Hip-hop Sean “Diddy” Combs, 55, went to trial on Monday on charges of sexual trafficking, with prosecutors telling a jury that the Bad Boy Records founder used his fame and fortune to abuse women, and the defense hoped to argue that there was nothing of a criminal in a swing lifestyle.
Prosecutor Emily Johnson said in her opening statement that Combs commanded a two-decades criminal conspiracy with the help of an intimate circle of high-ranked bodyguards and staff.
“For the public, he was Puffy, Puff Daddy or Diddy:,, Beside than Life. But there was another side of him – one side that commanded a criminal organization. During this trial, you will hear about 20 years of defendant crimes,” Johnson told the jurors.
Comb’s mother, Janice Combs, sat in the front row of the court along with six of her son’s sons. Combs wore a beige sweater on a white shirt with collar and khaki pants. He smiled at his family and sent them a kiss before sitting down with his lawyers.
On Monday morning (12), the panel of 12 judges and six alternates was finalized before the initial government’s allegations and then the defense. The accusation would then call his first witness. The case attracted intense media coverage because of the fame of Combs.
Throughout a two-month trial, the jurors are expected to hear the testimony of three and possibly four of the rapper’s accusers, as well as their former employees who, according to prosecutors, helped to organize and cover their actions.
of five criminal accusations of conspiracy of extortion, sexual traffic and transport for prostitution purposes. If convicted of all the accusations, he faces a mandatory minimum 15 -year sentence and could take life imprisonment.
Comb defense lawyers should argue that the sexual activity described by the prosecutors was consensual and to say that there was nothing illegal in a “swinger” lifestyle in which Combs and their girlfriends occasionally brought a third person to their relationships.
The allegations of sexual abuse in the criminal accusations presented against Combs by the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan last year made him the latest powerful man in the entertainment industry to be accused of sexual conduct in the wake of the #Metoo movement, which encouraged women to speak out about abuse.
Combs is known for turning artists from rap and R&B as Notorious Big and Mary J. Blige into stars and, in the process, raise hip-hop mainstream in American culture in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Born in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan and raised by a single mother, Combs began to live in mansions in Miami and Los Angeles and to give luxurious parties to the cultural elite in destinations such as Hamptons and Saint-Tropez.
Prosecutors say their success hid a dark side. Over the course of two decades, Combs has used violence and threats to force women to participate in drug performances, drug -driven, with male sex workers, known as “freak offs”, according to the accusation.
Combs used to watch the performances, masturbate and film them, sometimes using recordings as blackmail to ensure that their supposed victims did not denounce their abuse, prosecutors say. In an incident of 2016 that was captured by hotel surveillance images that promoters plan to show the jury, Combs was seen kicking and dragging a woman while she was trying to leave one, the promoters say.
A CNN Last year transmitted images that seemed to show, the R&B singer, in 2016, in a Hotel de Los Angeles corridor. Combs apologized after the video display.
Cassie must be among the first witnesses
Ventura, professionally known as Cassie, is among the first witnesses who must testify against Combs.
The Comb defense strategy at the trial will depend on undermining the credibility of women who witness against Combs, including arguing that they were motivated by money to accuse them of irregularities and have non-reliable memories.
Marc Agnifilo, Comb’s main lawyer, said the 2016 hotel incident portrayed the consequences of an infidelity dispute and was not evidence of sexual trafficking. In a judicial hearing on Friday, Agnifilo said Ventura had a history of domestic violence, harming the prosecutors’ argument that she was a victim.
Ventura’s lawyer refused to comment.
See also: Video catches Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs assaulting woman
