Prosecutors set to relaxation as intercourse trafficking trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs nears finish

Defense lawyer Teny Geragos highlighted quite a few textual content messages Combs exchanged over the previous decade with two former girlfriends in a bid to indicate that the ladies have been enthused about frequent multiday intercourse marathons that included male intercourse staff. She did so whereas questioning the ultimate witness: Joseph Cerciello, a Homeland Security Investigations agent.

Prosecutors have cited the “freak offs” as proof of intercourse trafficking and racketeering conspiracy prices that resulted in Combs’ arrest final September.

Defense legal professionals, although, say they have been consensual sexual encounters in keeping with the swingers life-style.

Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible and has remained incarcerated with out bail in a federal lockup in Brooklyn after a number of judges concluded final fall that he was a hazard to the group.

The authorities’s case has consisted of 34 witnesses, together with former staff of Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment corporations, however the bulk of its proof has come from the testimony of two former girlfriends: Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and a mannequin and web persona identified to jurors solely by the pseudonym “Jane.”

Ventura, 38, testified for 4 days through the trial’s first week, saying she felt pressured to have interaction in lots of of “freak offs” as a result of the encounters would allow her to be intimate with Combs after performing sexually with male intercourse staff whereas he watched them slather each other with child oil and typically filmed the encounters.

Jane testified for six days concerning the sexual performances she labeled “lodge nights,” saying that she was placing them into perspective after starting remedy three months in the past. She stated she felt coerced into participating in them as lately as final August, however did so as a result of she beloved and nonetheless loves Combs.

Ventura was in a relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018, whereas Jane was incessantly with him from 2021 till his arrest, which canceled her plan to satisfy him on the New York lodge the place he was taken into custody.

The Associated Press doesn’t typically determine individuals who say they’re victims of sexual abuse until they arrive ahead publicly, as Cassie has completed.

After prosecutors relaxation on Tuesday, a protection presentation is predicted to be accomplished by the tip of the day with none witnesses.

Throughout the trial, protection legal professionals have made their case for exoneration by way of their questioning of witnesses, together with a number of who testified reluctantly or solely after they have been granted immunity from any crimes they might have dedicated.

Combs has been lively in his protection, writing notes to his legal professionals and typically serving to them resolve when to cease questioning a witness.

He was admonished as soon as by the decide for nodding enthusiastically towards jurors throughout a profitable stretch of cross-examination by one among his legal professionals. Prosecutors complained that his gestures have been a type of testifying with out being topic to cross-examination. The decide warned that he may very well be excluded from his trial if it occurred once more.

In the previous week, prosecutors and protection legal professionals have proven jurors over 40 minutes of recordings Combs product of the “freak offs” or “lodge nights.”

Several jurors often appeared squeamish as they considered and listened to audio of the encounters, however most didn’t appear to react.

In her opening assertion, Geragos had known as the movies “highly effective proof that the sexual conduct on this case was consensual and never primarily based on coercion.”

Closing arguments have been tentatively scheduled for Thursday.

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