Jurors will soon be asked to deliberate over a complex list of charges facing Sean Combs.
He has been indicted on five separate counts, and in order to convict him on any of them, the jurors must agree unanimously that he committed the crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Mr. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Two counts of sex trafficking
Mr. Combs has been charged with sex trafficking two former girlfriends — Casandra Ventura and a woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane.” Prosecutors have charged that the women were compelled to participate in marathon sex sessions with male escorts in hotel rooms and other locations across the country and at times overseas.
To convict on this count, the jury must decide whether Mr. Combs used force, threats of force, fraud, or coercion to cause the women to engage in a “commercial sex act.”
Before deliberating, jurors will be instructed at length on the specifics of the law. For example, “coercion” can amount to threats of serious harm, including physical, psychological, financial or reputational. “Commercial sex” could mean that money was exchanged for sex, but it could also refer to the exchange of an intangible thing of value, such as promises to help with career advancement.
Mr. Combs’s lawyers have argued that the sexual encounters were entirely consensual.
Potential sentence if convicted: a minimum of 15 years; a maximum of life in prison
Two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution
These lesser counts focus on the same events: the sexual encounters in hotel rooms involving men who prosecutors say were paid for sex. One count relates to the testimony of Ms. Ventura, and the other to the testimony of Jane.
To convict Mr. Combs of these charges, the government must prove that he knowingly arranged for the transportation of a person across a state or foreign border with the intent that the individual would engage in prostitution.
In seeking to rebut these charges, the defense has argued that Mr. Combs was paying various men “for their time and an experience” — not for sex.
Potential sentence if convicted: up to 10 years in prison
One count of racketeering conspiracy
The most complex charge jurors will have to consider is one that hangs over the entire case.
Under the legal terminology of this count, Mr. Combs has been accused of “conspiring with others to conduct and participate in the affairs of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity.”
Prosecutors have sought to prove that Mr. Combs and an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees were part of a criminal enterprise and that they conspired to commit a series of crimes over a period of two decades, many of them related to his relationships with the two women at the center of the case.
Jurors will be asked to consider a set of alleged criminal acts to determine whether such a pattern existed. That list includes sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution, as well as possession of drugs with the intent to distribute.
The jurors must also look at allegations of kidnapping and arson related to accounts of Mr. Combs’s jealous rage after he learned that Ms. Ventura had begun a relationship with the rapper Kid Cudi. In addition, a former assistant, who testified under the pseudonym “Mia,” has been put forward by prosecutors as a victim of forced labor.
To convict Mr. Combs on the racketeering charge, jurors need to find that he knowingly joined an unlawful conspiracy, and that Mr. Combs agreed that he or a co-conspirator would commit at least two criminal acts on that list to further the enterprise.
The defense has denied the existence of any criminal conspiracy and argues Mr. Combs is not responsible for the alleged crimes outlined by the government.
Potential sentence if convicted: up to life in prison
Source: Music - nytimes.com
