Combs shouldn’t be charged with any of those alleged crimes, however authorized consultants say these allegations might present highly effective fodder for the prosecution’s use of a sweeping mafia-busting regulation that has widened the scope of the case in opposition to Combs, the founding father of Unhealthy Boy Data who helped flip hip-hop mainstream.
Generally known as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, “RICO” permits prosecutors to introduce proof of crimes that aren’t charged within the indictment and even tied on to the defendant, generally known as predicates or “unhealthy acts.”
That has allowed the prosecutors in Combs’ case to indicate jurors proof they might not have seen if he was charged solely with intercourse trafficking, serving to prosecutors paint a extra compelling image of his alleged prison exercise, mentioned Bobby Taghavi, a protection lawyer and former prosecutor.
“RICO lets you carry within the larger image,” Taghavi mentioned. “His life-style, his energy, his anger points the way in which folks needed to obey him — the 360-degree view of his conduct.”
Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible in Manhattan federal court docket to at least one rely of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of intercourse trafficking and two counts of transportation to interact in prostitution. The trial, which might final two months and can enter its third week of testimony on Tuesday, has drawn intense media consideration. The jury of 12 should vote unanimously to convict on any of the fees. If convicted, Combs faces 15 years to life in jail.
Manhattan federal prosecutors allege Combs violently coerced and blackmailed girls and paid for male escorts to take part in drug-fueled intercourse events he known as “Freak Offs.” An indictment in opposition to Combs final September alleges he did this by the “Combs Enterprise,” a gaggle of companies and staff engaged in a sample of prostitution, compelled labor and a half-dozen different crimes relationship to 2008.
Combs’ attorneys have conceded the rapper abused his ex-girlfriend however have argued prosecutors are attempting to criminalize consensual intercourse and his “swingers’ life-style.”
Combs will have the ability to name his personal witnesses after the prosecution rests.
A foul act free-for-all
RICO grew to become regulation in 1970 and was geared toward taking down organized crime bosses by tying them to crimes dedicated by their underlings. To show RICO fees, prosecutors should present that members of a so-called enterprise, or group of individuals engaged in a standard objective, dedicated or deliberate to commit two different crimes in reference to the enterprise inside a ten-year interval.
The Combs case is an uncommon utility of RICO, in keeping with authorized consultants, who say the regulation shouldn’t be sometimes utilized in circumstances that primarily concern issues like intercourse trafficking and prostitution.
Throughout 4 days of testimony, the prosecution’s star witness, Combs’ ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura testified that Combs was a domineering serial abuser susceptible to matches of jealous rage.
“I might count on the protection will ask the jurors at closing, “Did you see a prison group? A racketeering enterprise? Or is that this actually a home violence case dressed as much as appear like an organized crime case?” mentioned Mark Chutkow, a protection lawyer and former prosecutor with expertise making an attempt RICO circumstances.
However prosecutors have known as a number of witnesses to attempt to again their concept that crime was central to Combs’ empire.
The rapper generally known as Child Cudi instructed the jury Combs broke into his residence and sure had a job within the torching of his automobile. An ex-employee mentioned Combs frequently took opiates and ecstasy. And a lodge safety guard recalled Combs supplied him a stack of money to purchase his silence after he noticed Combs beat Ventura.
Combs’ attorneys have argued that proof of this sort is irrelevant.
Prosecutors have countered that it’s admissible as a result of it’s associated to the so-called means and strategies of the Combs Enterprise.
For instance, protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo objected to Combs’ former private chef testifying a few time Combs allegedly assaulted her.
“I believe we’re simply getting very far afield, and I believe that is changing into form of a foul act free-for-all,” Agnifilo instructed U.S. District Choose Arun Subramanian outdoors the presence of the jury on Might 19.
Subramanian mentioned he would enable the testimony.
There’s authorized precedent for making use of RICO in sexual abuse circumstances from the case of rapper R. Kelly, who argued in an unsuccessful attraction of his 2021 conviction that allegations of assault have been unrelated to racketeering.
And proof within the Combs’ case means that his enterprise empire was riddled by unlawful acts, in keeping with Michelle Simpson Tuegel, an legal professional following the case.
“That might present he was not simply an abusive individual and a foul man however the chief of a prison enterprise finishing up industrial intercourse utilizing weapons and blackmail,” Simpson Tuegel mentioned.
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