Rapper Kid Cudi may have testified at the Sean “Diddy” Combs trial for nothing.
With closing arguments a day away, federal prosecutors said Wednesday that they are narrowing their racketeering case and will no longer ask jurors to decide if Combs set fire to Kid Cudi’s red Porsche in his Beverly Hills driveway in 2011.
Federal prosecutors gave no specific reason for trimming the Porsche arson and two other allegations — kidnapping and aiding and abetting sex trafficking — from the list of “racketeering activities” that Diddy is charged with conspiring in.
Prosecutors said only that they were being responsive to “the court’s desire for streamlined instructions,” a reference to the legal instructions the judge said he plans to give the jury Friday, following closing arguments scheduled for Thursday.
The prosecution’s plans were revealed in an eight-page letter filed Wednesday morning.
Kid Cudi, given name Scott Mescudi, took the stand in May, during the second week of testimony. He described a brief 2011 romance with star prosecution witness Cassie Ventura, who was 28 at the time. Combs flew into a jealous rage over the romance, Mescudi and other witnesses said.
“Get dressed — we’re going to go kill” Mescudi, a former Combs executive, Capricorn Clark, testified Combs demanded, while referring to the other artist using a racial slur. Clark said Combs was banging on her front door and waving a gun at the time.
Mescudi told jurors that he and Combs were never violent with each other directly. He testified, however, that he believed Combs broke into his house, shut his dog in the bathroom, and unwrapped his Christmas presents he intended to give his family.
Mescudi also said he believes Combs was responsible for firebombing his Porsche with a Molotov cocktail.
“What the fuck,” Mescudi said with an embarrassed smile when asked by the prosecution to describe his reaction to seeing his torched car in the driveway of his Hollywood Hills house.
On cross-examination, Mescudi said he had no direct knowledge that anyone affiliated with Combs was involved with the never-solved arson.
The deep cut to the list of racketeering activities leaves the indictment listing six alleged racketeering activities.
They are bribery, tampering with witnesses, forced labor, transportation for purposes of prostitution, inducement for purposes of prostitution, and distributing and possessing narcotics.
Jurors must come to a unanimous agreement on two crimes on that list, finding that Combs and others in his music and lifestyle company, Combs Global, agreed to commit those crimes as part of a pattern of racketeering activity.
The cuts follow arguments in court on Tuesday, during which Combs’ attorney Alexandra Shapiro described the weaknesses that defense lawyers see in the prosecution’s case.
“The government has failed to prove the elements of the racketeering conspiracy charged in the indictment,” Shapiro began. Racketeering conspiracy carries a potential maximum sentence of life in prison.
“There is, at best, thin proof that any of the other employees knowingly participated in the crimes with, or for, Mr. Combs, other than things like picking up or helping Mr. Combs procure personal use quantities of drugs for himself,” she argued.
There was scant evidence showing that employees knowingly agreed with Combs to commit crimes, she said.
“Most of the testimony about the employees shows that they ran errands related to his personal life, made travel arrangements for him and his girlfriends, and the like,” she said.
Shapiro then picked apart the underlying crimes, one by one, including the kidnapping, arson, and sex-trafficking crimes that prosecutors edited from the indictment Wednesday.
She said there was no direct evidence linking Combs to the arson.
“Neither Capricorn Clark nor Cassie Ventura nor Mr. Mescudi witnessed the arson or put Mr. Combs at Mr. Mescudi’s residence at the relevant time,” Shapiro argued.
As for sex-trafficking, there was likewise no proof that Combs’ employees believed anything illegal might have been going on with Ventura and “Jane,” the second sex-trafficking accuser, Shapiro argued. So there was no proof of an enterprise — or “racket” — aiding in sex trafficking, she said.
Shapiro also criticized the government’s kidnapping accusations, which allege in part that Combs forced Clark, his former executive, to go to Mescudi’s house to “kill” him. The defense has argued that while Combs may have had a gun, it was never pointed at Clark.
Read the full article here
