NEW YORK — A federal judge immediately rejected a defense request for a mistrial on Wednesday at the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs, after his attorneys said prosecutors tried to imply to a jury that the music mogul interfered with the investigation into rapper Kid Cudi’s firebombed Porsche in 2012.
Although such mistrial requests are common during lengthy federal trials involving hundreds of pieces of evidence and dozens of witnesses, this was the first request at Combs’ trial, which is in its third week of testimony in Manhattan. Combs has been active in his defense, regularly writing notes to his lawyers, and they have consulted with him as they questioned witnesses.
Judge Arun Subramanian instructed the jury to disregard testimony about the destruction of fingerprint cards that occurred months after Cudi’s car was set ablaze. Weeks before that firebombing, Combs became enraged when he learned that Cudi was dating Cassie, the singer who had a nearly 11-year relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018.
The Molotov cocktail used to burn Cudi’s car in his Hollywood Hills driveway was fashioned out of a 40-ounce Old English 800 malt liquor bottle and a designer handkerchief, according to Lance Jimenez, an arson investigator for the Los Angeles Fire Department, and photographs shown in court.
The defense’s mistrial request came after Jimenez testified that fingerprints taken from Cudi’s burned up Porsche 911 were destroyed in August 2012, about eight months after the fire. Jimenez said someone in the Los Angeles Police Department who was not involved in the investigation ordered the fingerprint cards destroyed. He said that was not normal protocol.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he led a racketeering conspiracy for 20 years that relied on fear and violence to get what he wanted. If convicted, he could face 15 years to life in prison. Cassie and other witnesses have testified that she was repeatedly beaten by Combs, and she said she was frequently coerced to engage in unwanted sex acts.
Defense attorney Alexandra Shapiro asked for the mistrial during a morning break with the jury out of the room. She told Subramanian that “prosecutorial misconduct” had occurred and said “there’s no way to un-ring this bell.”
She said prosecutors were on notice during jury selection that some prospective jurors had to be eliminated from consideration for the jury because they believed Combs could buy his way out of the racketeering conspiracy he’s charged with.
“These questions were designed to play right into that,” she said.
Defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo called the prosecution’s conduct “outrageous.”
Combs’ lawyers argued that the prosecution’s questions and Jimenez’s resulting testimony was highly prejudicial because prosecutors were suggesting that Combs had something to do with the destruction of the records.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik said “a mistrial is absolutely unwarranted here.” She said the subject of fingerprints was raised to counter defense suggestions through questions posed to other witnesses that the car firebombing was poorly investigated and that the area was not canvassed for fingerprints.