Sean "Diddy" Combs trial delayed for the day after juror calls out sick
Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking and racketeering trial in New York City was adjourned for the day Wednesday due to a sick juror.
The juror called out sick with vertigo symptoms and court was adjourned until Friday. There is no court Thursday in observance of Juneteenth.
Prosecutors had indicated earlier this week that they would likely rest their case by Wednesday or Friday, which may now get pushed to next week.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to five counts and faces up to life in prison if convicted. He is accused of coercing women to participate in sexual encounters with male sex workers during so-called "freak-offs." His lawyers claim the encounters were consensual.
So far, jurors heard from Combs' ex-girlfriend and singer Cassandra Ventura, another ex-girlfriend who is testifying under the pseudonym "Jane," as well as several former employees and rapper Kid Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi.
Earlier this week, a juror was dismissed over questions about where he lives. The 41-year-old Black man was replaced with a 57-year-old white alternate.
Jurors in Sean "Diddy" Combs trial shown "freak-off" videos
On Tuesday, the jury was shown nearly 20 minutes of explicit video recordings of those "freak-off" encounters from 2012 and 2014. Spectators were blocked from seeing or hearing the graphic evidence.
As the recordings were played, one juror seemed to turn away from his video screen for most of the time, although he kept on earphones carrying the sound to jurors. Other jurors sat back in their seats as the recordings played on the screens in front of them.
A day earlier, prosecutors had shown jurors about two minutes of snippets of the recordings.
In her opening statement on May 12, defense lawyer Teny Geragos called the videos "powerful evidence that the sexual conduct in this case was consensual and not based on coercion."
"Some of you may find them hard to watch. Not because they are violent, not because they are non-consensual, but because they were never meant to be seen by people outside of that room. They are in one word — intimate. And they were always meant to remain that way," she said.
She added: "These videos will feel invasive, but the government has charged him with sex trafficking, and the evidence of the alleged sex trafficking is on these videos. This is why you will have to see them."
In her opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson said Combs "used lies, drugs, threats, and violence to force and coerce, first, Cassie, and later Jane, to have sex with him in front of male escorts. The defendant insisted that the sex occur in a very specific, highly orchestrated way."
