Latest / Two Ts In A Pod with Teddi Mellencamp and Tamra Judge / Legally Brunette: The Diddy Verdict
Transcript
- 0:01Speaker 1: Hi, guys, Welcome to another episode of Legally Brunette. I'll
- 0:04Speaker 1: be your host today, Emily Simpson with my co host Shane.
- 0:09Speaker 1: It's just Shane. You know, people DM me now and
- 0:12Speaker 1: they ask how just Shane is doing. Yes, they refer
- 0:16Speaker 1: to you as just Shane. Actually today, First of all,
- 0:18Speaker 1: let me do a little disclaimer because we are going
- 0:20Speaker 1: to talk about Diddy and the Diddy verdict. So this
- 0:23Speaker 1: story contains discussions of rape and sexual assault. If you
- 0:27Speaker 1: are someone you know has been sexually assaulted, you can
- 0:30Speaker 1: find help and discrete resources on the National Sexual Assault
- 0:34Speaker 1: Hotline website or by calling one eight hundred six five
- 0:38Speaker 1: six four six seven three. So the verdict and the
- 0:42Speaker 1: Didty trial actually came out today. I read it this morning.
- 0:48Speaker 1: So we're going to discuss that. I know a lot
- 0:50Speaker 1: of you are mad, upset, disgusted. I have a whole
- 0:55Speaker 1: treasure trove of dms of women saying how did this happen?
- 1:00Speaker 1: He paid people off. He's a celebrity, so he got off.
- 1:04Speaker 1: You know, this is disgusting. Why is he not convicted
- 1:07Speaker 1: on the higher charges? So we're going to go through that.
- 1:10Speaker 1: First of all, let's just go back and refresh our
- 1:12Speaker 1: memories just so we can talk about what he was
- 1:14Speaker 1: originally charged with. He there were five counts against man.
- 1:18Speaker 1: These are federal charges. One was the racketeering and conspiracy charge,
- 1:22Speaker 1: which was RICO. The second was sex trafficking by force
- 1:25Speaker 1: fraud a coercion that had to do with Cassie Ventura.
- 1:28Speaker 1: That was victim number one. Count three was transportation to
- 1:32Speaker 1: engage in prostitution regarding victim one and commercial sex workers.
- 1:38Speaker 1: Count four was sex trafficking by force fraud a coersion,
- 1:41Speaker 1: and that had to do with victim two, who was
- 1:43Speaker 1: known as Jane, and Jane testified. Count five was transportation
- 1:47Speaker 1: to engage in prostitution regarding Jane and commercial sex workers.
- 1:51Speaker 2: Okay, wellt's sum up. First one's RICO, so basically, second
- 1:54Speaker 2: one's sex trafficking, yeah, the third one is.
- 1:59Speaker 1: That's transport to engage in prostitution.
- 2:01Speaker 2: Okay, and then the fourth one is sex trafficking by force.
- 2:06Speaker 2: It's also oh, well for Jane. Right, So there's two
- 2:09Speaker 2: sex trafficking charges, one against Cassie and another one against Jane,
- 2:12Speaker 2: well involving yeah, thank you. And then and then the
- 2:17Speaker 2: fifth one is transportation to engage in prostitution.
- 2:19Speaker 1: Okay, so we all know that the verdict came out
- 2:21Speaker 1: and that he was found not guilty on the higher
- 2:24Speaker 1: charges of racketeering and sex trafficking. He was found guilty
- 2:28Speaker 1: only on the accounts of transportation to engage in prostitutions.
- 2:33Speaker 2: Which includes prostitution as well.
- 2:36Speaker 1: Right, yeah, it's it's transportation across I believe, across state
- 2:40Speaker 1: lines to engage in prostitution. All right, before we go
- 2:43Speaker 1: into the verdict and our thoughts on the verdict, let's
- 2:46Speaker 1: go through. We did do some episodes on the Diddy case,
- 2:49Speaker 1: or Shane renamed him Pity.
- 2:53Speaker 2: Well that was that was by mistake. Yeah, but I'm
- 2:55Speaker 2: confusing Pity the fool. Yeah that has freak cops without me.
- 2:59Speaker 1: Yeah, instead of p Diddy, he just changed it to Pity.
- 3:04Speaker 1: I feel like that works for him. Let's go back.
- 3:06Speaker 1: We did do some earlier episodes on Pity if you
- 3:09Speaker 1: would like to go back and listen to him. But
- 3:11Speaker 1: I think it's important let's start at the closing arguments,
- 3:13Speaker 1: because I feel the prosecution did a good job of
- 3:18Speaker 1: wrapping everything up and laying out like a really precise,
- 3:21Speaker 1: concise closing argument. So the prosecutors triggered headlines last week,
- 3:27Speaker 1: when they had backed off of or eliminated claims of
- 3:29Speaker 1: arson and kidnapping against Combs. However, when Assistant US Attorney
- 3:33Speaker 1: Christy Slavic launched closings last Thursday, she gave the allegations
- 3:37Speaker 1: of arson and kidnapping a starring role in her first sentences,
- 3:40Speaker 1: naming them before any others. She said, quote, over the
- 3:44Speaker 1: last several weeks, you've learned a lot about Sean Combs.
- 3:46Speaker 1: He's the leader of a criminal enterprise. He doesn't take
- 3:49Speaker 1: no foreign answer, and now you know about many crimes
- 3:52Speaker 1: the defendant committed with members of his enterprise, kidnapping of
- 3:56Speaker 1: one of the defendants employees, Arson by trying to blow
- 3:59Speaker 1: up a car, or labor, including an employee. The defendant
- 4:02Speaker 1: repeatedly sexually assaulted, bribery of a security officer to keep
- 4:06Speaker 1: damning evidence against the defendant buried, and of course the
- 4:09Speaker 1: brutal crimes and the heat of the case sex trafficking.
- 4:12Speaker 1: The enterprise is Comb's in his trusted inner circle, she said,
- 4:16Speaker 1: and it existed to serve his needs. In what he
- 4:19Speaker 1: said went, Slovac referred to Combe's former chief of staff,
- 4:24Speaker 1: Christina Korum, his security team and his assistants multiple times
- 4:28Speaker 1: during her closing arguments, describing how they aided Combs in
- 4:32Speaker 1: buying drugs, facilitated bribes, and covered up his violence. Slavic
- 4:37Speaker 1: showed the jury images of twenty seven men that Combs
- 4:39Speaker 1: hired to have sex with Ventura, Jane or with both women.
- 4:43Speaker 1: This slide shows you just a subset of the strangers
- 4:46Speaker 1: who had sex with Jane and Cassie. Slovic said that
- 4:49Speaker 1: sex trafficking charge regarding Jane is based on Combe's years
- 4:52Speaker 1: long pattern of fraud, coercion, and ultimately force to get
- 4:56Speaker 1: her to do quote hotel nights. She recalled rehotel nights
- 5:00Speaker 1: in particular that Jane testified about as the most clear
- 5:03Speaker 1: cut examples of sex trafficking with Jane, adding that there
- 5:07Speaker 1: are many other hotel nights that Jane agreed to because
- 5:10Speaker 1: of the defendants pattern of coercion. All right, here's the
- 5:14Speaker 1: problem with the sex trafficking charges, at least according to
- 5:17Speaker 1: what I've read, what I've studied, what I've listened to testimony,
- 5:20Speaker 1: I've watched videos on it. When it comes to the
- 5:24Speaker 1: sex trafficking charges, which are higher charges than the prostitution charges,
- 5:30Speaker 1: you have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt, and the
- 5:33Speaker 1: burden of proof is on the prosecution. The prosecution has
- 5:36Speaker 1: the burden of proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Cassie
- 5:40Speaker 1: and Jane were forced a course into these sexual acts.
- 5:46Speaker 1: And they do a good job of painting a picture
- 5:50Speaker 1: of women that are coerced by talking about how he
- 5:52Speaker 1: pays their rent, that he's violent, that they're scared of him, or.
- 5:56Speaker 2: Even coursed into traveling.
- 5:59Speaker 1: Right.
- 6:00Speaker 2: You know, I don't know the details like you might,
- 6:02Speaker 2: but which could you know? I wasn't their text messages
- 6:05Speaker 2: like I'm always ready, or yes baby, let's you know,
- 6:08Speaker 2: let's have a freak off or whatever. They would say
- 6:10Speaker 2: something that implied consent. Even if you and I know
- 6:13Speaker 2: that there was probably some pressure, But if she implied consent,
- 6:16Speaker 2: then there's no forcing of traveling or participating.
- 6:21Speaker 1: Right, And that's where the defense comes in, And where
- 6:23Speaker 1: the defense did a good job was finding text messages,
- 6:28Speaker 1: finding Instagram things, finding things out there where these women
- 6:32Speaker 1: were exhibiting behavior of going along with it, of talking
- 6:37Speaker 1: about how they liked the hotel nights upsetting, of proving
- 6:40Speaker 1: that they were setting it up themselves, that they were
- 6:43Speaker 1: going through the motions that they were picking out the
- 6:45Speaker 1: mail sex workers, that they were involved in the process.
