Judge denies Sean 'Diddy' Combs' lawyers' push for another mistrial: Updates
Attorneys for Sean "Diddy" Combs have once again had their push for a mistrial in his sex-crimes case denied.
The embattled music mogul's legal team's latest request for a mistrial has been rejected by Judge Arun Subramanian. On Tuesday, June 10, the judge said the defense's arguments for a mistrial were not convincing, and the points they made were "not fodder for a mistrial" but rather the "adversarial process at work."
Combs' lawyers had renewed a motion for a mistrial due to alleged prosecutorial misconduct in a letter to Subramanian dated Saturday, June 7.
Combs is facing charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty.
Combs' lawyers' latest push for a mistrial centered around testimony from Bryana "Bana" Bongolan, a friend of Combs' ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura Fine. Bongolan testified about an incident where Combs allegedly held her up on a balcony in Ventura Fine's Los Angeles apartment in September 2016.
Bongolan also said she took photos of a bruise on her leg that she allegedly sustained from the balcony incident. The court saw metadata showing that a photo of her bruise was taken on Sept. 26, 2016.
But in their letter to the judge, Combs' attorneys maintained that Bongolan "could not possibly have been injured by Mr. Combs on a Los Angeles balcony in the early morning hours of September 26, or even the day before that," because Combs "was on the East Coast in late September, and specifically at around the time of this alleged incident."
The defense also argued that Ventura Fine's testimony that she witnessed the balcony incident "cannot be true" and that prosecutors knew that she "merely heard about it afterwards."
"The government has presented testimony that it knew or should have known was materially false related to its allegation that Mr. Combs dangled Bryana Bongolan from the balcony of Cassie Ventura’s apartment in September 2016," Combs' team wrote. "Accordingly, to avoid an unfair conviction in this case the Court should grant a mistrial."
On June 10, though, Subramanian said the defense was able to attempt to undermine the credibility of the testimony using documents and questions.
This was the second request for a mistrial from Combs' legal team. In May, the rapper's attorneys took issue with a line of questioning from prosecutors and argued that the government was improperly trying to imply Combs had evidence destroyed that was tied to an alleged arson incident.
But the judge denied that request, determining that there "was absolutely no testimony from the witness that was prejudicial in any way shape or form."
This story has been updated to include additional information.
Contributing: Taijuan Moorman, Patrick Ryan, Josh Meyer KiMi Robinson and Gina Barton, Paste BN; Reuters