Combs, 55, sat with his head down as Slavik highlighted testimony and evidence from the seven-week trial that she said proved sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and other charges. Wearing a sweater and khakis, he sometimes scribbled notes to his lawyers and shook his head as Slavik played one of his audio messages for the jury.
“Over the last several weeks, you’ve learned a lot about Sean Combs,” Slavik said as she launched into her nearly five-hour presentation. “He’s the leader of a criminal enterprise. He doesn’t take no for an answer. And now you know about many crimes he committed with members of his enterprise.”
Among the proof, Slavik argued, was evidence that Combs kidnapped one of his employees, was involved in setting rapper Kid Cudi’s convertible ablaze, engaged in forced labor, bribed a hotel guard and carried out “brutal crimes at the heart of this case.”
Combs “again and again forced, threatened and manipulated” ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and an ex-girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym “Jane” into “having sex with escorts for his own entertainment,” Slavik said, speaking from a lectern directly in front of jurors.
The prosecutor said Combs forced or coerced Cassie and Jane to engage in the dayslong sexual performances known as “freak-offs” or “hotel nights” with drugs, violence, or by threatening financial harm or the release of video recordings of some of the hundreds of encounters.
“Up until today, the defendant was able to get away with these crimes,” Slavik said.
Slavik said Combs “counted on silence and shame” to enable and prolong his abuse. He used a “small army” of employees, including personal assistants and bodyguards, to harm women and cover it up, she said.
The theory of racketeering law is that “when someone commits crime as part of a group, they’re more powerful and dangerous,” Slavik said. “The defendant was a powerful man, but he became more powerful and dangerous because of his inner circle, his businesses — the enterprise.”
Combs and his inner circle “committed hundreds of racketeering acts,” she said.
Observing from wooden benches in the packed courtroom were members of Combs’ family, including several of his children. In mid-afternoon, he gave them a thumbs-up.
Since his arrest at a Manhattan hotel last September, Combs and his lawyers have insisted he is innocent, though they conceded at trial that domestic violence occurred.
Combs “was abusive: physical, emotional, psychological, sexual abuse,” Slavik said. “The defendant doesn’t deny the abuse. They just want to call it ‘domestic violence’ and claim it doesn’t have anything to do with the crimes charged.”
The defense, which will present its closing arguments Friday, built its case for acquittal through lengthy cross-examinations of most of the government's 34 witnesses. Some testified only in response to subpoenas and insisted they didn't want to be there.
Combs’ lawyers contend there was no racketeering conspiracy because no employees agreed to join any conspiracy.
In her closing, Slavik said employees repeatedly agreed to commit crimes for Combs, including delivering him drugs; accompanying him to kidnap his personal assistant, Capricorn Clark; and locking his girlfriend in a hotel room after he stomped on her face.
Repeatedly, the prosecutor returned to the freak-offs, reminding jurors of text messages and testimony that showed that the women didn't want to participate, including one in which Jane told Combs that she felt he gave her no choice but to participate.
“It’s dark, sleazy and makes me feel disgusted with myself. I feel it’s the only reason you have me around and why you pay for the house,” Jane wrote. “I don’t want to feel obligated to perform these nights with you in fear of losing the roof over my head.”
Last Friday, jurors again viewed now-infamous security footage of Combs hitting, kicking and dragging Cassie at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles in 2016 after she tried to leave a freak-off with a male sex worker.
“He knew exactly what he was doing. That is sex trafficking,” Slavik told the jury, adding that Combs was “knowingly using force and coercion to get Cassie back to that room where the escort was waiting.”
Judge Arun Subramanian told jurors that after a defense closing Friday and a rebuttal by a prosecutor, he would read instructions on the law before they could begin deliberations.
Credit: Mark Von Holden/Invision/AP
Credit: Mark Von Holden/Invision/AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Credit: AP