On the first day of the Process against Sean Combs because of Sex trading and blackmail The jurors learned that the music mogul supposedly forced a male escort to urinate in the mouth of his ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura. Which caused Ventura to “suffocate”. The jury also saw a video in which Combs Ventura 2016 in a hotel hallway kick and grind.
Video of hotel attack as a central evidence
The public prosecutor wasted no time and presented some of its most vivid and disturbing evidence. Experts say that this was a clear tactical decision.
Tactics of the public prosecutor’s office: shock effect as a strategy
“This is a strategy that aims at shock and awe (” Shock and Awe “),” explains Mark Chutkow, a former public prosecutor in Detroit. Chutkow has specialized in cases of human trafficking. He said that prosecutors often try to destroy ‘positive feelings’ as soon as possible.
“Here is [Combs] handshaking. Charismatic. And known in the New York area for many years. You want to reverse this picture immediately. So that potential jurors who have not yet decided to look at him more skeptically, “says Chutkow, who is now working as a process lawyer at Dykema Gossett.” You really want to give an impression of him right from the start. “
Chutkow and other experts tell towards Rolling Stonethat they assume that the public prosecutor will concentrate on the surveillance video from the hotel as far as possible during the probably eight -week process.
Witness Israel Florez reports on attempted hotting attempt
“The problem with videos is that you can’t really take them into the cross -interpretation,” says Chutkow. “In the trial of Derek Chauvin, the video in which he pressed his knee on the neck of George Floyd was shown at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the procedure. The defense could not really refute that.” Chauvin, a former police officer from Minneapolis, was on May 25, 2020 for murder of Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, sentenced.
Security staff says about violence and attempt to bribe
The public prosecutor mentioned the video of the hotel attack in its opening plea on Monday. However, called a former hotel security officer as the first witness to play the entire video for the jury. The witness, Israel Florez, said that on March 5, 2016, he was called to the sixth floor of the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles on March 5, 2016. The security guard not only described that he Ventura With a visible injury saw. But also said that Combs offered him a chunk of cash so that he was silent. He said it “definitely” worked like bribery.
Legal experts analyze the charges’ strategy
“I think that was strategically well thought out,” says former state prosecutor Braid Bailey about the decision to call Florez as the first witness to the witness stand. “He is an uninvolved witness because he only belongs to the hotel security personnel. He is not necessarily interested in this thing. This is extremely helpful for the indictment.”
Braid Bailey: “A strong, neutral witness to get started”
Bailey says the mention of the alleged money offering was important. According to the indictment against Combs, bribing is one of the allegations that, according to the public prosecutor, were part of Combs’ alleged pattern of blackmail. Bailey agrees that the early introduction of the video was decisive. “If you can start with a concrete example of violence, this is an extremely effective entry. It immediately throws an extremely negative light on Mr. Combs, which the jury is difficult to ignore. This is not necessarily insurmountable. But it is not a picture that you want to convey to the swore,” he says.
Show violence directly – a sustainable effect on jury
Michelle Simpson Tuegel, a lawyer who represented several victims of the unknown doctor of the US Turnational team Larry Nassar, says she was impressed by Combs’ defender Teny Geragos’s opening speech on Monday. In their speech to the jury, Geragos said that people might hear the evidence. And come to the conclusion that Combs is an idiot. But you should not conclude from the fact that an incident recorded on the video is “domestic” violence.
Sacrifice lawyer Simpson Tuegel warns of trivialization
“I keep your representation of [Combs] As someone who tries to take responsibility, as a complicated man who may have been guilty of domestic violence, but is not a sex dealer, for a really dangerous position, “says Simpson Tuegel.” To say that domestic violence is completely independent of sexual violence, in most cases simply does not correspond to reality. There are overlaps between domestic violence, sex trade and sexual attacks. “
Second witness: male sex workers say against Combs
Simpson Tuegel also refers to the decision of the public prosecutor’s office, on Monday afternoon a male sex worker as second witness call up in your case. She says that this contributed to “creating the context for the overall picture of this supposedly taking place”. The witness, Daniel Phillip, said he was paid for sex with Ventura. And that he once witnessed how an angry Combs threw a bottle to Ventura before moving it into another room.
“This shows that the relationship of abuse, violence and intimidation was shaped. What is important because the defense tried to present that it consciously chose this relationship,” says Simpson Tuegel. “I think that the jurors now have a better understanding that there are people who stay in relationships, even though they are victims. And that this is not quite their own decision. At that moment, they do not feel that they can go. And the violence, intimidation and threats are still strengthened by someone with resources and power, about Sean Combs.”
Power, control and fear: Ventura couldn’t just go
The experts with Rolling Stone have agreed that both sides still have a lot of time to provide additional evidence. And to score with the jury. A lot is still unknown. But if everything goes according to plan, Ventura is expected to step into the witness stand as a star zero of the indictment this week.
Further charges and the crucial role of the jury
The 55-year-old Combs was arrested and charged in September. He has himself unclosed known. The original indictment largely corresponded to the Sensational complaint about sex tradethat Ventura submitted in November 2023. Since then, the public prosecutor has added further charges for sex trade and transport for the purpose of prostitution in connection with another suspected victim. Victim 2 was identified on Monday by the public prosecutor under the pseudonym Jane.
The jury of eight men and four women ultimately has to decide whether Combs was a “swinger” who lived up to his eccentric desires with other consenting adults, as the defense claims. Or a standard sex offender that physically abused and too drug -financed sex marathons Coercion, which are known as “freak offs” and “Wild King Nights”, as the public prosecutor claims.