- 6:50Speaker 1: So you can't have it both ways. You can't have
- 6:53Speaker 1: coercion force and also involved in the process picking out
- 6:57Speaker 1: the mail prostitutes, paying the bills, getting the hotel, helping
- 7:02Speaker 1: set things up. But the problem is when you have
- 7:05Speaker 1: both of these women. I'm sure there were concrete examples
- 7:09Speaker 1: and instances where they didn't want to do it and
- 7:11Speaker 1: they probably did feel and.
- 7:12Speaker 2: All you needed was one of those instances to be
- 7:16Speaker 2: proven right one time or they were coerced. It didn't
- 7:21Speaker 2: have to be every single freak off, every single transaction.
- 7:25Speaker 2: It just had to be one.
- 7:26Speaker 1: But the problem is is that I think when the
- 7:28Speaker 1: jury hears the prosecutors and they hear them testify, but
- 7:31Speaker 1: then the defense comes in and shows text messages where
- 7:35Speaker 1: they're saying things like they set it up, they picked
- 7:38Speaker 1: out this male worker, they enjoyed it, thank you for
- 7:41Speaker 1: setting that up, thank you for hosting this. It takes
- 7:45Speaker 1: away from the credibility that they were coerced or that
- 7:48Speaker 1: they were forced into this. It looks more like they're
- 7:51Speaker 1: going along with a lifestyle all right. Then the defense
- 7:53Speaker 1: says they're closing argument. The defense's main attorney is Mark Agniphilo, Agnifhilo.
- 7:59Speaker 1: I always say his name wrong, Agnifilo. His wife represents Luigi,
- 8:03Speaker 1: and he mocked the government's case against Comb's as an overreach,
- 8:07Speaker 1: saying hundreds of agents poured into Comb's residences in Miami
- 8:11Speaker 1: and Los Angeles to seize hundreds of bottles of baby
- 8:13Speaker 1: oil and astroglide. I guess it's all worth it because
- 8:17Speaker 1: they found the astroglide. They found it in boxes, boxes
- 8:21Speaker 1: of astroglide, taking off the streets few. I feel better already.
- 8:24Speaker 1: He said, the streets of America are safe from the astroglide.
- 8:29Speaker 2: So that was that sounds stupid.
- 8:32Speaker 1: Well, you know what, you know why it sounds stupid.
- 8:34Speaker 2: One.
- 8:34Speaker 1: I understand the point he's trying to make, trying to
- 8:37Speaker 1: downplay it, like okay, so the.
- 8:38Speaker 2: Guy gets it's a sex salobe like lots of people
- 8:41Speaker 2: use it. Oh no, he's trying to make it like
- 8:44Speaker 2: mocking it, like we're taking guns off the street, we're
- 8:46Speaker 2: taking astrograd off seat. Like is it really making a difference? Right?
- 8:57Speaker 2: All right?
- 8:58Speaker 1: From the start, agnifil not say his name. I can
- 9:01Speaker 1: never get the syllable on the act on the right syllable, Agnifilo, Agnifilo, Agnifilo, Agnifilo, gosh.
- 9:12Speaker 1: From the start, Agnifilo portrayed prosecutors as unjustly targeting Combs
- 9:16Speaker 1: after a former girlfriend of nearly eleven years, Cassie Ventura,
- 9:20Speaker 1: sued him in November of twenty twenty three. That was
- 9:22Speaker 1: a civil suit that also remember we talked about, was
- 9:26Speaker 1: settled within one day for twenty million dollars. Agnifilo maintained
- 9:29Speaker 1: the prosecution was an unjust attack on a prominent and
- 9:32Speaker 1: widely successful black entrepreneur. Quote. They took astroglide and they
- 9:37Speaker 1: took baby oil, and that ends up being the evidence
- 9:39Speaker 1: in this case. Because his businesses are outstanding. There's nothing
- 9:42Speaker 1: about the businesses to fine. There's nothing about the businesses
- 9:45Speaker 1: to make it into a criminal case. Agnifilo tried to
- 9:49Speaker 1: cast the case for the jury as an attack on
- 9:51Speaker 1: everyone's bedroom and the secrets of one sex life. Quote.
- 9:55Speaker 1: They go into the man's bedroom, they go into the
- 9:57Speaker 1: man's most private life. Where is the crime scene. The
- 10:00Speaker 1: crime scene is your private sex life. That's the crime scene.
- 10:03Speaker 2: He said, Yeah, but that argument's dumb because that can
- 10:06Speaker 2: be made with anyone that's being charged with a sex crime.
- 10:10Speaker 2: I mean that alone is stupid. Oh he went into
- 10:12Speaker 2: his bedroom. Oh oh no sex. Well, no, it's it's
- 10:16Speaker 2: what's taking place exactly. It's like going, oh no, we
- 10:19Speaker 2: went to this room and there's this a bunch of kids.
- 10:21Speaker 2: Oh no, there's kids. It's like, well, it's kidnapping or
- 10:24Speaker 2: pedophilia or something.
- 10:25Speaker 1: Else, right, right, Well, he's trying to downplay and making
- 10:30Speaker 1: it not like it's a criminal enterprise and not like
- 10:33Speaker 1: there's a crime going on other than this man is
- 10:35Speaker 1: just has freaky preferences and that's not a crime. Having
- 10:40Speaker 1: astroglide and baby oil isn't a crime. And having sex
- 10:44Speaker 1: and hotels and all the lights and the red lights
- 10:46Speaker 1: in the cannabis.
- 10:47Speaker 2: I know, I know, and I'm making fun of it,
- 10:49Speaker 2: but apparently it worked.
- 10:51Speaker 1: The defense attorneys goes on to say it was not
- 10:53Speaker 1: uncommon that Comb's like to film sexual events with his girlfriends,
- 10:56Speaker 1: calling it sort of typical, you know, homemade porn, and
- 11:00Speaker 1: adding that I don't think, by any stretch of the imagination,
- 11:02Speaker 1: this is the only man in America making homemade porn.
- 11:05Speaker 1: I don't know. What do you think?
- 11:08Speaker 2: Uh yeah, I bet there's a lot of people. Those
- 11:11Speaker 2: free costs make his homemade porn, so that but he's
- 11:15Speaker 2: not being charged with homemade porn. You're being charged with.
- 11:18Speaker 1: Sex trafficking, sex crimes and rico right right still, he said,
- 11:22Speaker 1: investigators take yellow crime scene tape figuratively and they wrap
- 11:26Speaker 1: it around the bedroom crime scene, your bedroom, your hotel
- 11:29Speaker 1: rooms where you go with your girlfriends. Then he gave
- 11:31Speaker 1: a nod to the fiftieth anniversary of the movie Jaws,
- 11:34Speaker 1: resurrecting a classic line when he said, we need a
- 11:37Speaker 1: bigger role of crime scene tape because that's just not
- 11:40Speaker 1: going to be enough. Agnifilo told geors that it takes
- 11:43Speaker 1: a lot of courage to acquit. He ripped the government's
- 11:46Speaker 1: case a final time, saying the trial was very different
- 11:48Speaker 1: from any other trial. Quote. I think that the evidence
- 11:51Speaker 1: shows that you can conclude that the government targeted Sean Combs,
- 11:55Speaker 1: noting that nobody complained to the government to instigate a
- 11:58Speaker 1: pro but investigators instead began work a day after Cassie
- 12:01Speaker 1: filed her lawsuit. All right, then you know one closing arguments,
- 12:04Speaker 1: The prosecution goes first, then the defense gets their time,
- 12:08Speaker 1: and then the prosecution can go again, and they can
- 12:11Speaker 1: rebut what.
- 12:12Speaker 2: You know, it sounds effective though the way he's downplaying
- 12:14Speaker 2: I can see, I can see it causing people to think, yeah,
- 12:18Speaker 2: I know, what's the big deal, Especially there was eight
- 12:20Speaker 2: men on the jury. They probably all have astrog I
- 12:23Speaker 2: believe it.
- 12:23Speaker 1: I believe it was eight men and four women were
- 12:26Speaker 1: on the jury. First of all, here's the prosecution's job,
- 12:28Speaker 1: because we talked about how the prosecution has the burden
- 12:31Speaker 1: to prove the RICO elements, the sex trafficking elements. Those
- 12:35Speaker 1: are the biggest charges beyond a reasonable doubt. And in
- 12:38Speaker 1: order to prove the RICO charges, you have to prove
- 12:42Speaker 1: that there was a criminal enterprise and that all these
- 12:47Speaker 1: people in this criminal enterprise were working towards the common goal.
- 12:50Speaker 2: Which they weren't criminal activity. Is this is this enterprise
- 12:55Speaker 2: his record company.
- 12:56Speaker 1: Well, that's what they're trying. It's called shaan Combe's enter
- 13:00Speaker 1: or something like that. And then I think there's like
- 13:03Speaker 1: bad Boy Records and things under that, and he has
- 13:05Speaker 1: other businesses under that.
- 13:07Speaker 2: But see let me interpew. So he has valid businesses
- 13:11Speaker 2: that are business that's being conducted, Yes, and probably for
- 13:14Speaker 2: many years prior to these charges.
- 13:17Speaker 1: Yes, And the prosecution spent a lot of time showing
- 13:20Speaker 1: receipts that showed hotel bills being paid, transportation being paid
- 13:26Speaker 1: for these prostitutes and the women, uh you know, baby
- 13:30Speaker 1: oil and lighting and all the necessities, and then they
- 13:33Speaker 1: would show a lot of times that it came out
- 13:36Speaker 1: of his his business enterprises, but then it would be
- 13:41Speaker 1: paid back with his personal money, so that was that's
- 13:45Speaker 1: where it gets money. It's like, on one hand, the
- 13:47Speaker 1: prosecution is showing, okay, it's a criminal enterprise because he's
- 13:50Speaker 1: paying for it out of these businesses to pay for
- 13:53Speaker 1: these freak offs and to bring these male prostitutes in.
