Sean Combs Alternate Juror Speaks Out
'I mean, it was a very bad video,' the 37-year-old man, who works at the United Nations in the counter-terrorism office, told CNN anchor Laura Coates on Thursday. But Combs 'wasn't charged with domestic violence.'
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The man, who CNN only identified as George, said he would've likely reached the same conclusion as the eight men and four women who decided Combs' fate. 'I understood the final verdict,' he said. 'I took a copious amount of notes, overall, 350 pages worth of notes … and looking back at the evidence, I probably would have reached the same conclusion as the other jurors … I think there was always a little bit of doubt.'
On Wednesday morning, Combs dropped to his knees in prayer after he was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and the sex trafficking of Ventura and Combs' girlfriend, 'Jane.' Although the Bad Boy Entertainment founder escaped a life sentence, he still faces prison time after being found guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
Although the juror was not part of the group that deliberated, he was the first member of the jury pool, which included six alternates, who shared their thoughts after sitting through eight weeks of grueling testimony from 34 witnesses.
He also spoke about the sealed freak-off videos of Combs' girlfriends having sex with male escorts. Both prosecutors from the Southern District of New York and Combs' high-powered defense team played the explicit videos, but the man said each side showed different tapes.
Tripping over his words when trying to describe the explicit videos, the man said they were 'riveting' but some portions were 'tame.' 'They were very graphic, but I think overall, it was looking at it from one side,' the man offered. 'It was definitely riveting and eye-opening.'
However, he seemed to contradict himself a few seconds later when he said some videos, while depicting sexual activity, didn't show anything 'too graphic.' 'It didn't seem forced,' he added. 'It was actually, like, pretty tame. It was just a lot of rubbing oil.'
Prosecutors claimed Combs coerced his girlfriends Ventura and Jane to participate in 'freak-offs,' where the women would have sex with male escorts while Combs masturbated and filed the encounters. Both women testified they often felt obligated to perform during these days-long sex marathons, taking mood-changing drugs to dissociate from the experience. (Combs denied the allegations.)
Combs is currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center awaiting sentencing. A hearing on his sentencing is scheduled for Tuesday, July 8. His team has requested an expedited sentencing, as they plan to push for a minimum sentence for the one-time billionaire.
Speaking to members of the press following the verdict, Combs' lead attorney Marc Agnifilo said they weren't 'nearly done fighting' in the case. 'We're not going to stop until he walks out of prison a free man to his family.'
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