By Luke Cohen and Jack Queen
New York (Reuters) – Since the selection of jurors began on Monday for the process of sexual trafficking of the son “Didy”, future jurors said they had heard news of allegations against hip -hop tycoon, who was alleged in a joke and even heard a commer Residents.
But just following the previous reflection of the media on the case, it was not enough to be excused by the potential service of the jurors for the two -month test of Combs, 55, on charges of conspiracy, sexual trafficking and transport to be involved in prostitution. He pleaded innocent.
This week, US District Judge Arun Submanian in Manhattan calls for future jurors one by one, a process known as Voir Dire, in an attempt to put a group of 12 jurors and six deputies who can be fair and impartial on both sides, despite the heavy media coverage.
With the combs watching to wear dark glasses and sports salt and pepper goat, a juror said they had seen a video on the news showing that Kombs being said to have attacked someone at a hotel. Subramanian decided that the juror, called the hearing No. 5, was qualified for the group after assuring the judge that he would be a “empty sheet entering this courtroom”.
A prospective court hearing was fired after writing in a screening questionnaire last week that they were still an image that had been seen under the headline of a woman on the floor at the Corridor Hotel and combs standing near her, “can be damaged evidence.”
Last year, CNN broadcast footage of what he said was an incident in 2016, with Kombs attacking her ex -girlfriend, R&B singer Cassandra Ventura, in a los Angeles hotel hall. Combs apologized after the shots.
Judicial jurors will be anonymous, which often occurs in a high -profile court processes in which jurors may encounter threats or harassment if their identity is known. The purpose of Submanian at Voir Dire is to choose 45 potential jurors who are qualified to serve, and lawyers will have the opportunity to fire the jurors for both parties without giving a reason.
Prosecutors said the incident depicted in the hotel monitoring video was evidence of how combs used strength and threats for a period of two decades to force women to participate in daily sexual performances with drugs with male sex workers who called the morent.
Prosecutors claim that the employees of the Combs Business Empire have helped the “overwhelming offenses”, including by reserving hotel rooms, buying controlled substances and other items used during sex and helping it to conceal the activity. Authorities and 1000 bottles of baby oil and lubricants and lubricants during the Kombs home raids, prosecutors said.
A future juror said they “liked” a video on social media, in which a comedian jokes about combs and baby oil.
“I remember I liked it because I thought it was funny,” said the judge, who Submanian decided he was qualified after saying that they would be able to leave the video aside and be impartial.
Combs lawyers say the hotel monitor video depicts an internal dispute about infidelity and is not proof of sexual traffic. They are expected to claim that the sexual activity described by prosecutors has been consensus.
Kombs can face life in prison
The opening statements at Trial Combs are scheduled for May 12.
Once known for raising a hip-hop in American culture and hosting lavish parties for the cultural elite in Hamptons and Saint-Tropez, Kombs is the latest powerful man in the entertainment industry accused of sexual disorders, as the #Metoo movement encouraged women to talk about abuse.
His story about the life of rags to wealth saw that the New York born in New York moved from an upbringing from a single mother to live in mansions in Los Angeles and Miami. Since September, it has been held at the Capital Center for the detention of Brooklyn, about an hour from the subway from the Harlem neighborhood, where he was born.
If convicted on all charges, Kombs faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and may face prison life.
(Report by Luke Cohen and Jack Queen in New York; Edit by Noelin Walder and Alistair Bell)