Hundreds of New Yorkers who have been summoned for the jury’s duty will appear in a federal court in Manhattan this week to complete the questionnaires before the Sean Traffic Judgment of Sean “Diddy” combs.
The American district judge Arun Subramanian, who supervises the case, scheduled the jury selection for next Monday. Combs declared himself innocent of the positions of sex, extortion and transport to participate in prostitution.
The combs legal team and federal prosecutors presented questionnaires proposed to the Court in separate motions on Friday. The two parties had disagree about what the future jurors should ask.
The prosecutors argued that a proposed team of the 72 combs questions survey presented on April 11 was too long and that covered personal issues, such as sexual assault, sexual abuse and domestic violence, that the judge should ask in person, if he does.
The combs lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, told Subramanian this month that his legal team believes that possible jurors should have the option of making such written or person disseminations.
“To be very clear, these questions will be asked, and the real problem is where and when,” said Subramanian at the audience.
As a commitment, prosecutors proposed to add a box to the survey to allow people to indicate if they prefer to address these issues in person.
The questionnaire has not been made public, which is not clear if the box was included in the final version. A jury of 12 people and six substitutes will be selected.
Once the possible jury members complete the questionnaires, the Court will process them and send them to federal prosecutors and the combs legal team, said Jo-Olan Dimitrius, a jury consultant who has worked for lawyers in the trials of Kyle Rittenhouse, acquitted in the shootings of three men, two of them fatally, during a protest in Wisconsin in 2020; Daniel Penny, a former sailor acquitted in the death of a man in a meter of New York City; And, more famous, OJ Simpson.
Before the jury selection begins, the two parties and the submania will discuss who should be excused due to prejudices or because they have indicated that serving in the jury would raise financial difficulties or programming conflicts, said Dimitrius.
Opening statements are scheduled to begin on May 12; The trial is expected to last from eight to 10 weeks.
Both parties will want to know what future jurors know about the case, which focuses on accusations that the combs coerced women to participate in highly orchestrated sexual encounters and drug fed with male sex workers that he called “fontans.”
The prosecutors argue that he organized, he directed, masturbated during and, often, registered the fans electronically. The accusations of “victim-1” in the accusation are closely aligned with those of their ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura.
“You are going to explore everything that would shine a potentially negative light, if I were the defense, about how they see the case of entering the jury selection,” said Dimitrius, who was a jury consultant for Harvey Weinstein’s trial in Manhattan.
A jury consultant will also review the questionnaires, would take notes on the possible jurors and qualify his suitability, said Dimitrius. The consultant is also paid to describe any possible problem and responses that are worth following during the voir dire process.
Dimitrius and Michael Boucher, a jury consultant who analyzed the jury members in the two defamation trials of Sarah Palin against the New York Times, said that both parties will travel the accounts of the social networks of the possible jurors to see if they have expressed opinions or approved material about the case and the people involved with him.
Given their celebrity status, said Dimitrius, lawyers will also worry about how much jury members know about Combs, the music tycoon founded by Bad Boy Records.
“Do you listen to your music? Have you followed whatever news about their existence?” She said.
Ventura sued combs in November 2023, accusing him of years of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. The two quickly resolved the demand in private, and combs vehemently denied the accusations.
Several months later, CNN published a video of combs assaulting Ventura in the hall of a hotel in Los Angeles in March 2016. Ventura had described the assault in his suit. Comink apologized for its behavior in the video after it was made public.
When trying to exclude it from the trial, Agnifilo argued in the judicial presentations that the video “is totally inaccurate, has been altered, manipulated, accelerated and edited to be out of sequence.”
CNN has denied to alter the video.
Ventura is expected to be a key witness in the trial.
Subramanian ruled on Friday that the jury could be shown the video, delivering a setback to the legal team of Comps, which had tried to block him from evidence.
Boucher said the video will be difficult to overcome for combs.
“Most people, 99% of people in this society, will say: ‘That’s wrong; you don’t do that,” Boucher said. “You will have to work for that extreme minority that will give you a pass based on an emotional response.”