- 13:55Speaker 1: And then the defense would go and say, yeah, but
- 13:58Speaker 1: then he was he paid it back with personal.
- 14:01Speaker 2: They're kind of like, it's not the criminal. It's not
- 14:03Speaker 2: the enterprise that's conducting all his criminal activity. He just
- 14:05Speaker 2: used some of the money and then he paid it.
- 14:07Speaker 1: Back, right, so it's not a criminal enterprise. Also, you know,
- 14:10Speaker 1: the prosecution put on thirty four witnesses thirty four and
- 14:14Speaker 1: it was all to establish a network of a criminal
- 14:17Speaker 1: enterprise to establish RICO.
- 14:20Speaker 2: The issue still couldn't get the charge.
- 14:22Speaker 1: The issue is is that the defense would then come
- 14:26Speaker 1: in and do what the defense does. Because I don't
- 14:28Speaker 1: know if you know, but the defense called zero witnesses. Zero.
- 14:32Speaker 1: They only read some text messages I think like five hours.
- 14:38Speaker 2: There's probably no witnesses that even come forward. Yeah, I'll
- 14:40Speaker 2: testify that I love the freak outs, that I was
- 14:42Speaker 2: willing to do it and I participated.
- 14:44Speaker 1: And well the defense, I mean, the defenses, that's.
- 14:46Speaker 2: What they could have done, right.
- 14:48Speaker 1: Well, I thought maybe they might put on like a
- 14:49Speaker 1: character witness or something to like maybe pull at the
- 14:52Speaker 1: jury's heartstrings that like he's a good guy or something.
- 14:55Speaker 1: I don't know, but they put on zero witnesses a
- 14:57Speaker 1: long shot. Their case was basically just rebutting the prosecution's
- 15:01Speaker 1: case and taking each witness like, for exact example, Capricorn
- 15:06Speaker 1: Clark who talked about how she was kidnapped by Diddy. Well,
- 15:09Speaker 1: then there you go. You're establishing one of your elements
- 15:13Speaker 1: that you need for Rico. Right, you're establishing you have
- 15:15Speaker 1: to do two predicate crimes within a ten year period.
- 15:19Speaker 1: So you have to establish there was bribery, there was
- 15:23Speaker 1: you know arson, there's burglary. You have to have two
- 15:26Speaker 1: of these crimes. So Capricorn Clark testifies, there's your kidnapping,
- 15:30Speaker 1: so that would be one predicate act, right. But the
- 15:33Speaker 1: problem is then the defense comes on and then she
- 15:35Speaker 1: admits that in twenty twenty four she tried to work
- 15:37Speaker 1: for him again. Well, so it's like you're saying, I
- 15:41Speaker 1: was kidnapped at gunpoint, and I don't know what year
- 15:44Speaker 1: it was, in some earlier year, but then in twenty
- 15:46Speaker 1: twenty four she reached out to Sean Combs and want
- 15:48Speaker 1: to work for him again.
- 15:50Speaker 2: Yeah. It even if there were acts that were conducted
- 15:54Speaker 2: that can be viewed as criminal, clearly the jury didn't
- 15:59Speaker 2: see it as the end a prize being established or
- 16:02Speaker 2: used to facilitate crime.
- 16:04Speaker 1: Right, And the defense did a good job of every
- 16:07Speaker 1: time someone testified that there was always some evidence that
- 16:11Speaker 1: could take away their credibility, Like.
- 16:13Speaker 2: Here's a text where she was consenting adults.
- 16:16Speaker 1: Right, or she was setting it up, or she enjoyed it,
- 16:19Speaker 1: or she said thank you. So it was she liked.
- 16:22Speaker 2: Being beaten up and pulled down the hallway back to
- 16:25Speaker 2: the hotel room. She didn't want to go down the elevator.
- 16:28Speaker 1: Nobody liked that. That's about the freak offs.
- 16:30Speaker 2: I know, But how I have questions about the elevator incident?
- 16:34Speaker 2: You do.
- 16:34Speaker 1: What is your question about the elevator incident? Why wasn't
- 16:37Speaker 1: in the elevator? It was in the hallway. She was
- 16:39Speaker 1: trying to get into the elevator.
- 16:42Speaker 2: Do you want me to call it the hallway incident?
- 16:43Speaker 1: Yes, the hallway incident. What is your question about that?
- 16:46Speaker 2: What is it? Why was he Why was that not?
- 16:48Speaker 2: Why was there no criminal charges for that? Is that
- 16:50Speaker 2: because a statue of limitations? Is that because they settle
- 16:54Speaker 2: it out of court?
- 16:57Speaker 1: Well? I think it was because she settled it out
- 16:59Speaker 1: of court. And then I believe when prosecutors or the
- 17:03Speaker 1: government or whatever read her civil case against him, that's
- 17:07Speaker 1: when they were like, Oh, he's involved in all of
- 17:09Speaker 1: these things. And then all these other people are coming
- 17:11Speaker 1: forward with all these He's had so many civil suits
- 17:14Speaker 1: against him. Right now, then I think the government's like,
- 17:16Speaker 1: wait a minute, what is this guy involved in him?
- 17:18Speaker 1: What is he doing? This looks like Rico because he
- 17:20Speaker 1: has all these assistants and people working for him that are,
- 17:24Speaker 1: you know, helping him facilitate these freak offs. It looks
- 17:29Speaker 1: like this could be a possible Rico charge.
- 17:32Speaker 2: Huh.
- 17:34Speaker 1: Finally, a rebuttal from the prosecution. The Assistant US attorney
- 17:37Speaker 1: Maureen Komy got the final word with a rebuttal presentation
- 17:40Speaker 1: to jurors. Komy began by saying, the defense just spent
- 17:43Speaker 1: a whole lot of energy trying to blame Combe's victims
- 17:46Speaker 1: and the US government for his lies, his threats, and
- 17:50Speaker 1: for his inexcusable behavior. She added that this trial was
- 17:53Speaker 1: about how in Shaan Combe's world, no was never an option.
- 17:57Speaker 1: Comy said that the defense team has tried to set
- 18:00Speaker 1: violence from sex regarding both Ventura and Jane, but quote,
- 18:04Speaker 1: if part of the abuse is making your partner participate
- 18:06Speaker 1: in a commercial sex act, you're guilty of sex trafficking.
- 18:10Speaker 1: She added that the jury only has to find that
- 18:12Speaker 1: one freak off or hotel night was sex trafficked to
- 18:15Speaker 1: find Combs guilty of the charge. There's your answer. Sex
- 18:19Speaker 1: trafficking does not legally require the perpetrator to overcome a
- 18:22Speaker 1: no from the victim. It can also involve getting someone
- 18:26Speaker 1: to say yes through illegal means like force, fraud, and coercion.
- 18:30Speaker 1: She said that Colmbs, in his mind, was untouchable. She
- 18:33Speaker 1: noted that one former personal assistant even described him as
- 18:36Speaker 1: a god among men. For twenty years, the defendant has
- 18:39Speaker 1: gotten away with his crimes. That ends in this courtroom.
- 18:42Speaker 1: She said. He is a person, and in this courtroom
- 18:44Speaker 1: he stands equal before the law. Overwhelming evidence proves his guilt.
- 18:48Speaker 1: It is time to hold him accountable, find him guilty.
- 18:51Speaker 1: Now here's the thing with the Rico charges. In order
- 18:53Speaker 1: for a Rico charge to stick, you.
- 18:55Speaker 2: Have to prove.
- 18:58Speaker 1: Two criminal acts within a ten year period that were
- 19:01Speaker 1: part of this enterprise.
- 19:02Speaker 2: Well, I imagine among other things, like the enterprise was
- 19:06Speaker 2: facilitating it, right.
- 19:08Speaker 1: And also the element of like a common goal in
- 19:10Speaker 1: the way.
- 19:10Speaker 2: And you have to prove that it was a crime.
- 19:13Speaker 1: Right. But I'm saying I think that it was established
- 19:17Speaker 1: by the prosecution that he did commit these crimes as
- 19:20Speaker 1: far as arson, and I don't know with kid Cutty
- 19:24Speaker 1: testifying and then cast Ventura corroborating the arson, and then
- 19:29Speaker 1: I believe there was someone else that testified to it.
- 19:31Speaker 1: So there's your arsen right there. There's one crime also,
- 19:34Speaker 1: the bribery.
- 19:34Speaker 2: I mean the.
- 19:35Speaker 1: Security card talked about how you gave him a hundred
- 19:37Speaker 1: thousand dollars and brought the cash machine and counted it out. Yeah, you,
- 19:42Speaker 1: So there's two. The problem is is I think the
- 19:45Speaker 1: other elements as far as it being you have the
- 19:48Speaker 1: two underlying criminal acts within a ten.
- 19:50Speaker 2: Year period and then trying to make it but racketeering
- 19:53Speaker 2: is to make it racketeering, and so not to downplay
- 19:57Speaker 2: anything that he did, so people don't get after me
- 20:00Speaker 2: because I'm not supporting him, not supporting him one bit.
