Sean 'Diddy' Combs denied bail after being cleared of most serious sex offences
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Hip hop impresario Sean “Diddy” Combs may have skated on sex trafficking and racketeering charges, but still faces prison for prostitution convictions.
The 55-year-old was acquitted in a New York courtroom on Wednesday of sex trafficking that could have seen him sent to prison for life.
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Later in the day, a judge refused to grant bail to Combs — behind bars since his arrest in September — which would have allowed him to be freed to await sentencing for his crimes.
A prostitution conviction could still see him jailed for 10 years. In addition, the prostitution conviction and the lurid details that flowed from the eight-week trial have likely torpedoed his career.
It took jurors three days of deliberations — which were reportedly contentious, at times — to reach their verdict.
When the verdict was read, the man who was the ringmaster for days-long sex and drug-fuelled orgies, clasped his hands together in a prayer motion. He hugged his lawyer, Teny Geragos.
Combs’ lawyers argued that the acquittal on the most serious counts changed the legal landscape enough that he should be freed on $1 million bond. Prosecutors said he remained a flight risk.
Judge Arun Subramanian said the applicable law didn’t allow for Combs’ release at this point.
Among other reasons, the judge noted Combs’ violent history: “At trial, the defence conceded the defendent’s violence in his personal relationships, saying it happened with Cassie and Jane.”
As the judge spoke, Combs remained stoic with his hands at his lap.
One legal analyst said the key to the courtroom win was that the billionaire “owned” the bad facts of the case.
“This trial was a major gamble and Combs won that bet,” New York Law School Professor Anna Cominsky told the New York Post.
“Everything is stacked against the defendant going into a federal case, in particular one like this. His attorneys were smart and they owned the bad facts. They fought on the things that mattered, and it paid off.”
Cominsky said that lawyers for the founder of Bad Boy Records admitted that Diddy had: Beat up girlfriends, engaged in eye-popping kinky sex, made porn and lived a swinger’s lifestyle.
But they argued the case was about domestic violence, not sex trafficking.
One confusing aspect of the trial is that while Combs walked on the sex trafficking charges, he did go down in flames on prostitution, which consisted of him flying girlfriends and male sex workers around the U.S. to engage in sex. Those actions were a felony violation of the Mann Act.
But the jury of eight men and four women acquitted Combs of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking charges, related to allegations that he used his money, power and frightening physical force to manipulate girlfriends into hundreds of drug-fuelled sex marathons.
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His legal eagles argued the women were willing participants in the orgies and that his violent actions did not justify the heavyweight charges.
After the verdict was read, Combs continued to pump his right fist subtly, seemingly satisfied that he was acquitted on the most serious charges.
Diddy appeared buoyant arriving in the courtroom Wednesday morning, a contrast to his mood a day earlier after he learned that the jury at his sex trafficking trial had reached a yet-to-be-disclosed verdict on all but one of the five charges.
On Tuesday, Judge Subramanian ordered the jury to continue its closed-door discussions for a third day after the panel of eight men and four women said it was unable to reach consensus on the top count: racketeering conspiracy.
The judge agreed with prosecutors and Combs’ defence team that less than 13 hours of deliberations was too soon to give up on reaching a verdict on all counts.
In a note to the court late Tuesday, the jury said “unpersuadable opinions on both sides” among some jurors had prevented the group from reaching a unanimous verdict on the racketeering conspiracy charge.
The disclosure of Tuesday’s jury note about the partial verdict had seemed to put defence attorneys and their client in a dour mood even before it was read in open court by the judge.
Eight defence lawyers formed a half-circle behind Combs as the smiles and lighthearted mood that accompanied the arrival of other jury notes over two days seemed absent. His attorneys contemplated the possibility that jurors had reached agreement on counts that carry the heaviest sentencing penalties.
Combs appeared morose as his lawyers spoke with him. At one point, the hip-hop mogul solemnly read a piece of paper that attorney Marc Agnifilo handed to him.
After the jury came in for instructions and then exited the room, a subdued Combs sat in his chair for a few minutes. As he stood to leave, he faced his relatives and supporters in the audience, blew a kiss and tapped his heart, as he frequently has done at the start and end of each day.
Then he paused before his mother and exchanged a few words, telling her, “Love you” and “I’ll be all right.”
Marshals then led him from the room.
— With files from the Associated Press
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