A US decide on Tuesday rejected a bid by Sean “Diddy” Combs to overturn his legal conviction on felony prostitution-related costs, after prosecutors stated the hip-hop mogul ought to spend greater than 11 years in jail. US district decide Arun Subramanian in Manhattan discovered “overwhelming proof of Combs’ guilt” associated to his therapy of two former girlfriends: rhythm and blues singer Casandra Ventura, and a lady identified in court docket as Jane, Reuters reported. Prosecutors stated Combs organized for male prostitutes to journey throughout state traces to have interaction in drug-fuelled sexual performances referred to as Freak Offs together with his girlfriends, whereas he watched, recorded movies and masturbated. Ventura and Jane testified that Combs bodily attacked them and threatened to chop off monetary help in the event that they resisted the performances. “The federal government proved its case many instances over,” the decide wrote. Subramanian additionally rejected arguments that proof used to help the extra critical racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking costs on which Combs was acquitted tainted the prostitution case. Legal professionals for Combs didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark. A spokesperson for US Legal professional Jay Clayton in Manhattan didn’t instantly reply to related requests. Combs, 55, was discovered responsible by a Manhattan jury on July 2 of two counts of transportation to have interaction in prostitution, following an eight-week trial. He had pleaded not responsible to all costs and is anticipated to enchantment his conviction. Prosecutors requested Subramanian to condemn Combs to 11-1/4 years in jail on the scheduled October 3 sentencing. Defence legal professionals requested for not more than 14 months, which if granted might end in Combs’ freedom this 12 months as a result of he would get credit score for time served at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Middle since his September 16-2024 arrest. Prosecutors cited proof at trial that Combs led a unique life outdoors the general public eye, bodily beating his girlfriends and giving them unlawful medicine. “The defendant tries to recast many years of abuse as merely the perform of mutually poisonous relationships,” prosecutors wrote. “However there may be nothing mutual a few relationship the place one individual holds all the facility and the opposite finally ends up bloodied and bruised.” In a letter to the decide, Ventura, referred to as Cassie, stated Combs used violence, threats and medicines to “lure” her into Freak Offs, beginning when she was 19. “Intercourse acts grew to become my full-time job,” Ventura wrote. “His energy over me eroded my independence and sense of self till I felt I had no selection however to submit.” Subramanian rejected Combs’ arguments that the prostitution convictions below the Mann Act needs to be thrown out as a result of Combs lacked a monetary motive and didn’t have interaction in intercourse he paid for, reported Reuters. The decide stated it was sufficient that Combs transported escorts who had been financially motivated and meant for them to have interaction in prostitution. He additionally stated requiring Combs to have taken half within the intercourse “would chop prostitution nearly out of existence,” shielding even homeowners of brothels from prosecution. Subramanian additionally stated a conviction didn’t violate Combs’ First Modification constitutional rights as “an novice pornographer and client of pornography,” and that conduct didn’t turn into authorized simply because he filmed the intercourse performances. Whereas agreeing with Combs that the Mann Act has developed since its 1910 passage, Combs’ conduct “sits on the heartland of the Act’s professional proscriptions. Unsurprisingly then, his conviction raises no constitutional drawback.”
