By MICHAEL R. SISAK, LARRY NEUMEISTER and JENNIFER PELTZ Related Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs was sentenced Friday to 4 years and two months in a federal felony case that uncovered the hip-hop mogul’s use of paid intercourse employees for drug-fueled, typically violent intercourse events he referred to as “freak-offs.”
Combs, 55, was convicted in July of flying folks across the nation, together with his girlfriends and male intercourse employees, to interact in sexual encounters.
He was acquitted of intercourse trafficking and racketeering costs that might have put him behind bars for all times, however the sentence will nonetheless hold one of many largest names in music out of the limelight and behind bars for years to return. Prosecutors had sought an 11-year sentence.
In a closing phrase earlier than the choose issued a sentence, Combs referred to as his previous conduct “disgusting, shameful” and “sick,” whereas apologizing to the folks he damage bodily and mentally, in addition to his youngsters within the viewers. He mentioned his acts of home violence are a burden he should carry for the remainder of his life.
Combs’ protection legal professionals have argued the sexual encounters had been consensual and needed Combs freed instantly after greater than a 12 months in detention, which compelled him to get sober and fueled his regret. They performed an 11-minute video in courtroom Friday portraying Combs’ household life, profession and philanthropy earlier than his arrest.
At one level in the course of the video, Combs put a hand on his face and commenced to cry, his shoulders at instances heaving. Combs was anticipated to talk in courtroom later Friday.
The video was a part of an atypical presentation by the protection workforce, reflecting Combs’ distinctive standing as a rich superstar shopper who’s well-versed in shaping his picture.
His practically two-month trial in a federal courtroom in Manhattan featured testimony from womenwho mentioned Combs beat, threatened, sexually assaulted and blackmailed them. Prosecutor Christy Slavik advised the choose that sparing Combs severe jail time would excuse years of violence.
“It’s a case a few man who did horrible issues to actual folks to fulfill his personal sexual gratification,” she mentioned. “He didn’t want the cash. His forex was management.”
Slavik additionally blasted Combs for allegedly reserving talking gig in South Florida subsequent week, calling it “the peak of hubris.” Protection lawyer Xavier Donaldson later mentioned the proposed neighborhood occasions had been meant to indicate what the enterprise mogul might be doing “if the courtroom let Mr. Combs out.”
U.S. District Choose Arun Subramanian, who has twice denied bail, has already signaled Combs is unlikely to depart custody quickly. He mentioned acquittals didn’t absolve the music mogul of underlying conduct, together with violence and coercion.
A number of of Combs youngsters pleaded with him for leniency.
His daughters Likelihood and D’Lila Combs cried as they spoke, with D’Lila saying she feared shedding her father after the loss of life of their mom, Kim Porter, in 2018. Six of Combs’ seven youngsters addressed the choose.
“Please, your honor, please,” D’Lila mentioned by tears, “give our household the possibility to heal collectively, to rebuild, to alter, to maneuver ahead, not as a headline, however as human beings.”
Outdoors the courthouse, journalists and onlookers swarmed the sidewalks as TV crews stood in an extended row throughout the road, echoing scenes from Combs’ trial.
Combs was convicted underneath the Mann Act, which bans transporting folks throughout state traces for prostitution. Protection legal professional Jason Driscoll argued the regulation was misapplied.
Throughout testimony on the trial, former girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura advised jurors that Combs ordered her to have “disgusting” intercourse with strangers a whole lot of instances throughout their decade Jong relationship. Jurors noticed video of him dragging and beating her in a Los Angeles lodge hallway after one such multiday “freak-off.
One other lady, recognized as “ Jane,” testified she was pressured into intercourse with male employees throughout drug-fueled “lodge nights” whereas Combs watched and typically filmed.
The one accuser scheduled to talk Friday, a former assistant referred to as “Mia,” withdrew after protection objections. She has accused Combs of raping her in 2010 and requested the choose for a sentence that displays “the continued hazard my abuser poses.”
Prosecutors additionally launched testimony on the trial about different alleged violence. One in every of Cassie’s pals mentioned Combs dangled her from Seventeenth-floor balcony. Rapper Child Cudi mentioned Combs broke into his residence after studying he was relationship Cassie.
One other lawyer for Combs, Brian Metal, urged the choose to see the case by the prism of the “untreated trauma” and “ferocious drug habit” that he says contributed to the hip-hop mogul’s misconduct.
“His good outweighs his dangerous, by far,” Metal mentioned.
In a letter to the choose Thursday, Combs wrote: “The previous me died in jail and a brand new model of me was reborn,” promising he would by no means commit one other crime.
Cassie, in her personal letter, described him as an abuser who “will at all times be the identical merciless, power-hungry, manipulative man that he’s.”
At a listening to final week, Combs advised his motherand youngsters he was “getting nearer to going residence.”
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Related Press writers Liseberth Guillaume in New York and Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report
