Federal prosecutors announced charges against Sean “Diddy” Combs with great fanfare last year.
This was not just a case of a celebrity behaving badly, they said. It was about a criminal enterprise that had, for years, concealed the crimes of a music and fashion mogul.
It was a bold gambit, and it employed a strategy typically reserved for organized crime cases to prosecute a music legend for alleged violence, threats, and payoffs.
But in the end, jurors hearing the case in Manhattan did not buy it.
After two days of deliberations, the jury found Combs guilty of only two counts of transportation for prostitution involving ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura and a second woman identified as Jane in testimony, as well as commercial sex workers.
Jurors found Combs not guilty of the most serious crimes: sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and racketeering, which carried a potential life sentence.
“This is a ‘win’ for Combs. He was facing life in prison if convicted of the [racketeering] charges. Instead, he likely serves a couple years in prison and returns to his business empire,” said David Ring, an attorney who represents sexual abuse victims in some of the highest-profile cases. “Sean Combs mostly won in court, but in the court of public opinion, he lost big time with his despicable misconduct that was unveiled at trial.”
A complex case
The trial was marked by shocking descriptions of Combs’ abuse of women. But some legal experts questioned whether the graphic testimony proved racketeering.
Jeff Chemerinsky, a former federal prosecutor, said, “Whatever people may think of the conduct as a moral matter, this jury decided that the government did not meet its burden to prove all the elements of the serious felony charges they brought against Mr. Combs.”
The federal indictment alleged that Combs and his associates lured female victims, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. Combs then allegedly used force, threats of force, coercion…