- 20:04Speaker 2: But it's it's it's sort of like if I had
- 20:08Speaker 2: a retail store and I was just selling. I had
- 20:11Speaker 2: like a mini mart, and I was selling stuff, and
- 20:13Speaker 2: then I committed two acts of crime and I used
- 20:15Speaker 2: like the store, like someone came in and I bought
- 20:17Speaker 2: drugs right, or I sold on one item that was illegal. Well,
- 20:23Speaker 2: I just happened to have a store and I did
- 20:25Speaker 2: these two crimes. Like it wasn't because of the store,
- 20:27Speaker 2: I was able to commit the crimes or I created
- 20:30Speaker 2: the store in order to facilitate these crimes. So it
- 20:33Speaker 2: sounds like that's what it was. Like, Yeah, Okay, he's
- 20:35Speaker 2: a business guy. He's got all kinds of businesses, all
- 20:37Speaker 2: kinds of employees, entities, Yeah, all kinds of stuff, payroll this, that,
- 20:42Speaker 2: blah blah blah, and he commits crimes. So it was
- 20:46Speaker 2: probably very difficult to tie those two together.
- 20:50Speaker 1: Well, I think it was difficult to tie in the
- 20:51Speaker 1: conspiracy part, where you're talking about all these people that
- 20:54Speaker 1: work for him. His employees, assistance, bodyguards, et cetera. Are
- 20:58Speaker 1: all part of this criminal enterpse, and they're all working
- 21:01Speaker 1: as a common goal. Took to commit times.
- 21:03Speaker 2: It's not a hired someone and gave them the title
- 21:07Speaker 2: of like freak off calendar coordinator, right, right.
- 21:11Speaker 1: So freakoff facilitator, yes, yes, all right, So after thirteen
- 21:16Speaker 1: hours of deliberation, what did the jury find? So the
- 21:19Speaker 1: verdict comes in? It was in this morning, count je
- 21:22Speaker 1: Rico not guilty. Count two, Sex trafficking, Cassie Ventura not guilty.
- 21:28Speaker 1: Count three, The Man Act Transportation Cassie Ventura guilty. Sex
- 21:33Speaker 1: trafficking Jane not guilty. Man Act Transportation of Jane guilty.
- 21:39Speaker 1: The Man Act of nineteen ten is a federal law
- 21:41Speaker 1: that criminalizes the transportation of individuals across state lines or
- 21:46Speaker 1: in international boundaries for illegal sexual activity, regardless of consent
- 21:51Speaker 1: or not. In Combe's case, the prosecution presented flight records,
- 21:55Speaker 1: hotel invoices, credit card charges, and video evidence documenting the
- 21:59Speaker 1: singer supporting two ex girlfriends, Cassie Ventura and a woman
- 22:03Speaker 1: referred to by the pseudonym Jane, along with paid escorts
- 22:06Speaker 1: across state lines for so called freak golf parties. How
- 22:11Speaker 1: does the man Act differ from sex trafficking? While the
- 22:14Speaker 1: Trafficking Victims Protection Act of two thousand was designed to
- 22:18Speaker 1: combat what Congress called modern day slavery, it targets organized
- 22:22Speaker 1: systems of commercial exploitation through force, fraud, occursion, and it
- 22:28Speaker 1: typically involves traffickers who control nearly every aspect of the
- 22:31Speaker 1: victim's life, like housing, transportation, identification, finances, and the ability
- 22:36Speaker 1: to leave. Both Cassie Ventura and Jane reported trauma and coercion,
- 22:41Speaker 1: but they retained housing, communication, financial resources, and career opportunities.
- 22:46Speaker 1: They were not legally or physically confined. There was no
- 22:49Speaker 1: evidence of document confiscation. There was no restriction of movement
- 22:54Speaker 1: of the kind of isolation commonly seen in trafficking cases.
- 22:57Speaker 2: So the difference between the man Act and the general
- 23:01Speaker 2: term of sex trafficking is sex trafficking is forced or
- 23:05Speaker 2: cursed or some type of fraud, type of fraud, and
- 23:08Speaker 2: a man Act is it's two consenting adults that go
- 23:11Speaker 2: across state line commit a sex crime. Right okay, and
- 23:14Speaker 2: I think sex trafficking I know I've read this before,
- 23:16Speaker 2: is it involves underage, so it need not be coerced
- 23:21Speaker 2: and fraud and all that. It could just be under age.
- 23:24Speaker 1: Your age would be sex trafficking as well.
- 23:26Speaker 2: Which obviously didn't apply here. But I don't want to
- 23:28Speaker 2: make that clear.
- 23:28Speaker 1: Right, are the not guilty?
- 23:31Speaker 2: Vertical kind of funny that's called the man act. Yeah,
- 23:35Speaker 2: that's pretty ironic. I bet no female has been convicted
- 23:38Speaker 2: of the man act of the man. Probably just the
- 23:40Speaker 2: dirt bag men that do it, that.
- 23:41Speaker 1: Are transporting women.
- 23:43Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 23:43Speaker 1: Well now I don't know though, because this weekend in Vegas,
- 23:47Speaker 1: I almost got sex trafficked. It was a man working
- 23:52Speaker 1: with a woman. Wow.
- 23:53Speaker 2: She might have been coursed, she might have been forced.
- 23:59Speaker 2: Well well, okay, wait a minute, he's gonna throw that
- 24:01Speaker 2: out there that you almost got sex traffic You're not
- 24:03Speaker 2: going to tell the story. You gotta tell a story now, Okay.
- 24:06Speaker 1: So we went to Vegas this weekend and I was
- 24:08Speaker 1: at Caesar's with Shane and all the kids were there,
- 24:10Speaker 1: and then I left earlier than Shane. I left Caesar's.
- 24:13Speaker 1: First mistake, Yeah I should I should never anywhere alone.
- 24:17Speaker 1: But anyway, I left Caesar's Palace with the two boys,
- 24:20Speaker 1: so it was the three of us, and I was
- 24:21Speaker 1: with some girls.
- 24:24Speaker 2: His girls, his daughter day.
- 24:28Speaker 1: So I'm leaving Caesar's Palace and I'm walking out where
- 24:31Speaker 1: the valet is and there's a taxi there with the
- 24:33Speaker 1: light on, which means it's available. And I go to
- 24:35Speaker 1: open the door of the back seat of the taxi
- 24:38Speaker 1: to get in it and take it back to Mandalay
- 24:40Speaker 1: Bay where we're staying, and all of a sudden, this
- 24:43Speaker 1: very tall, large man jumps in front of me and
- 24:45Speaker 1: blocks me from getting into.
- 24:46Speaker 2: The town where the boys in the car. I think
- 24:49Speaker 2: you told me this, but I want to make a
- 24:50Speaker 2: clireful of veers. You boys were in the car at
- 24:52Speaker 2: the timer behind.
- 24:53Speaker 1: You're behind me, they're next to me. And then I'm like,
- 24:56Speaker 1: what is this guy doing? And at first I got irritated,
- 24:59Speaker 1: and then so I reached for the doorway.
- 25:01Speaker 2: How was he dressed?
- 25:02Speaker 1: Like plain clothes?
- 25:03Speaker 2: Okay, just regular, not like a suit, no shirt.
- 25:07Speaker 1: No, it was tall, it was big. He had a
- 25:09Speaker 1: T shirt pants on. Then I go and reach for
- 25:12Speaker 1: the door again and he gets in front of me
- 25:15Speaker 1: and blocks me from getting into the car, and I'm like,
- 25:18Speaker 1: what are you doing. I'm trying to get in this
- 25:20Speaker 1: cab and he goes, no, go in this other car,
- 25:22Speaker 1: and he points to another car by the way. The
- 25:24Speaker 1: other car car is an unmarked car. It's just a
- 25:26Speaker 1: black car. It's not a taxi. It doesn't say uber
- 25:29Speaker 1: or anything on it, a panel pan, it's just say
- 25:32Speaker 1: black car. And he points to a woman that's standing
- 25:35Speaker 1: about ten feet behind me, and she goes, oh, come on, sweetheart,
- 25:39Speaker 1: just get in this car. And I was like, don't
- 25:41Speaker 1: look at okay, No, I'm not getting in that car.
- 25:45Speaker 1: So I try a third time to go for the
- 25:48Speaker 1: door handle and he grabs the door and he slams
- 25:50Speaker 1: it shut and he gets in front of me and
- 25:52Speaker 1: he won't let me get in the car.
- 25:53Speaker 2: How far away was she or the car? She was
- 25:55Speaker 2: about like a car length away, car length.
- 25:58Speaker 1: Away over back behind the taxicab. And she keeps going
- 26:01Speaker 1: like motioning for me to get in this other car.
- 26:03Speaker 2: She's trying to vouch for him, like yeah, I'm a female.
- 26:05Speaker 2: See it's okay.
- 26:06Speaker 1: She's like it's okay, honey, come get in this car.
- 26:09Speaker 1: And then then the taxi driver, who I'm trying to
- 26:12Speaker 1: get into his car, starts fighting with the man that
- 26:14Speaker 1: won't let me in the car, and they're screaming at
- 26:16Speaker 1: each other. So then I'm just like, this is insanity.
