This week prosecutors in Bad Boy Entertainment CEO, Sean 'Diddy' Combs', criminal trial notified the court that Cassie Ventura was prepared to testify against Diddy under her own name [click here if you missed that].
Now Diddy is trying to get dozens of witnesses barred from taking the stand...
From The Daily Mail
Sean 'Diddy' Comb's lawyers claim federal prosecutors are 'polluting' the Bad Boy mogul's trial even before it begins and asked the court to block other witnesses from testifying.
The rapper's attorney asked the judge to exclude 'prior bad act' witnesses from taking the stand in court, according to court documents obtained by DailyMail.com.
Combs' attorney argued allowing potentially dozens of witnesses outside of the four victims tied to the rapper's criminal indictment would be the 'worst abuses of the character evidence rule in the history of American law'.
They also claim prosecutors do not plan to divulge the growing witness list until April 18 — just two weeks before jury selection for the high-profile case to begin in Manhattan federal court.
'The allegations implicate dozens of unidentified witnesses and alleged co-conspirators around the world — and some of the key witnesses to the supposed incidents are dead,' the defense attorneys wrote.
'Collectively, these new allegations require many months if not years to investigate, and if admitted, would require a series of mini-trials certain to double the length of a trial the government originally said would last 'three weeks'.
The defense attorneys continued: 'The Court should require the government to try the case it charged and prove that case to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. The government should not be permitted to pollute the trial with decades of dirt and invite a conviction based on propensity evidence with no proper purpose by painting Mr. Combs as a bad guy who must have committed the charged crimes'.
Prosecutors filed a superseding indictment last week and added two more charges in his criminal case.
The updated indictment accuses Combs, 55, of one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of six trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and two counts of transportation to engage in prxstitution.
Combs has denied all the charges and claim the alleged victims were ex-girlfriends, who consented to the alleged incidents.
Four witnesses, including former girlfriend Cassie Ventura, have been named as victims in the indictment.
Combs allegedly forced the victims into 'frexk off' six parties, sometimes with male prxstitutes, that lasted for days.
Prosecutors have said Ventura plans to testify under her name, while the other alleged victims will be referred to by pseudonyms during the trial.
They have asked their identities not be revealed to the press or the public.
The new six trafficking count claims Diddy allegedly caused 'Victim 2' to engage in commercial six acts' knowing they only did so due to 'force, fraud and coercion'.
The transportation to engage in prxstitution count claims he 'willfully caused the transportation of multiple individuals with the intent they engage in prxstitution'.
Prosecutors blasted defense attorneys and said testimony of 'non-statutory victims' should be included during the trial because it proved Combs' intent to commit the charged crimes.
'Given the graphic testimony that the Statutory Victims will collectively give about years’ worth of beatings, drug-fueled coercive six marathons, and multiple rxpes, the Non-Statutory Victims’ testimony will be no more inflammatory than the evidence that the jury will already have before it at this trial,' prosecutors said in their April 7 response.
Prosecutors added that the law allows them to call 'prior bad act' witnesses to show Combs' propensity to commit sixual assault.
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