Recommendations of the Editorial team
The judge in the trial of Sean Combs due to blackmail and sex trading complained about the hip-hop mogul on Thursday for “violent nod” in the direction of the jury during the testimony of a witness. The judge WArerte that further interactions with the jury to Combs’ exclusion from the courtroom could lead.
Judge criticizes Combs for influence on the jury
During the questioning of witness Bryana Bongolan, who claims that Combs kept her over a balcony railing in 2016, judge Arun Subramanian observed the accused twice as he nodded towards the jury. Any interactions or gestures of a defendant to the jury are prohibited because they could affect the jury.
“I couldn’t have been clearer about my instruction,” the judge told the court. “During a certain survey, her client nodded violently and looked at the jury.”
Subramanian then asked for a confidential conversation with Combs’ lawyers. And asked her to move her client to refrain from nod. “This is absolutely unacceptable,” he said to defender Marc Agnifilo, who promised the judge that Combs would stop nod. “It shouldn’t happen again,” added Subramanian.
Threat with exclusion and objection to witness statement
In the event of further gestures, Subramanian warned that he would allow the federal prosecutors to submit an application to give the jury a corresponding instruction. And if it continues, he will completely rule out Combs from his own process.
Court sketch artist Jane Rosenberg told NBC News that Combs had often made facial expressions in the direction of the jury since the beginning of the trial. And occasionally tried to interact with jury.
On Thursday, a woman who claimed that Combs kept her over the railing of a balcony on the 17th floor of a high -rise building in Ventura, took intensely by Combs’ lawyer Nicole Westmoreland. West Moreland tried to show contradictions in Bryana Bongolan’s statements.
Defense attacks times
The defense achieved one of the most dramatic moments in the process so far when West Moreland claimed that Bongolan’s times were impossible. In her civil lawsuit over $ 10 million in November, Bongolan had said that the balcony incident occurred “around September 26, 2016. West Moreland replied that hotel and restaurant documents would show that Combs was in New York from September 24th to 29th, 2016. “They agree that a person cannot be in two places at the same time,” asked Westmoreland.
During the renewed survey, Bongolan was asked if she had any doubt that Combs kept her from the 17th floor. “I have no doubt,” she said. “I will never forget how he held me over the balcony railing.”