- 26:19Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on. This woman's trying to
- 26:21Speaker 1: get me to get in another car. These guys are
- 26:22Speaker 1: screaming at each other. I thought they were going to
- 26:24Speaker 1: get in a physical altercation. So I go back into
- 26:27Speaker 1: Caesars and take the boys with me. The boys are scared.
- 26:30Speaker 1: I go to the valet. I'm like, I need security.
- 26:32Speaker 1: I'm trying to get in a taxi cab and this
- 26:34Speaker 1: guy won't let me get in the taxi. So then
- 26:36Speaker 1: security goes out there and it was I don't know,
- 26:40Speaker 1: it was a woman with a walkie talkie. She goes
- 26:42Speaker 1: out and she talks to the guy and I can
- 26:43Speaker 1: see him talking. He's talking to her and he's got shit.
- 26:46Speaker 2: All she had was what he said right.
- 26:48Speaker 1: Right, So I don't know what he said to her.
- 26:50Speaker 1: But she comes back in and she says to me
- 26:52Speaker 1: and she goes, ma'am, he was just trying to get
- 26:54Speaker 1: you in the other taxi cab. And I was like, well, ma'am,
- 26:57Speaker 1: let me tell you the other taxi cab. They black
- 27:00Speaker 1: car with no marking, thought it, I'm not getting in
- 27:04Speaker 1: that car. So then I stood there and I had
- 27:07Speaker 1: to wait until that guy finally left, and he eventually left,
- 27:11Speaker 1: and then the boys and I had to have an
- 27:13Speaker 1: escort take us out and find a new cab for us.
- 27:15Speaker 2: Anyway, Veas, what got an escort in Baas, I.
- 27:18Speaker 1: Got an escort. I got a male escort in Vegas
- 27:20Speaker 1: that escorted me to a taxi cab to make sure
- 27:22Speaker 1: I got into an actual taxi and I got to
- 27:25Speaker 1: the mandol A. But let me just tell you what
- 27:27Speaker 1: my husband said when I called him to tell him
- 27:28Speaker 1: that I almost got said.
- 27:30Speaker 2: Remember you don't remember what you said?
- 27:32Speaker 1: I called you and I was like, oh my gosh,
- 27:34Speaker 1: I almost got sex trafficked, and you go, aren't you
- 27:36Speaker 1: a little old to be? Said?
- 27:40Speaker 2: Sorry?
- 27:40Speaker 1: Thank you for that?
- 27:41Speaker 2: All right?
- 27:42Speaker 1: I appreciate that anyway, seriously, though, like a for real warning, women,
- 27:47Speaker 1: be aware of your surroundings totally, and be aware when
- 27:51Speaker 1: you take ubers. Always check the check plate a license plate.
- 27:56Speaker 1: Don't give them your name first, ask them who are
- 27:59Speaker 1: you looking for? Let them give you your name. Make
- 28:03Speaker 1: sure that the license plates match up. Make sure that
- 28:06Speaker 1: the description of the car matches up. And if you
- 28:08Speaker 1: ever get a little inkling that something's offered you feel weird,
- 28:11Speaker 1: do not get in the car. And I would also
- 28:13Speaker 1: say don't ever take an uber alone. I would say
- 28:15Speaker 1: go in groups, go with a friend, like, try not
- 28:18Speaker 1: to do that alone. It's it really was. I'm telling
- 28:21Speaker 1: you in.
- 28:23Speaker 2: Some ways, I'm glad you got exposed to that. So
- 28:29Speaker 2: we can all and when we talk, we pass along
- 28:31Speaker 2: to our kids. We can all be more careful because
- 28:33Speaker 2: I texted you know, my daughters and everything, So it's
- 28:36Speaker 2: like we can all learn from it.
- 28:38Speaker 1: Yes, And even if there is a woman who looks
- 28:41Speaker 1: kind and says sweetheart and tells you to get in
- 28:45Speaker 1: the car and tells you it's fine, I no, just run,
- 28:48Speaker 1: it's not even worth it. Are the not guilty verdicts justifiable?
- 29:01Speaker 1: This is a USA Today article. The abuse described in
- 29:04Speaker 1: the Diddy trial was real and criminal, but calling it
- 29:07Speaker 1: trafficking does not help survivors. None of this minimizes what happened.
- 29:13Speaker 1: The abuse described in the Comb's case was real, harmful,
- 29:16Speaker 1: and criminal, but redefining it as trafficking simply because other
- 29:20Speaker 1: laws didn't offer a viable path to justice does not
- 29:23Speaker 1: help survivors. It undermines the integrity of the trafficking framework
- 29:27Speaker 1: and could actually make it harder for victims of true
- 29:30Speaker 1: trafficking to get the support and legal recognition they need.
- 29:33Speaker 1: It's understandable why prosecutors turn to the Trafficking Victims Protection
- 29:38Speaker 1: Act because trafficking cases come with longer statutes of limitations,
- 29:43Speaker 1: more severe penalties, and more public support, and existing domestic
- 29:46Speaker 1: violence statues are often outdated or ill equipped to address
- 29:50Speaker 1: course of control, especially when the abuser is wealthy, powerful,
- 29:54Speaker 1: and legally savvy. Basically, what this article is saying, it's
- 29:57Speaker 1: trying to explain why what Combs did did not fit
- 30:00Speaker 1: under a trafficking standard. And basically what they're saying is
- 30:05Speaker 1: there is no legal recourse. It's either domestic violence recourse,
- 30:09Speaker 1: which doesn't actually fit because he is a man with
- 30:11Speaker 1: wealth and stature and he does use his money and
- 30:16Speaker 1: fame to get what he wants, but that his actions
- 30:20Speaker 1: don't actually fit under a trafficking legal standard. And that's
- 30:25Speaker 1: where this wasn't.
- 30:30Speaker 2: Well It's yeah, that was the weakest part of the
- 30:33Speaker 2: whole right.
- 30:34Speaker 1: But the problem is is that I believe that there
- 30:37Speaker 1: were times where it was consensual, and then there were
- 30:39Speaker 1: times where they didn't want to. And the problem is
- 30:42Speaker 1: is that the defense does a good job of pointing
- 30:45Speaker 1: out that there were times of consent when they enjoyed it,
- 30:48Speaker 1: or when they wanted to, or when they thanked him,
- 30:50Speaker 1: or when they were like, can't wait, And when you
- 30:53Speaker 1: put that in the jury's mind, that's what the jury
- 30:56Speaker 1: takes away. And it comes down to the jury has
- 30:58Speaker 1: to decide whether these witness credible. And even if they're
- 31:01Speaker 1: credible and they've gone through a lot, the problem is
- 31:05Speaker 1: is that they go.
- 31:05Speaker 2: Back, Man, he really won this one. You would have
- 31:08Speaker 2: thought there would have been one instant Why where yeah one,
- 31:13Speaker 2: and there was not one. They're saying it was all
- 31:16Speaker 2: like with consent, right, because that's what the Man Act is, right,
- 31:18Speaker 2: So that's all with consent. Unbelievable, Yeah, unbelievable. And you
- 31:24Speaker 2: know what worries me, or maybe it doesn't worry me,
- 31:26Speaker 2: But what I think is now he thinks, see, I
- 31:29Speaker 2: didn't do anything wrong. I can keep doing what I'm doing.
- 31:32Speaker 2: And just like he paid off everyone all the time,
- 31:35Speaker 2: and just it fueled him to keep doing what he
- 31:37Speaker 2: wanted to do because he can get away with it now,
- 31:41Speaker 2: he can get away with it here. Yeah.
- 31:43Speaker 1: Okay. Here's my question, though, after all of this that
- 31:45Speaker 1: he's been through, do you think he'll still have freak offs?
- 31:48Speaker 2: Well, no, One's gonna give me very few people that
- 31:50Speaker 2: want to go to something like that, Like anyone that
- 31:52Speaker 2: has a face that's like in Hollywood. Do you think
- 31:54Speaker 2: they're going to want to go to that and be
- 31:55Speaker 2: tied to him? No way. It'd be like no one's
- 31:58Speaker 2: going to Epstein Island after he got busted. Yeah, No
- 32:01Speaker 2: one wants to be seen with him.
- 32:03Speaker 1: So you're saying it's more of like the commit public
- 32:07Speaker 1: suicide around him.
- 32:08Speaker 2: Yeah, okay.
- 32:09Speaker 1: The other problem with this case was that no human
- 32:12Speaker 1: trafficking experts were called to the stand. One of the
- 32:15Speaker 1: most telling omissions in this trial was the absence of
- 32:18Speaker 1: a human trafficking expert witness, something virtually standard in most
- 32:21Speaker 1: trafficking prosecutions. In typical cases, these experts are brought in
- 32:25Speaker 1: to explain the dynamics of power and coercion, as well
- 32:28Speaker 1: as recruitment and control schemes typically used by traffickers. Here,
- 32:33Speaker 1: both the prosecution and defense opted not to call such witnesses,
- 32:38Speaker 1: likely because Comb's conduct defied those standard frameworks. Instead, prosecutors
- 32:43Speaker 1: called Don Hughes, who we talked about in previous episodes,
- 32:46Speaker 1: a psychological expert on interpersonal violence who previously testified on
- 32:50Speaker 1: behalf of Amber Heard and the Johnny Depp defamation case
- 32:53Speaker 1: that stem from allegations of domestic abuse. Diddy's alleged trafficking
- 32:58Speaker 1: enterprise did not resemble the cloud modern slavery narrative, and
- 33:02Speaker 1: a human trafficking expert might have inadvertently highlighted just how
- 33:06Speaker 1: unusual this case was for a trafficking prosecution. So basically
- 33:11Speaker 1: what they're saying is it makes sense that the prosecution
- 33:14Speaker 1: didn't call a trafficking expert because if you had a
- 33:17Speaker 1: trafficking expert come in and talk about what sex trafficking
- 33:21Speaker 1: looks like, it does not resemble his methodology, and therefore
- 33:26Speaker 1: it would have been detrimental to the prosecution if they
- 33:28Speaker 1: had done that instead of helping them in some way.
