Federal prosecutors released accusations against Sean “Diddy” Combs last year.
This was not just a case of celebrities behaving badly, they said. It was about criminal businesses that for years hid the crimes of music and fashion moguls.
It was a bold gambit, employing strategies generally reserved for organized crime cases, prosecuting music legends with suspicion of violence, threats and rewards.
However, in the end, the ju judge who heard about the incident in Manhattan did not buy it.
After two days of deliberation, the ju apprenticed the comb guilty of only two counts of transport for prostitution, including ex-girlfriend Cathy Ventura, the second woman identified in testimony as Jane, and a second woman including a commercial sex worker.
The ju judge discovered that the comb was not the most serious crime. Sex trafficking, fraud or coercion by force. and a racket ring that was subject to a potential life sentence.
“This is a ‘win’ for the Comb. If he was facing life in prison, [racketeering] Fee. Instead, he will probably serve in prison for a few years and return to his business empire,” said David Ring, the lawyer representing victims of sexual abuse in some of the finest cases.
A complex case
The trial was characterized by a shocking account of Combs’s women’s abuse. However, some legal experts questioned whether Graphic’s testimony proved the assault.
“Whatever the act is considered a moral issue, this ju-decision has determined that it fails to meet the burden of proof of all the serious felony charges the government has brought against Mr. Combs,” former federal prosecutor Jeff Kemensky said.
The federal accusations claimed that Combs and his peers were seducing female victims and often pretending to be a romantic relationship. Combs is then said to use force, threats of power, coercion, and controlled substances to allow women to engage in sexual intercourse with male prostitutes and occasionally watch them at rally known as “Frak-Offs.” Combs has forced women to “ketamine, ecstasy and GHB to “keep obedient and obedient” during their performances, prosecutors said.
Combs’ “criminal corporation” suspicions threatened and abused women and used his company members to engage in sex trafficking and interstate transport for the purposes of prostitution, coercion, drugs, bribery and obstruction. In support of their assault case, prosecutors told the ju judge when opening a statement that combs was helped by helping company employees, security staff and aide executives, then sorting out the crazy off and then covering up the case.
Is it overdue by the government?
“The government was overflowing. They wanted RICO’s conviction, so they could allow Combs’ assets to be seized under the RICO’s forfeiture law. That wouldn’t happen now. This is a loss of prosecution,” Ring said, referring to the assaulter’s impact and corrupt organizational law.
“The prosecutor’s presentation was overwhelming. They made a lot of strategic and unforced mistakes,” former federal prosecutor Neema Ramani said in an interview before the verdict.
After the verdict, Ramani added: This was “the most expensive prostitution trial in American history. What a big victory for the defense and a huge loss for the prosecutor.”
Some experts say RICO cases are difficult to prosecute by design.
“Rico is a very strict and difficult law,” said Mitchell Epner, a former US lawyer in New Jersey, who was working on many cases of sex trafficking and unwilling slavery. “We need a continuous criminal structure, a continuity of members of criminal organizations. It is intentionally difficult for prosecutors to prove, and defense has done a very good job of pointing out the shortcomings of RICO prosecutors at the technical level.”
Defense vs. federal government
Combs’ lawyers hit the idea that their clients were overcharged by the prosecutors.
Mark Agnifilo claimed that Combs enjoyed the “swinger” lifestyle and was added to drugs. He admitted that Kushi committed domestic violence, but admitted that assault and sex trafficking charges rose.
“He’s not an assaulter,” he said.
The prosecutor told the ju judge that the evidence was clear.
In her final discussion, our assistant atty. Christy Slavik said that someone committed a crime as part of the group and, in the case of Combs, “the defendant was a powerful man, but he became more powerful and dangerous because of his inner circle, his business, his business, his business,” she said, according to the Associated Press.
The comb “relied on silence and shame” allowed and extended his abuse, using a “small army” of women to injure and hide it, she said.
Under RICO there are 35 specific crimes, including murder, bribery and tor, and federal prosecutors must present a pattern that involves at least two obvious acts as part of a criminal enterprise.
The defense questioned why those in the stands didn’t report their actions to authorities and in some cases remained on Combs’ trajectory.
Smoking gun?
Ju-dean heard from 34 witnesses, and he provided six weeks of brutal, graphic testimony.
The defense was offensive in cross-examination, beating witnesses over why they didn’t report the comb at the time, or simply didn’t leave him. They also presented support and love text messages after alleged attacks. The defense also focused on other things they got from the comb.
“This is not about crime. It’s about money. It’s about money,” Agnifilo said.
They also said that the witnesses do not believe they are committing a crime, making it difficult to prove that combs’ actions lead to criminal conspiracy.
In the 2016 video, Combs punches, kicks Ventura and tries to protect himself in front of the elevator bank at the LA hotel. He then drags her into the hall towards his hotel room in her hooded sweatshirt.
Eddie Garcia, a security guard at the InterContinental Hotel, testified that he gave him a brown paper bag containing $100,000 in cash on the video.
Garcia said he met with Combs, Combs staff chief Christina Chlorum and bodyguard after the supervisor agreed to sell the video recordings. After Garcia raised concerns about the police, he told him that Combs would be called Ventura on FaceTime, handed him the phone and told Ventura to tell Garcia he wanted him to “walk away.” Garcia then said that, according to a report from the court, he received the money and split it up with his colleagues.
Prosecutors argue that this indicates a conspiracy.
What does this mean for other cases?
Some experts say the Combs verdict could bring cold weather to future sex trafficking prosecutions.
“Now, the ju judges acquitted RICO and the comb for trafficking charges, so “this allows the DOJ to think really long and hard before causing similar sex trafficking charges.”
The verdict, Lauren Hirsch, former chief of the sex trafficking division of the Kings County District Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn and now the director of the World’s National Bureau of the World, has said the verdict is a severe disappointment for victim advocates as well.
After successful prosecutors of numbers like R. Kelly and cult leader Keith Ranière, some experts saw advances in broadening the public understanding of how sex trafficking is run and how victims react. But the verdict will “that will have a 100% calm effect on prosecutors who are reluctant to file similar charges even when the evidence is overwhelmed,” Hirsch said.
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