Sean 'Diddy' Combs asks judge to throw out guilty verdicts or grant him a new trial

[ad_1] Sean “Diddy” Combs has requested a decide to throw out his responsible verdicts on prostitution-related counts or grant him a brand new trial, saying such convictions are with out precedent.

“This conviction stands alone, however it should not stand in any respect," the Wednesday submitting mentioned.

Combs' legal professionals argue that his two felony convictions have been a singular misapplication of the federal Mann Act, which bars interstate commerce associated to prostitution,

“To our data, Mr. Combs is the one individual ever convicted of violating the statute for conduct something like this,” a Wednesday submitting from Combs authorized crew mentioned.

Combs, 55, was convicted in a New York federal courtroom of two counts of transportation to have interaction in prostitution for flying folks across the nation, together with his girlfriends and male intercourse employees, for sexual encounters, whereas he was acquitted of extra severe expenses. He might rise up to a decade in jail at his sentencing set for Oct. 3.

His legal professionals argued that not one of the parts usually used for Mann Act convictions, together with benefiting from intercourse work or coercion, have been current right here.

“It's undisputed that he had no industrial motive and that each one concerned have been adults," The submitting mentioned. “The lads selected to journey and have interaction within the exercise voluntarily. The decision confirms the ladies weren't susceptible or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted.”

The legal professionals mentioned that Combs, “at most, paid to have interaction in voyeurism as a part of a ‘swingers’ life-style” and argued that "doesn't represent ‘prostitution’ underneath a correctly restricted definition of the statutory time period.”

Combs was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking, expenses might have put certainly one of hip-hop’s celebrated figures in jail for all times.

The brand new movement asks Choose Arun Subramanian to vacate the jury's verdict, or to order a brand new trial whose proof is restricted to issues associated to the Mann Act counts, due to “extreme spillover prejudice from reams of inflammatory proof” associated to the extra severe counts.

Prosecutors insisted in the course of the eight-week trial that Combs had coerced, threatened and typically viciously pressured two ex-girlfriends to have intercourse with male intercourse employees to fulfill his sexual urges. They cited a number of acts of violence he carried out towards them as proof that that they had no say.

A day earlier, Combs' crew requested the decide to free him on a $50 million bond whereas he awaits sentencing in October after a jury discovered him not responsible of probably the most severe federal expenses he confronted earlier this month.

His lawyer argued that circumstances on the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn are harmful, noting that others convicted of comparable prostitution-related offenses have been sometimes launched earlier than sentencing.

Subramanian beforehand denied a request that Combs be launched on bail whereas he awaits sentencing, citing a now-infamous video of Combs beating a former girlfriend and pictures exhibiting accidents to a different ex-girlfriend.