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Greater than seven months months after he was arrested on rape and intercourse trafficking costs, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial is lastly getting underway.
Jury choice started this morning at Manhattan’s Daniel P. Moynihan courthouse.
As we reported final week, Diddy has rejected a plea deal and can take his possibilities at trial. If convicted on all costs, he faces life in jail.
Diddy’s trial is anticipated to final at the very least two months
The trial is scheduled to final eight to 10 weeks, although there’s an opportunity it might drag on even longer.
Of their indictment, prosecutors allege that Combs “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.”
Diddy’s protection crew counters that the rapper was merely a “swinger” and that all the sexual exercise he engaged in was consensual.
“There’s a lifestyle, call it swingers or whatever you will, that he thought was appropriate because it was common,” Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo mentioned in a pre-trial listening to on April 25 (through the New York Submit).
Jury choice guarantees to be notably difficult because of all of the media protection surrounding the case.
The truth that the trial might be held in Diddy’s hometown of New York Metropolis might complicate issues even additional.
As TMZ factors out, the common observer already believes Combs is responsible, so the protection could have a tough time discovering unbiased jurors.
The prolonged court docket battle forward
This may seem like an open-and-shut case from an outsider’s perspective, however the protection insists that Combs has been unfairly focused.
In contentious pre-trial hearings, legal professionals for Diddy have lashed out at opposing counsel and argued towards the admission of key items of proof.
The protection fought to have the video of Diddy assaulting then-girlfriend Cassie dominated inadmissible.
The mogul just isn’t on trial for the violence documented in that footage, however the decide dominated that the tape is related as proof of Combs’ character.
As for Diddy himself, the months in jail have reportedly taken fairly a toll on the once-stylish hip hop icon.
Courtroom onlookers have described Diddy as “bloated,” “grey-haired,” and searching a lot older than he did on the time of his arrest.
However the mogul will be permitted to put on a swimsuit throughout his trial, versus the jail uniform he sported in pre-trial hearings.
We could have additional updates on this growing story as new info turns into out there.
