By ANDREW DALTON, Related Press
Sean “Diddy” Combs has requested a choose to throw out his responsible verdicts on prostitution-related counts or grant him a brand new trial, saying such convictions are with out precedent.
“This conviction stands alone, but it surely shouldn’t stand in any respect,” the Wednesday submitting stated.
Combs’ attorneys argue that his two felony convictions have been a novel misapplication of the federal Mann Act, which bars interstate commerce associated to prostitution.
“To our data, Mr. Combs is the one particular person ever convicted of violating the statute for conduct something like this,” a Wednesday submitting from Combs authorized group stated.
Combs, 55, was convicted in a New York federal courtroom of two counts of transportation to have interaction in prostitution for flying folks across the nation, together with his girlfriends and male intercourse employees, for sexual encounters, whereas he was acquitted of extra severe fees. He might rise up to a decade in jail at his sentencing set for Oct. 3.
His attorneys argued that not one of the components usually used for Mann Act convictions, together with cashing in on intercourse work or coercion, have been current right here.
“It’s undisputed that he had no industrial motive and that each one concerned have been adults,” The submitting stated. “The lads selected to journey and interact within the exercise voluntarily. The decision confirms the ladies weren’t weak or exploited or trafficked or sexually assaulted.”
The attorneys stated that Combs, “at most, paid to have interaction in voyeurism as a part of a ‘swingers’ way of life” and argued that “doesn’t represent ‘prostitution’ below a correctly restricted definition of the statutory time period.”
Combs was acquitted of racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking, fees might have put one among hip-hop’s celebrated figures in jail for all times.
The brand new movement asks Decide Arun Subramanian to vacate the jury’s verdict, or to order a brand new trial whose proof is restricted to issues associated to the Mann Act counts, due to “extreme spillover prejudice from reams of inflammatory proof” associated to the extra severe counts.
Prosecutors insisted in the course of the eight-week trial that Combs had coerced, threatened and generally viciously compelled two ex-girlfriends to have intercourse with male intercourse employees to fulfill his sexual urges. They cited a number of acts of violence he carried out towards them as proof that that they had no say.
A day earlier, Combs’ group requested the choose to free him on a $50 million bond whereas he awaits sentencing in October after a jury discovered him not responsible of probably the most severe federal fees he confronted earlier this month.
His lawyer argued that circumstances on the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn are harmful, noting that others convicted of comparable prostitution-related offenses have been usually launched earlier than sentencing.
Subramanian beforehand denied a request that Combs be launched on bail whereas he awaits sentencing, citing a now-infamous video of Combs beating a former girlfriend and pictures exhibiting accidents to a different ex-girlfriend.
The choose has not but dominated on both of this week’s motions.
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