Sean combs’ lawyers have asked a judge to prevent a clinical psychologist from testifying as an expert witness of the Prosecutor’s Office in their next trial for positions of sex trafficking and creminer conspiracy, arguing that his “testimony is a defense masked as an experience” and “must be excluded in its total.”
In a 35 -page motion presented on Wednesday, Alexandra Ae Shapiro, who is among combs lawyers, wrote that Dawn Hughes, a clinical and forensic psychologist in New York city whose specialties include sexual abuse, interpersonal violence and traumatic stress of generalizations about abuse and responses to abuse, as opposed to individual evaluations, which make their opinions of individual evaluations limited.
Hughes, who has not examined the accusers or combs or evaluated the evidence in the case of combs, witnessed prosecution in two important cases of sexual abuse presented by federal prosecutors: the trials of the singer of R&B R. Kelly and Keith Raniere, the sexual cult leader of Nxivm.
Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, was declared guilty in 2021 multiple positions, including exituct and sex trafficking. Raniere was convicted in 2019 for extortion and sexual trafficking, among other positions. One of the combs lawyers, Marc Agnifilo, also represented Raniere. Kelly, a R&B composer who sells multiplatin, was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Raniere was sentenced to 120 years in prison.
The motion says that if Hughes is allowed to testify in the combs trial, he would probably offer his opinions on issues such as sexual abuse and victims’ responses, coercive control, coping strategies during and in relation to sexual abuse and delayed dissemination of sexual abuse. She testified in Kelly’s tests and Ranoe on coercive control and sexual abuse.
Federal prosecutors alleged that combs forced at least three women, identified only as victim-1, victim-2 and victim-3 in their accusation, to participate in commercial sexual acts. His accusation said he submitted his victims to verbal abuse, violence, threats of violence and threats of financial damage and reputation.
Prosecutors have accused him of hiring male sex workers to participate in sexual meetings fed with drugs known as strangers. The accusations came to light for the first time in a civil lawsuit filed against him in 2023 by his ex -girlfriend Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura. She was once signed with her record label.
The civil lawsuit said that combs forced Ventura to participate in Freak offs, but Comong lawyers have said that the meetings were consensual. Although Ventura is not appointed in the accusation, many of the accusations in you closely reflect the accusations she made in her lawsuit, that she and combs were established privately in a day without him recognizing any crime.
Comink declared himself innocent. Remains imprisoned without bail.
The Motion Cites The Government as Saying Hughes’ “Testimony is speech to explain how the overarching dynamic of victimization is an abuse of power and control where the perpetrator enchartes in self-centered behavior to satisfy His Own Goals and Desires Rensaless of The Needs, Wants Well-Being of the Victim.
Elizabeth Geddes, former federal prosecutor of the team who won a conviction against Kelly, said she doesn’t expect the motion to succeed. Geddes said he called Hughes as a witness in Kelly’s trial to discuss, among other issues, the use of coercive control, and said that Hughes has been certified as an expert in many other cases.
“And she has no exposure to the facts of Kelly’s case, none of the accusations of the victims, only testified, in general, how people obtain and maintain control,” Geddes said.
In an interview on Thursday, Geddes said there is no requirement that an expert really examines any particular victim. The testimony of Hughes, Geddes said: “It will not be about any victim or details of any victim, but much more general, to explain to the jury how people use coercive control to obtain and maintain control.”
“We call it as a witness to generally help the jury to understand how predators use certain tools to obtain and maintain control over their victims, because otherwise part of the conduct may not have made sense to the jury,” Geddes said. “And it seems that that is exactly what the government is trying to do in the case are combs, and I hope the court allows it to do it.”
