Jury reaches partial verdict in P Diddy trial
Combs, 55, is accused of forcing two former girlfriends to have sex with male escorts in days-long performances that he referred to as 'freak-offs'.
He is charged with sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and a racketeering conspiracy, which relates to allegations that he used his business empire, and his retinue of assistants and security guards, to coerce his victims.
He has pleaded not guilty.
A note passed to Judge Arun Subramanian on Tuesday evening said: 'We have reached a verdict on counts 2, 3, 4 and 5. We are unable to reach a verdict on count 1 as we have jurors with unpersuadable opinions on both sides.'
The four counts they have decided relate to sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, in relation to two of his former girlfriends: the singer Cassie Ventura, who dated him on and off for about eleven years until 2018, and a more recent girlfriend who testified anonymously as 'Jane'.
The first count, where they are struggling to reach a verdict, refers to 'racketeering conspiracy'.
The prosecution and Combs's defence attorneys both asked that jurors be told to carry on with deliberations. After consulting them, Judge Subramanian summoned the jurors into the court and told them to do so.
A little later they were dismissed for the day, to continue their deliberations in the morning.
The trial of Combs began in mid-May, and the prosecution case has lasted six weeks. Ventura, 38, his former girlfriend, testified over four days while heavily pregnant. She said she was in love with Combs. But she said she found the 'freak-offs' humiliating and degrading and he threatened to release video he had filmed of them if she did not participate in more. She also described a pattern of violent abuse.
Former employees of Combs testified too: some under subpoena, and some said they had witnessed Combs being violent towards Ventura. A former assistant named Capricorn Clark said Combs came to her home with a gun in December 2012 after he discovered that Ventura was seeing a rapper named Scott Mescudi, and forced her to drive with him to Mescudi's home, shouting: 'We are going to kill this n*****.'
The defence did not call witnesses, and presented its own case in the space of half an hour, placing before the jury text messages from Ventura to Combs, in which she told him that she loved him.
Marc Agnifilo, Combs's lawyer, told jurors that theirs was 'one of the great modern love stories'.'If racketeering conspiracy had an opposite, it would be their relationship,' he said. 'They were truly, deeply in love with each other, for real.'
Prosecutors said Combs regarded himself as above the law. 'That ends in this courtroom,' Maureen Comey told the jury. 'The defendant is not a god.'
The jury deliberations continue.
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The Guardian
38 minutes ago
- The Guardian
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Daily Mail
41 minutes ago
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Reuters
44 minutes ago
- Reuters
Netflix holds talks with Spotify to expand live TV content, WSJ reports
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