P. Diddy used “power, violence and fear” to push old girlfriends to participate without their consent in sex marathons, launched the prosecutor in his final indictment on Thursday at the trial of the hip-hop magnate.
After weeks of often painful, if not overwhelming testimonies, the parties present their last arguments Thursday in the trial for sexual trafficking of the founder of the Bad Boy Records label, Sean Combs of his real name.
“He used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted. And he was counting on silence and shame to keep his hidden crimes,” the jurors of the Manhattan court in New York Christy Slavik told the jurors.
“He has become more and more powerful and dangerous thanks to the support of his close guard and his business,” she added, in reference to the fortune of the rapper, producer and businessmen, valued at around $ 700 million by the specialized magazine forbes.
Aged 55, P. Diddy is accused of having forced women, including her ex-girlfriend from 2007 to 2018, the singer Cassie, and a more recent girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym of Jane, to engage in sexual marathons with prostituted men.
According to the accusation, P. Diddy’s employees had to deliver drugs to the victims to obtain their submission and their silence.
“These were absolutely no free choice,” insisted the prosecutor, stating that the alleged victims “were drugged, brushed with oil, exhausted and had badly”.
The rapper pleaded not guilty, his defense maintaining that these women participated in their own free will in these “freak-offs” or sex marathons with other men, even that they testified against P. Diddy out of jealousy or for the lure of gain.
– Testimonials, SMS and videos –
In addition to the alleged victims, the star assistants of the star, relatives of Cassie and the security officer of a hotel, said at the Manhattan court that said he received $ 100,000 in a Kraft paper bag in exchange for a compromising video.
This video, captured in March 2016 by a surveillance camera from a chic hotel in Los Angeles, broadcast by CNN last year, shows P. Diddy drag Cassie on the ground and bring her several blows, then tear her phone from the hands.
P. Diddy has chosen not to testify, a current defense strategy which does not have to prove the innocence of his client but must sow a reasonable doubt among the members of the jury regarding the accusations of the prosecutors.
The latter presented thousands of pages of transcriptions of telephone conversations or SMS exchanges which seem to testify to the distress of the alleged victims. But messages of desire and affection have also been transcribed and used by the defense many times.
The jurors have watched videos of these sexual marathons, described as criminals by prosecutors, but presented as granted and participating in a “polyamourous” lifestyle by the defense of P. Diddy.
Prosecutors also presented numerous financial documents, including payments made via the Cashapp application to male prostitutes and hotel rooms and airplane routes, aimed at proving the transport of people for sexual purposes.
– Deliberations –
Electronic devices are prohibited in the courtroom. But at each break during the debates, the creators of content on Tiktok, Instagram or YouTube rush on the sidewalks in front of the court, stall their phone on a tripod to tell with the slightest adventures of the courtroom.
P. Diddy, imprisoned in a Brooklyn prison, never comes out of the court in the public, unlike his family members. On Thursday, twin girls of the hip-hop star made an appearance.
The pleadings could end on Friday but there is little chance that the jurors, who have also received the investigation not to follow the news surrounding this hypermediatal affair, begin to deliberate immediately.
The accusation and the defense are more expensive at the start of the deliberations on Monday. P. Diddy risks life for life.
Posted on June 26 at 8:11 p.m. AFP
