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The third week of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial got underway on Tuesday with testimony from Combs’ former staffer Capricorn Clark.
As expected, Clark offered accounts of violent, abusive behavior she’d witnessed during her employment, much of it directed toward Combs’ ex, Cassie Ventura, and rapper Kid Cudi, whom she dated during one of her breaks from Combs.
Today’s proceedings once again centered around Cudi, with testimony from an arson investigator about the Molotov cocktail that was thrown into the rapper’s car back in January of 2012.
Uproar over Diddy fingerprints leads to demand for mistrial
The investigator revealed that fingerprints from the bombing belonged to an unknown female.
He added that Cudi had given the cops fingerprint cards from a December 2011 burglary at his home — a burglary at which Diddy was allegedly present.
The investigator also noted that the fingerprint card provided by Cudi was destroyed by the LAPD in 2012.
And that seemingly minor bit of information led to one of the trial’s most dramatic moments thus far.
According to TMZ, the defense alleged that the prosecution concealed this fact so that they could dramatically reveal it in court and thereby insinuate that Combs was involved in both incidents.
Diddy attorney Alex Shapiro accused the other side of “trying to plant the idea with these jurors that Mr. Combs had something to do with the destruction of these fingerprints.”
This led to a demand for a mistrial, which was promptly denied by the judge.
The defense likely expected that outcome but decided to swing for the fences anyway. We might see more such hail Mary efforts as the trial enters its homestretch.
We obviously have no idea how long jury deliberation will take, but the courtroom portion of the trial is expected to wrap up by late June.
If convicted on all charges against him, Combs will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars.
The disgraced mogul has turned down a plea deal and has consistently denied any wrongdoing. His lawyers insist that Combs was merely a “swinger” and that all of his sexual encounters were consensual.
We’ll have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.
