NBC Information described a “circus-like ambiance” across the courtroom, with at the very least 20 followers of the hip hop star tenting in a single day alongside dozens of cameras and spectators.
The hip hop star shall be tried for 5 legal counts over the subsequent eight to 10 weeks: one rely of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of intercourse trafficking by drive, fraud or coercion, and two counts of transportation to interact in prostitution. Diddy has vehemently denied these allegations.
Right here’s a rundown of the allegations that had been revealed on the primary day of the trial:
An ‘inside circle’ of staff
In her opening assertion, prosecutor Emily Johnson mentioned that Diddy ran a legal enterprise facilitated by an “inside circle” of staff.
She alleged that Diddy made an worker drive him to the house of a person he believed to be romantically concerned together with his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.
Johnson alleged that when Diddy discovered Ventura “he beat her brutally, kicking her within the again and flinging her round like a rag doll.” She advised the juror that Diddy “threatened her and mentioned if she defies her once more he’ll launch video of her having intercourse with male escorts.”
Janice Combs, mom of Sean Combs, and different relations go away on the primary day of Diddy’s trial
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The prosecution alleged that Diddy and his bodyguards tried to cowl up surveillance video of him assaulting Ventura in an LA lodge hallway in March 2016, trying to “get what they thought was the one copy.”
She alleged that Diddy gave “a brown paper bag filled with $100,000 in money” to a safety guard named Israel Florez to “dealer a deal.”
Florez, now a Los Angeles Police Division officer, testified that he was on shift on the InterContinental lodge on the day that Ventura was allegedly assaulted.
He mentioned that he was known as to a girl in misery on the sixth ground of the constructing and acknowledged Diddy, who was in a towel. Florez mentioned he didn’t acknowledge Ventura on the time, however noticed that she was “scared.”
“She was within the nook, hood on, lined up. I could not see her face, she was just about within the nook. On the ground was a destroyed flower vase.”
“I began to go away and (Combs) known as for me,” Florez mentioned. “He had a sack of cash and he threw it at me and mentioned, ‘Do not inform anybody.'”
Florez testified that Diddy tried to take the telephones of lodge safety guards.
“He got here to the door, closed the door behind him, he grabbed the cellphone my colleague was holding as a result of he thought he was being recorded. He ultimately gave the cellphone again,” Florez mentioned.
“We mentioned we aren’t recording you and de-escalated the scenario,” he added.
Florez mentioned that when Diddy tried to seize his cellphone, he pinned him to the wall.
Florez additionally testified that he took some cellphone movies, together with one wherein he’s motioning for Ventura to enter a room. He mentioned he took the video to point out his spouse, as he thought she wouldn’t imagine him if he advised her what had occurred.
Cassia Ventura allegedly skilled years of abuse
The prosecution alleged that Ventura, Diddy’s ex, tried to run away from years of abuse that endured between 2006 and 2018. Diddy allegedly threatened her with the discharge of movies of intercourse acts that he’d compelled her to take part in.
Ventura was allegedly compelled to take part in “freak offs” — intercourse events that concerned intercourse employees which might final for days and concerned medication.
“Cassie tried her first freak off as a result of she beloved him and wished to make him completely happy… If Cassie didn’t do what he wished, the results had been extreme,” Johnson mentioned.
Prosecutor Emily Johnson factors to Diddy earlier than U.S. District Decide Arun Subramanian at his intercourse trafficking trial
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Nevertheless, the protection advised a special story. They mentioned that Ventura ended her relationship with Diddy after realising that she would “by no means” imply as a lot to him as his former girlfriend, Kim Porter.
Porter died from pneumonia in 2019.
“When Combs mentioned Kim Porter was his soulmate, Cassie realised all of the issues she wouldn’t be, she wished to be Combs’ spouse,” Diddy’s lawyer Teny Geragos mentioned.
She added that Ventura left Diddy on her personal phrases after coming to the conclusion that “she would by no means be that, by no means be his spouse, by no means be his love of his life.”
The protection mentioned that Diddy’s accusers weren’t compelled into intercourse acts, nor did he pay intercourse employees to journey for industrial intercourse acts.
As an alternative, Geragos mentioned that the alleged victims, together with Ventura, had been incentivized to “lie” in pursuit of a “cash seize.”
“They are going to let you know they had been victimized. Ask your self, what’s their motive?” Geragos requested. “The reply is easy: cash.”
Daniel Philip, intercourse employee, offers testimony
Daniel Philip, who labored as a male escort, appeared as a witness, confirming that he was paid cash to have intercourse with Ventura round 2012.
He mentioned he was paid hundreds of {dollars} to have intercourse together with her and rub child oil on one another whereas Diddy sat in a nook and masturbated. He mentioned that Diddy would instruct him how one can have intercourse with Ventura.
Philip alleged that Diddy made it clear that he ought to preserve quiet about what was taking place.
“He requested for my driver’s license and took an image of it and mentioned, ‘It is only for insurance coverage,’ that if I spoke about it to anyone, I understood it to be that he was threatening me,” he mentioned.
Philip mentioned on one event, he noticed Diddy assault Ventura as a result of she did not come to his facet when he known as for her.
“Somebody was being slapped round and slammed across the room,” Daniel Phillip mentioned
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“I heard him yell out, ‘Babe, come right here,'” Phillip mentioned, explaining that Cassie had requested for a second whereas she completed work on her laptop.
“Combs got here out of the room and I noticed a liquor bottle fly previous her and hit the wall,” Philip mentioned. “He grabbed her by her hair and dragged her by the hair into the bed room. She was screaming and he pulled her into the bed room. And what I heard gave the impression of him slapping her.”
He mentioned that Diddy mentioned: “‘B—- once I let you know to come back, you come now, not later.'”
Philip mentioned there was one other event the place he may hear Ventura yelling “I’m sorry, I’m sorry” from a bed room on the Essex Lodge.
“Somebody was being slapped round and slammed across the room,” Phillip mentioned. “And I seemed across the nook and I noticed Mr Combs stroll out of the lodge altogether with out garments, he might need had a towel on.”
He mentioned Ventura then ran out of the room and jumped into his lap, trembling and scared.
Single mum amongst alleged victims
Prosecutors allege that Diddy compelled a single mom, “Jane,” to have unprotected intercourse with escorts and do medication. The pair met in 2020, in accordance with Johnson.
“One time she vomited, he advised her to rush up and get again within the room the place an escort was ready.”
Diddy’s assistant “Mia” will seem in trial
Prosecutors advised the jurors that Diddy’s assistant, “Mia” (a pseudonym), will play a task within the trial.
“She is simply starting to grapple with the instances he compelled himself on her sexually. She wished to maintain the key to her grave,” Johnson mentioned.
“They labored punishing hours for the defendant with out sleep… They had been anticipated to maintain quiet of what they noticed and heard within the defendant’s houses.”
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