The sensational trial of the hip-hop mogul on charges of sex trafficking and sexual abuse charges finally got under way on Monday in New York.
According to the BBC, because of the media attention the court had dedicated three rooms of overflow for Diddy’s friends, family, journalists, celebrities and onlookers and it made for a sometimes noisy and chaotic atmosphere.
Sean Diddy was wearing a grey suit (one of five he is allowed to wear for the trial) with a white shirt, his eyes concealed by his famous dark glasses.
With the jury selected, the opening statements began with Combs head down studying documents and files.
SKY News stated that prosecutor Emily Johnson told the court that Combs is a man that ran a criminal enterprise for more than 20 years. She said that Diddy had used his powerful status as a music executive to “enact violence and blackmail his sexual partners” and that his behaviour was “coercive and criminal and he had the power to ruin” his alleged victims’ lives.
One was Cassie Ventura, a former girlfriend of Combs who was the victim of a hotel hallway attack by the rapper, which was caught in a now infamous video that has been seen around the world.
Alluding to Cassie, Johnson said: “When she tried to run away, he always found her …”
Combs defence argued in their opening statement that Combs might have engaged in domestic violence, but that is not what the trial is about. They argued that the Sex trafficking charges of which they claim he is innocent are not the same as domestic abuse. He had a swinger’s lifestyle, but his sexual encounters were consensual.
The court had time for the prosecution’s first witness, who was a security guard (Israel Florez) at the Intercontinental Hotel in California, where the CCTV footage of the assault of Cassie by Diddy in 2016 was caught on camera. Florez states that he was called up to help a woman in distress.
The video was then shown to the court which went deathly silent as the CCTV showed Combs kicking Cassie and dragging her hair outside the hotel elevator and along the corridor.
Lawyers for the accused accepted the video as evidence that Combs was a “flawed” character but said it did not show that he was “part of a larger criminal enterprise.”
Cassie will take the stand on Tuesday, in what could prove to be a riveting day as the former girlfriend of Diddy will get to give testimony of life with the Hip-Hop superstar.
According to the BBC, her lawyer Douglas Wigdor told reporters outside the court at the end of the first day’s proceedings, that his client was “ready.”