New York (AFP) – Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs urged an appeals court Thursday to overturn the US hip-hop mogul’s prison term of more than four years for prostitution-related crimes. Combs, 56, was sentenced in October after a salacious trial that detailed the alleged “freak-offs” he organized: sexual marathons involving hired male escorts and his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura and another unidentified woman. He was acquitted by a jury of the most serious charges against him — sex trafficking and racketeering — but convicted of two counts of transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
The disgraced artist was not present at the Manhattan courthouse on Thursday as defense lawyer Alexandra Shapiro sought to persuade a three-judge panel that Combs’s sentence of four years and two months was unfairly long for his crimes. “The evidence the judge was relying on was totally separate and in fact was acquitted conduct,” Shapiro said. She argued that District Judge Arun Subramanian should not have considered evidence that Combs made threats against Ventura and the other woman, as it was related to the acquitted charges.
Prosecutors disagreed and pointed to an instance where Combs showed Ventura he had videos of her engaging in sex parties hours before another “freak-off” in an apparent bid to ensure her continued participation. “These incidents are specifically tied to transportation,” prosecutor Christy Slavik told the court. In a sign of the complex legal arguments, Slavik at one point drew an analogy of pizza to highlight how certain “slices” of evidence were relevant to the ultimate sentencing decision.
The court did not issue an immediate ruling in what one judge, William Nardini, called an “exceptionally difficult case.” Combs is also appealing his conviction, though that was not discussed in detail on Thursday. He is being held in the low-security Fort Dix prison in New Jersey and is due for release in spring 2028.
© 2024 AFP
