New York – Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” combs They are urging a judge to let the possible jury members in the next hip-hop tycoon sex trafficking test Be questioned about your views about sex, drugs and violence.
The lawyers raised the issue by presenting a proposed questionnaire to be completed by individuals summoned for May 5 in the Federal Court of Manhattan.
In a letter to a judge on Friday night, lawyers said they want to know the will of the possible jurors of watching videos that are sexually explicit or show a physical assault. They also say they want to know their views towards people with multiple sexual partners.
Prosecutors in a letter criticized the questionnaire proposed by the defense for too long and touching the subjects that the judge would ask him better in person, if he does.
They said that some of the 72 questions proposed by the defense, some that contain subparts, were “completely irrelevant to the ability to serve in a jury.”
Prosecutors also cited Ghislaine Maxwell’s sexual trial as an example of how a long questionnaire can be harmful.
After Maxwell was sentenced by sex trafficking In December 2021, a jury member admitted that he had not revealed that he was a victim of sexual abuse, blaming his supervision in part of being “distracted when completing the questionnaire” and having “spared too fast”, which made him misunderstand the questions.
Judge Arun Subramanian has told lawyers that the questionnaires will be distributed to hundreds of possible jurors at the end of April so that the interrogation of the possible jurors can begin on May 5, with opening statements probably on May 12.
Combs, 55, declared himself innocent of the accusations that he submitted people to sexual abuse for a period of two decades. The founder of Bad Boy Records has remained imprisoned without bail since his arrest in September.
An accusation accuses combs of using the “power and prestige” that he exercised as a music magnate intimidate, threaten and attract women in its orbit, often under the pretext of a romantic relationship.
The accusation said that he then used strength, threats and coercion to cause victims, including three women specified in judicial documents, to participate in commercial sexual acts.
He said he submitted his victims to violence, threats of violence, threats of financial and reputational damage and verbal abuse.
Prosecutors have said that a key part of evidence in the trial will be a video that shows the combs hitting their former protected and girlfriend, the KidneyANDB Cassie singer, and throwing it to the floor in the hall of a hotel.
Defensor lawyers have argued that prosecutors built their case due to charges trying to demonize sexual acts among adults they consent.
They told the judge that they could not reach a consensus with the prosecutors of what the possible jurors should do in the questionnaires.
“The defense believes that it is important that we allow potential jurors to write the attention of the unprecedented and negative media that may have been exposed, related to Mr. Combs,” the lawyers wrote.
The defense lawyers also asked the jurors to be asked to say if they have seen programs on television entitled: “The Fall of Diddy”, “Diddy do Do?” “The fall of Diddy” and “Diddy: the creation of a bad boy.”
