A jury was finalized on Monday in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal sex-trafficking trial in New York.
The 12 jurors and six alternates have the option to take notes during the proceedings, but they are required to surrender their notebooks to the court at the conclusion of each day. According to The New York Times, following the juror instructions, the prosecution depicted Combs as a repeated sex offender who coerced women into non-consensual sexual activities over several decades.
During the opening statements, prosecutor Emily Johnson emphasized that the case did not revolve around a celebrity’s personal sexual preferences but rather highlighted the violent actions and their repercussions committed by the defendant.
While the defense team acknowledged the presence of “domestic violence” in the relationship between Combs and his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura, who is a crucial witness for the prosecution, the prosecutors alleged that Combs attempted to conceal footage of an assault on Ventura at a hotel in California in 2016 by paying a guard $100,000. Despite his efforts, the video was made public by CNN in May of last year, several months before Combs was taken into custody.
Combs was arrested on September 16, 2024, outside a Manhattan hotel on federal charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has been denied bail three times, as Judge Andrew L. Carter determined there was a “serious risk” of witness tampering in this case.
Combs’ legal team sought home detention with GPS monitoring. In exchange, they offered to post $50 million bail and to use Combs’ home as collateral.
“The government has proven the defendant is a danger. The bail package is insufficient even on risk of flight,” Carter said while denying Combs’ bail.
Federal authorities raided Combs’ homes in Holmby Hills, California, and Miami in March 2024. Reports indicated that the raids were connected to an ongoing sex trafficking investigation that resulted in his arrest months later.
The reported raids also occurred four months after Ventura accused him of sex trafficking and abuse. In a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, she alleged that Combs drugged her and forced her to have sex with other men. The pair settled the lawsuit a day after its filing.
However, in May, the video surfaced showing Combs assaulting Ventura. After the video was released, Combs put out a video expressing remorse for his behavior.
Two more accusers came forward a week after Ventura’s lawsuit. One of the women claimed Combs drugged and raped her at Syracuse University in New York in 1991. Combs denied those allegations before a third accuser, Liza Gardner, levied similar allegations against him.
In that case, Gardner claimed Combs and singer-songwriter Aaron Hall drugged and raped her and a friend following an Uptown Records event in 1990. Gardner said she was 16 at the time of the incident. She also accused Combs of choking her a day after the assault
Days after footage of the Ventura assault was publicized, two more women filed lawsuits against Combs. One of those women was April Lampros, a New York Fashion Institute of Technology student who reportedly met Combs in 1994. Lampros accused Combs of sexually assaulting her on four occasions between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s.
Lampros claimed Combs promised to mentor her and connect her with executives in the fashion industry. Instead, Combs allegedly forced her to drink before raping her in a hotel room. Lampros recalled another instance in which Combs forced her to perform oral sex in a parking garage while a parking attendant watched.
Combs has been accused of committing or facilitating sexual abuse in at least 30 other lawsuits — including one, filed in October, which alleges he and Jay-Z raped a 13-year-old girl in New York in 2000. The accuser in that case had her lawsuit dismissed in February.
Combs turned down a plea deal days before jury selection began on Monday. His trial is expected to last two months.
[Feature Photo: Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File]