- 33:30Speaker 1: So it comes down to this article states that we
- 33:35Speaker 1: need stronger domestic violence laws, and you know what the
- 33:38Speaker 1: defense admits repeatedly, this is domestic violence.
- 33:41Speaker 2: Well, not only that, but you need education because these
- 33:43Speaker 2: people need to report it right away. Not wait until
- 33:46Speaker 2: much later. I mean, how many people were at these
- 33:48Speaker 2: freak offs that probably could testify or show text messages
- 33:53Speaker 2: or do something that would have helped the prosecution. But
- 33:56Speaker 2: they chose not to for whatever reason.
- 33:58Speaker 1: Well, they chose not to because I think he's a
- 34:00Speaker 1: scary man.
- 34:01Speaker 2: Well yeah, yeah, that's the reason.
- 34:02Speaker 1: I mean, you know, Cassie goes against him and starts
- 34:05Speaker 1: dating somebody else, and he tries that he breaks into
- 34:08Speaker 1: kid Cutty's house allegedly, and you know, burns up his
- 34:13Speaker 1: Porsche with a Molotov cocktail allegedly, you know, and then
- 34:17Speaker 1: Capricorn Clark talks about how he you know, used a
- 34:21Speaker 1: gun to brand a shit to get her in the
- 34:23Speaker 1: car and that was kidnapping.
- 34:25Speaker 2: You don't think this was going to be way more
- 34:28Speaker 2: cocky now it's a big c I you.
- 34:31Speaker 1: Don't think so. You think he's going to be cocky
- 34:33Speaker 1: here instead of humbled by all of this. I feel
- 34:35Speaker 1: like he, Yeah, he did be more careful now, I mean,
- 34:37Speaker 1: you think he's just going to keep doing this stuff
- 34:39Speaker 1: that he does.
- 34:40Speaker 2: He should He did it wrong. He should have been
- 34:41Speaker 2: more like Charlie Sheen and has been out in the
- 34:44Speaker 2: open being like eh, I got these ladies. Yeah, paim,
- 34:47Speaker 2: they love it and this is all the open He's
- 34:49Speaker 2: walking with it one in each arm. He's like he
- 34:51Speaker 2: was public and it was like this is my lifestyle.
- 34:53Speaker 2: You love me, and he was being funny.
- 34:56Speaker 1: Yeah, but the difference was like he was just sleeping
- 34:58Speaker 1: with prostitutes.
- 34:59Speaker 2: I know he I know, so no one could come
- 35:02Speaker 2: forward and make it like it was not consensual because
- 35:06Speaker 2: he was so out there was so yep, that's Charlie Sheen.
- 35:09Speaker 2: Where's this? This is like no one knew this about
- 35:11Speaker 2: puff Day, at least the general public didn't, and all
- 35:13Speaker 2: of a sudden it comes out, so everyone wants to know more.
- 35:15Speaker 1: Well, no one knew about it because no one talked
- 35:17Speaker 1: about it because of how violent he is. Yeah, I
- 35:20Speaker 1: mean he he beat these women up. He was physically abusive.
- 35:23Speaker 2: Well, then maybe I should say that that's the difference
- 35:25Speaker 2: between him and Charlie Sheen. Charlie Sheen was more.
- 35:27Speaker 1: Of a well he was just open and let flag fly.
- 35:31Speaker 1: But he also wasn't as far as I know, I
- 35:33Speaker 1: don't think he was violent.
- 35:35Speaker 2: No.
- 35:35Speaker 1: Basically, what this comes down to is we need stronger
- 35:37Speaker 1: domestic violence laws. Prosecutors may have used, that's trafficking because
- 35:42Speaker 1: the statute of limitations had already expired on more direct
- 35:45Speaker 1: charges such as sexual assault or battery.
- 35:48Speaker 2: Yeah, and what's the statue limitation. I think it's like
- 35:50Speaker 2: a year or something, right, see, whatever it is. This
- 35:52Speaker 2: is what's crap is he can find the videos, he
- 35:55Speaker 2: can find the evidence, he can shut them up for
- 35:58Speaker 2: a year whatever the statue limitation is, and then it laps,
- 36:02Speaker 2: and then now it's over. I mean that I don't know.
- 36:05Speaker 2: I don't know about one year.
- 36:08Speaker 1: But that's why whatever, that is why they pushed so
- 36:11Speaker 1: hard for the rico and conspiracy charges, and that's why.
- 36:14Speaker 2: They tried to Well, then I would say that the
- 36:16Speaker 2: prosecution just didn't do their job. Maybe it was an overreach.
- 36:21Speaker 2: Maybe maybe they tried, they got ahead of themselves.
- 36:24Speaker 1: It's not a reflection of the survivor's credibility. It's a
- 36:27Speaker 1: failure of the legal system to account for how trauma
- 36:30Speaker 1: actually works. Many victims of intimate partner violence, especially when
- 36:34Speaker 1: facing fear, manipulation or public scrutiny, wait years to come forward.
- 36:38Speaker 1: That's not weakness, it's human. But the law hasn't caught
- 36:41Speaker 1: up when time runs out on prosecuting real crimes. Prosecutors
- 36:44Speaker 1: sometimes look for workarounds, and the trafficking Statute offers one,
- 36:49Speaker 1: but it wasn't designed to handle domestic abuse or intimate
- 36:52Speaker 1: partner exploitation. I think that's where the sex trafficking failed.
- 36:56Speaker 1: Was it came down to It's not your typical sex
- 36:59Speaker 1: trafficking where someone is taken by force or by fraud
- 37:03Speaker 1: and then put into this world of sex trafficking. You're
- 37:05Speaker 1: talking about women that were his girlfriend right that they were.
- 37:08Speaker 1: They had times where, you know, the defense shared these
- 37:13Speaker 1: beautiful texts between them about how in love they were
- 37:16Speaker 1: and how they needed each other, and how happy they
- 37:19Speaker 1: were together, and how they were addicted to one another.
- 37:22Speaker 1: And it's hard to take that when you hear that
- 37:24Speaker 1: and you read those texts and then put it into
- 37:26Speaker 1: a sex trafficking framework. And that's where the problem was.
- 37:31Speaker 1: Let's get a little bit back to RICO. We did
- 37:34Speaker 1: talk about this earlier, but maybe let's just get into
- 37:36Speaker 1: it a little bit more. Racketeering is the participation in
- 37:38Speaker 1: an illegal scheme under the Racketeer, Influence and Corrupt Organization
- 37:42Speaker 1: Statute or RICO as a way for the US government
- 37:45Speaker 1: to prosecute organizations that contribute to criminal activity. The term
- 37:50Speaker 1: racketeering originates from the word racket, which originally referred to
- 37:54Speaker 1: dishonest or fraudulent business schemes, often involving extortion, coercion, or intimidation.
- 38:00Speaker 1: Notorious gangsters like al Capone built criminal empires using racketeering
- 38:06Speaker 1: tactics such as protection rackets, illegal gambling, and bribery. Crimes
- 38:11Speaker 1: must form a pattern, usually involving two or more acts.
- 38:14Speaker 1: We talked about that two or more predicate acts within
- 38:16Speaker 1: a ten year period to constitute racketeering under RICO. And
- 38:21Speaker 1: then also not just the two crimes, because I feel
- 38:24Speaker 1: like those two criminal crimes within a ten year period
- 38:26Speaker 1: were established. It's also establishing that it was a criminal
- 38:30Speaker 1: enterprise with a common goal and that everybody.
- 38:33Speaker 2: Was involved, not just there was a business and two crimes.
- 38:36Speaker 1: Right yeah. Did He's response after the verdict was read
- 38:40Speaker 1: Upon hearing that he was acquitted on three of the
- 38:42Speaker 1: five charges, did he got on his knees and placed
- 38:44Speaker 1: his head down in a chair in a prayer like position.
- 38:47Speaker 1: According to he started after they read the verdict because
- 38:52Speaker 1: he was not guilty on the higher charges.
- 38:54Speaker 2: Off the RICO as a gesture of thinking.
- 38:59Speaker 1: The ice thanking God, per the news organization thinking his God,
- 39:03Speaker 1: which is the thinking himself.
- 39:05Speaker 2: He's like, thank you, Satan, I knew you would, you
- 39:08Speaker 2: would save me. Now let's continue the work. Okay.
- 39:12Speaker 1: Comb's family stood in the courtroom slapping, clapping, not slapping. Sorry,
- 39:18Speaker 1: they were clapping. Nobody was slapping anybody. Combe's family stood
- 39:21Speaker 1: in the courtroom clapping and cheering for the music Mogul's fate.
- 39:24Speaker 1: The defense attorneys hugged each other while Comb's hugged lords.
