Judge dismisses juror in sex trafficking trial of music mogul Combs

A judge dismissed a juror in the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs on Monday after concluding that his conflicting answers about where he lives might indicate he had an agenda or wanted to stay on the jury for a purpose.

Judge Arun Subramanian made the ruling after rejecting arguments by lawyers for Combs, 55, that it would disrupt the diversity of the jury to replace the black man with a white juror.

Subramanian had first announced late on Friday that he was dismissing the juror after questions arose over whether he resided in New York or New Jersey most of the time, but multiple defence lawyers protested and the judge waited until Monday to announce his final decision.

The judge said a review of the juror’s answers to questions about his residency during jury selection, along with his subsequent responses to similar questions in the robing room, revealed “clear inconsistencies”.

“Taking these all together, the record raised serious concerns as to the juror’s candour and whether he shaded answers to get on and stay on the jury,” he said.

Judge Subramanian said leaving the juror on the panel could threaten the integrity of the judicial process.

“The court should not, indeed cannot, let race factor into the decision of what happens. Here, the answer is clear. Juror number six is excused,” Judge Subramanian said before the jury, minus juror number six, was brought into the courtroom for the resumption of testimony.

The judge expressed disappointment that the defence again raised the racial issue in a letter to the judge over the weekend and tried to accuse prosecutors of misconduct.

“There has been no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct brought to the court’s attention. Zero,” he said, rejecting a defence request for a mistrial.

Prosecutors have said they expect to rest sometime this week. The trial is in its sixth week.

On Monday, prosecutors called what is known as a summary witness to read aloud numerous text messages that jurors had not previously heard.

They included exchanges in which the woman who testified under the pseudonym “Jane” complained to Combs about their “hotel night” and “wild king night” sex marathon lifestyle and to his chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, about his threats to release explicit videos of her having sex with other men.

Jane, who dated Combs from 2021 until his arrest last year, excoriated the hip-hop star in a series of text messages after his former long-time girlfriend, Cassie, the R&B singer whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, filed a lawsuit against him alleging years of sexual abuse, control and violence.

On November 28 2023, about two weeks after Combs settled the lawsuit, Jane told him that she felt he exploited her with their “dark and humiliating lifestyle”.

She wrote that for the three years they were together, she felt confused by their relationship and that being with Combs had deprived her of work opportunities.

A month later, Jane texted Ms Khorram that Combs “just threatened me about my sex tapes that he has on two phones. He said he would send them to my baby daddy”.

Jane noted that she did not typically involve Ms Khorram in such matters, but said she needed help because Combs was having one of his “evil-ass psychotic bipolar” episodes and, along with threatening her, was saying he would call the police on her.

Jane told Ms Khorram that she was heavily drugged in the tapes.