what he was doing, this was intercourse trafficking.”
Particulars of what constitutes intercourse trafficking had been made clear at one level. This embrace recruiting, attractive and harboring the sufferer; performing with reckless disregard; and interstate commerce. Slavik defined how this labored for each of Combs’ girlfriends, telling jurors it concerned monetary management to make sure they had been depending on him and due to this fact extra keen to take part in his sexual marathons.
The closing arguments started at about 10 a.m. and wrapped at about 4:15 p.m., taking on practically a complete day in court docket. On Friday, the protection will argue how not one of the costs Combs has been accused of shall be confirmed. If the opening statements are an indicator, the protection workforce will go even longer in closing out their case.
Closing out her marathon abstract of the case, Slavik made a plea to — or maybe a requirement — of the jury.
“All of this proof paints a transparent image of how the defendant dedicated crimes. Up till right this moment, he was capable of get away with it due to his cash, his energy (and) his affect,” she mentioned. “That stops now. It’s time for justice. It’s time to seek out the defendant responsible.”