- 39:27Speaker 2: Okay, this is the problem. So his daughters, I know,
- 39:30Speaker 2: at one point, were at the trial, right.
- 39:32Speaker 1: They were there in the very beginning.
- 39:34Speaker 2: So get this, what's he going to do? Tell his dollars, No, no, no,
- 39:38Speaker 2: it wasn't criminal. All my freak offs and my behavior
- 39:42Speaker 2: and urinating in people's mouths or whatever he did.
- 39:45Speaker 1: I think that was a sex workers whatever.
- 39:48Speaker 2: Whatever. He's telling his girls.
- 39:50Speaker 1: Babe, it's all okay.
- 39:52Speaker 2: It was consensual. So I'm your daddy, it's okay. I mean,
- 39:56Speaker 2: so you're saying it's still bad, and they're they're cheering, Yay,
- 40:01Speaker 2: he didn't it wasn't criminal. They all want he's just
- 40:04Speaker 2: a freak. I mean, that's that's what they're saying.
- 40:06Speaker 1: I don't I couldn't even understand why his kids were
- 40:09Speaker 1: in the courtroom, even though they were there in the beginning.
- 40:11Speaker 2: It was probably a tactic.
- 40:12Speaker 1: They were there was a tactic.
- 40:14Speaker 2: To tug at the jury's hearts, like saying, yeah, like he's.
- 40:16Speaker 1: A father, but but is that something I mean, is
- 40:24Speaker 1: that something that you want your.
- 40:27Speaker 2: No? But I mean not that they couldn't see it
- 40:29Speaker 2: in the public, you know, you know, tabloids and everything.
- 40:32Speaker 2: But that's what I'm saying, is what's he gonna do?
- 40:34Speaker 2: He tells his daughters like and his sons, Yeah, I
- 40:38Speaker 2: did all those things, but it was you know, I'm
- 40:41Speaker 2: just a freak. I'm not a criminal.
- 40:43Speaker 1: Well that I mean, that's basically that's basically the defense
- 40:46Speaker 1: is closing argument.
- 40:48Speaker 2: He tells kids that he can't go home, be like, no,
- 40:50Speaker 2: not really, I didn't do any of that, all right.
- 40:51Speaker 1: So what happens next? Now that Comb's verdicts has been delivered,
- 40:55Speaker 1: The US District Judge are An Aaron Supermanian will review
- 40:58Speaker 1: both the prosecution and defences submitted sentencing recommendations. Next, a
- 41:03Speaker 1: probation department will offer a sentencing recommendation after their review
- 41:07Speaker 1: of the case. The Department will consider multiple factors, including
- 41:10Speaker 1: Comb's behavior while being detained throughout his federal trial, and
- 41:13Speaker 1: the fact that this is his first conviction of this
- 41:16Speaker 1: type of charge. Okay, first of all, this is his first.
- 41:19Speaker 2: Cons I mean, that's that's stupid, because like, hey, you're
- 41:22Speaker 2: on it was my first murder. Like, seriously, cut me
- 41:24Speaker 2: a break. It was my first.
- 41:25Speaker 1: Okay, it's his first conviction. But we know that this
- 41:27Speaker 1: has been going back since like the nineties.
- 41:29Speaker 2: And there's also this is an opportunity where the judge,
- 41:32Speaker 2: I don't know what they'll do, but they have an
- 41:33Speaker 2: opportunity to give them the max. Like, you know what,
- 41:36Speaker 2: you didn't get convicted all these crimes, but you're a
- 41:37Speaker 2: nut and you're a freak and you're a menace to society.
- 41:40Speaker 2: And they put him what's the max he could get?
- 41:42Speaker 1: The max is twenty years, so it will be ten
- 41:44Speaker 1: years on each count. So the max that he could
- 41:46Speaker 1: get his.
- 41:46Speaker 2: Twenty years, which I'm not saying he's gonna get that,
- 41:48Speaker 2: he's not likely.
- 41:49Speaker 1: The judge will then review that recommendation until his sentencing hearing.
- 41:53Speaker 1: Comb's defense team has requested that he'd be released on
- 41:56Speaker 1: a million dollars bond. They also requested a bail package
- 41:59Speaker 1: in which she willingly surrenders his passport and restricts his
- 42:02Speaker 1: travel to Florida, California, New York, and New Jersey. However,
- 42:06Speaker 1: the judge denied Shawancombe's bail. He said that detention is
- 42:10Speaker 1: required based on Combe's conviction. He did not hear any
- 42:14Speaker 1: arguments from the lawyers. The defendant's violence was starkly depicted
- 42:18Speaker 1: in the twenty sixteen Intercontinental video, the judge said, referencing
- 42:22Speaker 1: the hotel security footage that showed him physically assaulting Cassie Venturing.
- 42:26Speaker 1: The judge called Comb's domestic violence a quote propensity for violence.
- 42:31Speaker 1: It is impossible for the defendant to demonstrate that he
- 42:34Speaker 1: possesses no danger to the community. So that's why his
- 42:37Speaker 1: bail was denied.
- 42:38Speaker 2: Because he sounds so privileged. You're like, oh, I only
- 42:40Speaker 2: travel these four states where I have big homes. I mean,
- 42:44Speaker 2: I'll only go to my mansions, right, wasn't it didn't
- 42:51Speaker 2: he also say, like the attorney said, he wouldn't, he
- 42:53Speaker 2: wouldn't engage with prostitution. I saw that somewhere. I'm like, well,
- 42:58Speaker 2: I'd hope not. That's like criminal activity and not supposed
- 43:00Speaker 2: to be doing that.
- 43:01Speaker 1: Yeah, they're like he won't sleep with prostitutes.
- 43:05Speaker 2: Whatever, I should make it like, okay, fine, you want
- 43:07Speaker 2: out on bail. You're gonna live in this little apartment.
- 43:09Speaker 2: You're gonna live on minimum wage. Oh, you have no
- 43:12Speaker 2: contact with anyone.
- 43:13Speaker 1: If you don't get prostitutes or free and money, right,
- 43:16Speaker 1: you gotta live.
- 43:16Speaker 2: Like now, do you want to get out? Actually, that's
- 43:18Speaker 2: where he is now, he's going to sell. That's what
- 43:20Speaker 2: he's still.
- 43:21Speaker 1: The US District Judge Aaron Supermanian Setcomb sentencing on two
- 43:25Speaker 1: counts of transportation to engage in prostitution for October third
- 43:29Speaker 1: at ten am. So he is still in prison. He
- 43:31Speaker 1: is going to remain there until October third. He then
- 43:34Speaker 1: will be sentenced. My guess is he'll get five years.
- 43:38Speaker 2: Well, he's already served how much time.
- 43:40Speaker 1: I think it's over a year now.
- 43:41Speaker 2: I think it was ten months I saw this morning. Yeah,
- 43:43Speaker 2: so it's ten months.
- 43:44Speaker 1: He'll get time.
- 43:45Speaker 2: Ser so he'll get Yeah, that'll count, right, I don't know,
- 43:49Speaker 2: you know, we're gonna find out, is it which way
- 43:51Speaker 2: is the judge going to go? Or is it. I
- 43:53Speaker 2: bet the judge is probably gonna just give him like
- 43:55Speaker 2: a year or two.
- 43:56Speaker 1: You think a year or two.
- 43:58Speaker 2: I don't know. I mean, these charges aren't really that horrific.
- 44:01Speaker 2: They're not paper any But.
- 44:02Speaker 1: Also, the judge did sit there for six weeks or
- 44:05Speaker 1: eight week however many weeks it was, and listened to
- 44:07Speaker 1: testimony after testimony of the drug.
- 44:09Speaker 2: Yeah, but how long has this judge been on the bench.
- 44:11Speaker 2: If he had been on there for twenty years, he's
- 44:13Speaker 2: heard it all, and so it's not shocked.
- 44:16Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if he's seen it all. Because
- 44:18Speaker 1: they showed videos of the freak offs.
- 44:21Speaker 2: Oh they did, yeh.
- 44:22Speaker 1: So, and let me tell you this. This is interesting
- 44:23Speaker 1: because I think this is interesting to talk about. The
- 44:25Speaker 1: prosecution showed small clips of the freak offs, small clips
- 44:30Speaker 1: that the jury's got to see the jury. The defense
- 44:34Speaker 1: showed a forty minute long clip of a freak off.
- 44:39Speaker 1: Now what do you think they were doing?
- 44:42Speaker 2: Who's they the defense?
- 44:43Speaker 1: What's the difference? Why is the prosecution showing short.
- 44:46Speaker 2: Little cud They probably show what works for the prosecution,
- 44:49Speaker 2: and then the forty minute shows everyone going this is
- 44:52Speaker 2: the best party ever, we love coming here or whatever.
- 44:55Speaker 2: They're saying, so it shows consent.
- 44:57Speaker 1: Right, So the defense showing a long freak off of
- 45:02Speaker 1: forty minute freak off, it's going to give you all
- 45:05Speaker 1: this background and context.
- 45:07Speaker 2: In fact, it's even worse because then it's like, Oh,
- 45:09Speaker 2: the prosecution's being selective in what they're showing us. What
- 45:12Speaker 2: else are they not showing us? So it looked even
- 45:15Speaker 2: worse if the prosecutor showed a few clips and then
- 45:17Speaker 2: they say, no, let's play the whole thing.
