A juror has been dismissed from the Sean “Diddy” Combs sex-trafficking trial after listening to 5 weeks of proof.
Decide Arun Subramanian mentioned he had “concerns” in regards to the jury member’s “candour” and made the choice after it emerged the person – Juror 6 – had given inconsistent solutions about the place he lives.
This might point out he probably had an agenda, that he needed to be on the panel listening to the Combs trial for a goal, the choose mentioned, and there was nothing the juror might say that will “put the genie back in the bottle”.
Diddy trial: Day 24 – because it occurred
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Combs hugged certainly one of his attorneys as he arrived within the courtroom. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
Questions over whether or not the juror, a black male, resided in New York or throughout the Hudson River within the state of New Jersey first arose on the finish of final week – however defence attorneys argued dismissing him would disrupt the range of the jury.
Nonetheless, the choose rejected this argument forward of the beginning of Monday’s court docket session, excusing the juror and changing him with one of many alternates, a white male.
A evaluate of the juror’s solutions to questions on his residency throughout jury choice, alongside along with his subsequent responses to related questions, revealed “clear inconsistencies”, the choose mentioned.
“Taking these all together, the record raised serious concerns as to the juror’s candour and whether he shaded answers to get on and stay on the jury,” Decide Subramanian mentioned.
Leaving the juror on the panel might threaten the integrity of the judicial course of, he added.
“The court should not, indeed cannot, let race factor into the decision of what happens. Here, the answer is clear. Juror number six is excused,” Decide Subramanian mentioned.
The costs in opposition to ‘Diddy’
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is charged with one depend of racketeering conspiracy, two expenses of sex-trafficking, and two expenses of transportation to interact in prostitution.
He has pleaded not responsible to all expenses and has strenuously denied all allegations of sexual abuse. The hip-hop mogul’s defence group has described him as “a complicated man” however say the case will not be.
They’ve conceded Combs might be violent and that jurors may not condone his proclivity for “kinky sex”. Nonetheless, they argue this was a consensual “swingers” life-style and was not unlawful.
Particular agent and paralegal testify
This implies they weren’t concerned within the prison investigation into Combs, however have been tasked with reviewing some proof, together with charts, telephone data and knowledge. In court docket, the purpose is to supply context to the testimony heard thus far and the way it pertains to the costs in opposition to the hip-hop mogul.
Throughout paralegal specialist Ananya Sankar’s testimony, the court docket heard about texts showing to reference “freak offs” – sexual encounters with male escorts which former girlfriends Cassie Ventura and “Jane”, two of three alleged victims to offer proof throughout the trial, each say Combs pressured them into.
Cassie was in an on-off relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018, whereas Jane – a pseudonym – dated him on and off from the start of 2021 to his arrest in September 2024.
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Cassie Ventura gave proof in opposition to Combs throughout the first week of the trial in Might. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
Rooster soup and $4,000 money
In messages from March 2016, Combs’s then chief of workers Kristina Khorram appeared to ask an assistant to set a resort room up, with gadgets requested together with Gatorade, water and rooster noodle soup. “He wants you to go right away now please,” a message mentioned.
In one other textual content, Khorram requested staff to fetch $4,000 in money and to make sure a male escort was given entry to the resort room, the court docket heard.
The court docket additionally heard about messages despatched across the time of the bombshell civil lawsuit filed in opposition to Combs by Cassie in November 2023 – which was settled inside 24 hours for a then undisclosed sum, revealed to be $20m throughout the trial.
By this time, Combs was seeing Jane. Based on an audio file of a dialog, Jane advised Combs after discovering out about Cassie’s lawsuit: “I don’t know what I’m feeling… this is so word for word, it is crazy and it just feels sick to my stomach.”
On 28 November 2023, about two weeks later, Jane advised Combs she felt he exploited her with their “dark and humiliating lifestyle”.
The next month, the court docket heard Jane mentioned in a message to Khorram: “He said he would expose me and send videos to my baby daddy… I am traumatised by my time with him.”
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Diddy on the MTV Video Music Awards in 2023. Pic: Evan Agostini/ Invision/ AP
Jane mentioned she wouldn’t usually contain Khorram in such issues, however advised her she wanted assist as Combs was having certainly one of his “evil-ass psychotic bipolar” episodes.
Jane advised Khorram that she was closely drugged within the tapes.
Though it was not clear precisely what she was referencing, a message despatched to Combs by Khorram across the time of the lawsuit appeared to indicate some friction between the pair.
“If you cannot be honest with me this doesn’t work,” she advised him, in response to the messages. Combs “keeping things” to himself put them within the “situation we are all in right now”, she added.
In the direction of the tip of the court docket day, movies entered into proof below seal have been performed by the prosecution. This implies the jury and attorneys might see and listen to what was taking place, however members of the general public in court docket couldn’t.
Prosecutors have mentioned they count on to conclude their case later this week. After this, Combs’s defence group will start theirs.
Final week, Kanye West turned up on the court docket in Manhattan, New York, to assist the rapper, spending about 40 minutes within the constructing watching proceedings on a monitor in an overflow room.
Combs’s mom, Janice Combs, and several other of his kids have additionally constantly proven up all through the listening to.
Diddy denies expenses of sex-trafficking, transportation to interact in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy.
The trial continues.
