Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial begins with jury choice

NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs, the hip-hop entrepreneur whose wildly profitable profession has been dotted by allegations of violence, will likely be delivered to a New York courthouse Monday to be tried on costs that he used the affect and assets of his enterprise empire to sexually abuse girls.

Jury choice is scheduled to start within the morning and doubtlessly take a number of days. Opening statements by the attorneys and the beginning of testimony is anticipated subsequent week.

The 17-page indictment towards Combs reads like a charging doc filed towards a Mafia chief or the top of a drug gang, accusing him of partaking in intercourse trafficking and presiding over a racketeering conspiracy.

The indictment says that with the assistance of individuals in his entourage and staff from his community of companies, Combs engaged in a two-decade sample of abusive habits towards girls and others.

Ladies have been manipulated into collaborating in drug-fueled sexual performances with male intercourse employees that Combs referred to as “Freak Offs,” prosecutors say.

To maintain girls in line, prosecutors say Combs used a mixture of affect and violence: He provided to spice up their leisure careers in the event that they did what he requested — or reduce them off in the event that they didn’t.

And when he wasn’t getting what he needed, the indictment says Combs and his associates resorted to violent acts together with beatings, kidnapping and arson. As soon as, the indictment alleges, he even dangled somebody from a balcony.

Combs and his attorneys say he’s harmless.

Any group intercourse was consensual, they are saying. There was no effort to coerce individuals into issues they didn’t wish to do, and nothing that occurred amounted to a legal racket, they stated.

The trial is anticipated to take a minimum of eight weeks.

Combs, 55, has acknowledged one episode of violence that’s more likely to be featured within the trial. In 2016, a safety digital camera recorded him beating up his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, within the hallway of a Los Angeles lodge. Cassie filed a lawsuit in late 2023 saying Combs had subjected her to years of abuse, together with beatings and rape.

The Related Press doesn’t sometimes identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused except they arrive ahead publicly, as Cassie, whose authorized identify is Casandra Ventura, did.

Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo has stated Combs was “not an ideal particular person” and that there had been drug use and poisonous relationships, however stated that every one sexual exercise between Combs, Cassie and different individuals was consensual.

The trial is the newest and most critical in a lengthy string of authorized issues for Combs.

In 1999, he was charged with bursting into the workplaces of an Interscope Data government along with his bodyguards and beating him with a champagne bottle and a chair. The manager, Steve Stoute, later requested prosecutors to go straightforward on Combs, who pleaded responsible to a lesser cost and took an anger administration class.

Later that very same 12 months, Combs was stopped by police after he and his then-girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez, fled a nightclub the place three individuals have been wounded by gunfire. Combs was acquitted of all costs associated to the incident at a 2001 trial, however a rapper in his entourage, Jamal “Shyne” Barrow, was convicted within the capturing and served practically 9 years in jail.

Then in 2015, Combs was charged with assaulting somebody with a weight-room kettlebell on the College of California, Los Angeles, the place one in every of his sons performed soccer. Combs stated he was defending himself and prosecutors dropped the case.

Now, Combs faces his most critical case but.

If convicted, he faces the potential of many years in jail.