Federal prosecutors announced charges against Sean “Diddy” Combs with great fanfare last year.
This was not just a case of a celebrity behaving badly, they said. It was about a criminal enterprise that had, for years, concealed the crimes of a music and fashion mogul.
It was a bold gambit, and it employed a strategy typically reserved for organized crime cases to prosecute a music legend for alleged violence, threats, and payoffs.
But in the end, jurors hearing the case in Manhattan did not buy it.
After two days of deliberations, the jury found Combs guilty of only two counts of transportation for prostitution involving ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura and a second woman identified as Jane in testimony, as well as commercial sex workers.
Jurors found Combs not guilty of the most serious crimes: sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and racketeering, which carried a potential life sentence.
“This is a ‘win’ for Combs. He was facing life in prison if convicted of the [racketeering] charges. Instead, he likely serves a couple years in prison and returns to his business empire,” said David Ring, an attorney who represents sexual abuse victims in some of the highest-profile cases. “Sean Combs mostly won in court, but in the court of public opinion, he lost big time with his despicable misconduct that was unveiled at trial.”
A complex case
The trial was marked by shocking descriptions of Combs’ abuse of women. But some legal experts questioned whether the graphic testimony proved racketeering.
Jeff Chemerinsky, a former federal prosecutor, said, “Whatever people may think of the conduct as a moral matter, this jury decided that the government did not meet its burden to prove all the elements of the serious felony charges they brought against Mr. Combs.”
The federal indictment alleged that Combs and his associates lured female victims, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs then allegedly used force, threats of force, coercion and controlled substances to get women to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes while he occasionally watched in gatherings that Combs referred to as “freak-offs.” Combs gave the women ketamine, ecstasy and GHB to “keep them obedient and compliant” during the performances, prosecutors said.
Combs’ alleged “criminal enterprise” threatened and abused women and used members of his enterprise to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice, prosecutors said. In support of their racketeering case, prosecutors told jurors in opening statements that Combs was helped by a cadre of company employees, security staff and aides, who helped organize the freak-offs and then covered up the incidents.
Overreach by government?
“The government overreached. They wanted a RICO conviction so they could then go seize Combs’ assets under RICO forfeiture laws. That’s not going to happen now. This is a loss for the prosecution,” Ring said, referring to the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
“The prosecution’s presentation was underwhelming. They made a number of strategic mistakes and unforced errors,” former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said in an interview before the verdict.
After the verdict, Rahmani added: This was “the most expensive prostitution trial in American history. What a huge win for the defense and a tremendous loss for the prosecution.”
Some experts say RICO cases are difficult to prosecute by design.
“RICO is a very rigid and difficult law to satisfy,” said Mitchell Epner, a former assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey who worked on numerous sex trafficking and involuntary servitude cases. “It requires an ongoing criminal structure, a continuity of members of a criminal organization. It is on purpose difficult for prosecutors to prove, and the defense did a very good job of pointing out the shortcomings of a RICO prosecution on a technical level. ”
Defense vs feds
Combs’ attorneys hammered on the idea that their client was overcharged by prosecutors.
Marc Agnifilo claimed Combs enjoyed a “swinger” lifestyle and was addled by drugs. He admitted Combs committed domestic violence, but that the racketeering and sex trafficking charges were trumped up.
“He is not a racketeer,” he said.
Prosecutors told the jury the evidence was clear.
In her closing argument, Assistant U.S. Atty. Christy Slavik said racketeering law applies when someone commits crimes as part of a group, and in Combs’ case, “the defendant was a powerful man, but he became more powerful and dangerous because of his inner circle, his businesses — the enterprise,” she told jurors, according to AP.
Combs “counted on silence and shame” to enable and prolong his abuse and used a “small army” of employees to harm women and cover it up, she said.
Under RICO, there are 35 specific offenses, including murder, bribery and extortion, and federal prosecutors need to show a pattern involving at least two overt acts as part of a criminal enterprise.
The defense questioned why those on the stand did not report the behavior to authorities at the time and in some cases stayed in Combs’ orbit.
Smoking gun?
Jurors heard from 34 witnesses, who provided six weeks of brutal and graphic testimony.
The defense was aggressive in cross-examination, hammering witnesses about why they did not report Combs at the time or simply leave him. They also presented text messages of support and love after the alleged attacks. The defense also focused on the money and other things they got from Combs.
“This isn’t about a crime. This is about money. It’s about money,” Agnifilo said, according to the AP.
They also noted that witnesses did not believe they were committing a crime, making it hard to prove that Combs’ actions added up to a criminal conspiracy.
Video from 2016 showed Combs punching and kicking Ventura as she cowers and tries to protect herself in front of an L.A. hotel elevator bank. He then drags her down the hall by her hooded sweatshirt toward their hotel room.
Eddie Garcia, the InterContinental Hotel security guard, testified that Combs gave him a brown paper bag containing $100,000 in cash for the video.
Garcia said that after his supervisor agreed to sell the video recording, he met with Combs, Combs’ chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, and a bodyguard. After Garcia raised concerns about the police, he said Combs called Ventura on FaceTime, handed him the phone and told Ventura to tell Garcia that she also wanted the video “to go away.” After that, Garcia said he took the money and split it with co-workers, according to reporting from inside the courtroom.
Prosecutors allege this shows the conspiracy.
What does this mean for other cases?
Some experts say the Combs verdict could put a chill on future sex trafficking prosecutions.
”Now that the jury has acquitted Combs of the RICO and trafficking charges,” Epner said, “it could really cause the DOJ to think long and hard before bringing similar sex trafficking charges.”
The verdict is also a bitter disappointment for victim advocates, said Lauren Hersh, the former chief of the sex trafficking unit at the Kings County district attorney’s office in Brooklyn and now the national director of the activist group World Without Exploitation.
After successful prosecutions of figures like R. Kelly and cult leader Keith Raniere, some experts saw progress in broadening the popular understanding of how sex trafficking operated and how victims might respond to it. With this verdict, though, “this will 100% cast a chilling effect on prosecutors, who will be reluctant to bring similar charges even when the evidence is overwhelming,” Hersh said.
