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The music magnate Sean “Diddy” will be rejoiced on Friday by a federal judge following his conviction for two prostitution leaders, and although he was acquitted on some of the most serious accusations and escaped the possibility of life in prison, legal experts told Forbes that he could still incur about five years or more behind bars.
Sean “Diddy” is sentenced on Friday, months after a jury found him guilty of two transport managers to engage in prostitution. (Photo of Shareif Ziyadat / Getty Images for Sean “Diddy” Combs)
Getty Images for Sean “Diddy” Combs
Key facts
Combs was sentenced in July for two violations of the Mann Act, which prohibits people through state lines for prostitution, and its lawyers and prosecutors asked the judge of very different sentences: the defense of Combs pushes a sentence of 14 months, while the prosecutors asked for 11 years.
Legal experts told Forbes that the sentence will probably take place somewhere in the middle, noting that federal probation officials have recommended a sentence of five to seven years on the basis of the federal directives of determination of the sentence.
Former federal prosecutor Mark Chutkow told Forbes that he “would not be surprised” if Combs obtained “something of the order of five to seven years” in prison, noting that the judge can choose to follow the recommendation of the Probation Bureau because he considers that the prosecutors and defense lawyers have made convincing arguments in their conviction.
The veteran lawyer for the trial and the appeal, Mark Zauderer, told Forbes that he thought that Combs “will come out with a few years of conviction”, noting that he could escape a more difficult sentence because he has no previous criminal convictions.
In their long recommendations for determining the sentence to the judge, which both lasted more than 160 pages, the prosecutors and the defense lawyers clashed if the court should consider the arguments presented at the trial which supported the accusations that Combs was paid – the plot of Ratoir and sexual traffic – as a factor in his conviction.
News
Judge Arun Subramanian on Tuesday rejected a request from combat lawyers to grant the rap magnate a new trial or launch its convictions. This decision was the last attempt of the Combs lawyers to bring the rapper out of prison out before his conviction, because Subramanian had already rejected several requests for the liberation of bail.
Why do the prosecutors argue for an 11-year sentence?
Prosecutors wrote in a file of more than 160 pages earlier this week, the court should transmit a sentence of at least 135 months, just over 11 years. Although the prosecutors recognized in their deposit of combs cannot be punished for crimes which he was acquitted, they declared that the court “had to take into account the way in which he committed” the crimes of prostitution, arguing that during the trial, Combs had conceded to “violence, domestic violence, consumption and the distribution of drugs and corruption”. Combs lawyers admitted during the trial he had adopted violent behavior, especially in hotel surveillance images that have been played several times for the jury that represented him to attack her ex-girlfriend, singer Cassie Ventura, but argued that it was not proof of sex traffic. The prosecutors asked the judge to consider “the history and model of violence of Combs”, citing testimonies and letters to the court submitted by former employees who accused the magnate of abuse and exploitation. “Given the severity and duration of the conduct of the offense, as well as its decades of uncontrolled violence”, wrote the prosecutors, Combs should face a “substantial punishment” which reflects “psychological, emotional and physical damage that it has inflicted”.
How do Diddy’s lawyers push a light sentence?
The Combs lawyers ask the judge a 14 -month sentence, which would effectively allow Combs to walk freely by the end of 2025 given the year he spent behind bars during his trial. His defense lawyers argue that the accusations of the Mann Act are inappropriate because the Combs did not personally benefit from his “freaked” sexual performances, and that the court should not take into account the evidence that was presented during the trial to support the charges of which he was acquitted. His lawyers wrote in a court deposited for gangs and her former girlfriend “voluntarily crossed state lines and had consensual sex”, declaring that they “worry no other prosecution of the Mann Act based on such conduct”. Chutkow told Forbes Combs maintains that he had been “acquitted at the trial and, therefore, the jury implicitly rejected all the elements of these acquittals, in particular strength, coercion and fraud”. A large part of the testimony presented during the trial, including a week’s testimony by Ventura, focused on the allegedly violent behavior of Combs. Chutkow said that combat lawyers argue that his relationship with Ventura “may not be the relationship you have, but it is consensual adults” who have adopted in a behavior that “may not be prototypical, but which was not criminal”.
On the accusations that Diddy was condemned?
A jury recognized the guilty combs of two transport managers to engage in prostitution, of which a chief concerned Ventura, while the other concerned another ex-friendly friend who testified under the pseudonym of “Jane”. Each guilt verdict has a maximum sentence of 10 years, which means that Combs could incur up to two decades in prison. During the Combs trial, the prosecutors argued that he had transported his old girlfriends through the limits of the state to participate in marathon sexual performance behind drugs with male workers he called “freak-offs” or “hotel nights”. The jury acquitted him on more serious accusations of sexual traffic – which would have forced prosecutors to prove that his former girlfriends were transported for sex by force, fraud or coercion – and racket, who could have landed in life.
What other legal challenges await Diddy?
The legal battles of Combs will not end with his conviction, because he always faces at least 50 civil proceedings accusing him of sexual traffic and sexual assault, among other allegations. Legal experts have told Forbes that these prosecution will take place even if the rap tycoon was in prison, and he may have to pay monetary damages if he is deemed responsible. Chutkow said that several forbes Combs acquittals in his criminal case do not mean that he cannot be deemed responsible in a civil affair, noting that civil proceedings require a lower level of evidence to find a responsible defendant. He noted that OJ Simspon had been acquitted in a federal criminal trial for murder, but was then tried responsible for the death of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman in a civil action and was ordered to pay more than $ 33 million.
Upon reading
Here is how Sean “Diddy” cooks a criminal conviction could help the complainants in his dozens of civil proceedings (Forbes)