- 45:19Speaker 1: Yeah, are those going to be released?
- 45:23Speaker 2: Would they can be on YouTube? Would you like?
- 45:27Speaker 1: No?
- 45:27Speaker 2: So I want I just want to know what's going on.
- 45:29Speaker 1: Okay, first of all, here they obviously there they were.
- 45:33Speaker 1: The court was closed. But I saw drawings and it
- 45:36Speaker 1: showed the jurors, you know, watching you know, I don't tell.
- 45:40Speaker 2: Me you're going to get anything out of the paintings. No,
- 45:43Speaker 2: but paint a freak off, you know, it's like, look,
- 45:46Speaker 2: it's oil painting. It's like a freak off.
- 45:48Speaker 1: No, they didn't paint the freak offs, but they showed
- 45:50Speaker 1: images that they, you know, that the artists had painted
- 45:53Speaker 1: of like the jury looking you know, and looking at it.
- 45:56Speaker 1: And then I watched someone giving their their take because
- 46:00Speaker 1: they were in the courtroom when it was going on,
- 46:02Speaker 1: and in my mind, I'm thinking, how awkward, you know,
- 46:05Speaker 1: how awkward is that that you're sitting there and you're
- 46:08Speaker 1: on the jury and you're watching, Like, first of all,
- 46:12Speaker 1: it's hard for me to even visualize what these freak
- 46:14Speaker 1: offs are. I mean, all the baby oil and the
- 46:16Speaker 1: astro glide in the I bet Sean Combs was sitting there, gone,
- 46:19Speaker 1: oh yeah, I remember that day.
- 46:20Speaker 2: That was a good one.
- 46:21Speaker 1: And they're just watching it like you're just who took
- 46:24Speaker 1: the videos? I don't. I'm probably an assistant. It's probably
- 46:28Speaker 1: one of the freak Off employees that you were talking about.
- 46:31Speaker 2: There's probably the Freakoff Department's archived.
- 46:34Speaker 1: Yes, So I just I cannot. I was so uncomfortable
- 46:39Speaker 1: thinking about the jury just sitting there for forty minutes
- 46:42Speaker 1: watching the porn. I know, in a.
- 46:45Speaker 2: Courtroom with a job, you were going to have to
- 46:48Speaker 2: take a light deitecture one day, like have you ever
- 46:50Speaker 2: seen porn?
- 46:50Speaker 1: He's like, uh, does Dinny's trial account?
- 46:56Speaker 2: What if they go home and now they're like, you know,
- 46:58Speaker 2: like it like having regular like sex with their wife. Oh,
- 47:02Speaker 2: they're not the same, Like now they're what if they
- 47:04Speaker 2: all come home and they're like ordering baby oil, Like
- 47:06Speaker 2: it's changed their perspective on things. I don't know, but
- 47:09Speaker 2: I just got an immune to it.
- 47:11Speaker 1: It was awkward for me to think about the jury
- 47:14Speaker 1: watching a forty minute clip.
- 47:16Speaker 2: Or the sonographer the snoga sitting there like typing it
- 47:20Speaker 2: all out, you know, no idea.
- 47:24Speaker 1: Okay, let's just wrap up.
- 47:25Speaker 2: The bailiffs were probably all signing up like I want Tuesday. No,
- 47:28Speaker 2: you get you know, I want Tuesday. That's why they're
- 47:30Speaker 2: going to show the videos. The bailiffs, Oh yeah, you're
- 47:33Speaker 2: all about this. I don't know. Well, they probably watch
- 47:36Speaker 2: a bunch of boring They probably go to a bunch
- 47:38Speaker 2: of boring criminal charges. All right, So all right, so
- 47:41Speaker 2: is he going to jail or what?
- 47:42Speaker 1: I think he's going to serve time? Yes, but a
- 47:45Speaker 1: lot of time.
- 47:45Speaker 2: Now years, let's predict. You think five years, five years,
- 47:49Speaker 2: I'm guessing, I sures hope I'm wrong. Two years. So
- 47:52Speaker 2: what do you think? When is it? October third? Is
- 47:55Speaker 2: the sentencing hearing? Yeah?
- 47:57Speaker 1: All right, I know just space of on my DMS
- 48:01Speaker 1: that everyone is very upset by this verdict, and I
- 48:04Speaker 1: think it's important to just distinguish between morality and legality,
- 48:10Speaker 1: and I think we'll just end it with that. Clearly,
- 48:13Speaker 1: Diddy is not a moral man. No, he's not an
- 48:16Speaker 1: upstanding citizen. He is violent, He is atrocious. He should
- 48:22Speaker 1: not be walking amongst us. I think he should be
- 48:26Speaker 1: in prison. That's just my personal thought. I don't think.
- 48:30Speaker 1: I think he uses his wealth and power to intimidate,
- 48:33Speaker 1: to force. He's violent. I you know that nineteen ninety
- 48:38Speaker 1: nine shooting. I'm sure he was involved and he got
- 48:40Speaker 1: out of the yeah, oh yeah. I think he's been,
- 48:43Speaker 1: you know, involved in criminal activity.
- 48:46Speaker 2: And what he wants to do in that case. We
- 48:49Speaker 2: hope he serves some time. We hope the civil suits
- 48:51Speaker 2: kind of drain him, and hopefully no one really wants
- 48:54Speaker 2: associate themselves with him anymore. I mean, it's not it's
- 48:56Speaker 2: like he said, it's legally Burnette, it's not morally Burnette.
- 48:59Speaker 1: It's not moral Brunette. So that is the difference. That
- 49:02Speaker 1: is why the verdict is the way it is the
- 49:05Speaker 1: letter of the law. At the end of the day,
- 49:08Speaker 1: I don't think the elements were met for the rico
- 49:11Speaker 1: charges and for the sex trafficking. The article that we
- 49:14Speaker 1: talked about was a really good analysis of why what
- 49:19Speaker 1: he did didn't fit under sex trafficking and then why
- 49:21Speaker 1: the domestic abuse statutes don't work because of the Statute
- 49:25Speaker 1: of limitations, and so he fell into the middle of
- 49:27Speaker 1: that and he just slipped through the cracks.
- 49:29Speaker 2: Are you going to get canceled like all his music?
- 49:31Speaker 2: Like Bill Cosby? You can't, you can't watch the Cosby Show,
- 49:33Speaker 2: you can't do anything. I mean, he should. I know,
- 49:36Speaker 2: they should have they started that already, do you know.
- 49:38Speaker 1: I don't know. I didn't ask the canceling department, apartment.
- 49:42Speaker 1: I'll work on that. But anyway, again, just to reiterate
- 49:48Speaker 1: the difference between moral and legal, this was more the
- 49:51Speaker 1: people are disgusted because this is more of a moral issue.
- 49:53Speaker 1: And for what it's worth, he's still in jail right
- 49:55Speaker 1: now and he is, so we will follow it and
- 49:58Speaker 1: if any if there's anything else that comes out, we'll
- 50:00Speaker 1: definitely talk about it. But we will follow it until
- 50:02Speaker 1: October third and see what the judge sentence him.
- 50:04Speaker 2: So there you go.
- 50:14Speaker 1: All right, let's get a little bit into Brian Coberger
- 50:16Speaker 1: because a lot of you have been reaching out to
- 50:18Speaker 1: me about that. In the Idaho murders, if you have
- 50:20Speaker 1: not listened, you can go back and find. I mean
- 50:22Speaker 1: I think you can go back and find. We did
- 50:24Speaker 1: an episode on the Idaho murders, which I actually enjoyed
- 50:28Speaker 1: doing that episode because it's so it was so old.
- 50:31Speaker 2: Well, it a evidence, It was a lot of evidence
- 50:33Speaker 2: to discuss.
- 50:33Speaker 1: It was very I feel like we did a very
- 50:35Speaker 1: detailed analysis. We talked about it, We talked about timeline
- 50:38Speaker 1: and everything. So Brian Coberger was supposed to go on
- 50:42Speaker 1: to trial in August, but apparently I think this was
- 50:45Speaker 1: yesterday he pled guilty. So Brian Coberger, the thirty year
- 50:48Speaker 1: old criminal justice PhD student charged with the murders of
- 50:52Speaker 1: four University of Idaho students back in twenty twenty two,
- 50:55Speaker 1: admitted to the crimes in court on Wednesday, July second,
- 50:58Speaker 1: before formally entering a guilty plea. Remember, he was arrested
- 51:03Speaker 1: back in December of twenty twenty two in Pennsylvania after
- 51:05Speaker 1: forensic evidence linked him to the murders, including DNA found
- 51:10Speaker 1: on a knife sheath at the crime scene and cell
- 51:13Speaker 1: phone data placing him near the victim's home multiple times.
- 51:16Speaker 1: Remember we talked about the knife sheaf they that was
- 51:19Speaker 1: left behind. It had DNA on it. They used the
- 51:21Speaker 1: DNA to they ran it through those to.
- 51:24Speaker 2: A system like the familial like DNA system.
- 51:27Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think they got a hit on his
- 51:30Speaker 1: dad and then they and then I remember they went
- 51:32Speaker 1: to his residence and they went through the trash right
- 51:35Speaker 1: to get his DNA and then that's how they linked
- 51:38Speaker 1: him to the crimes. Also, the cell phone data showed
- 51:42Speaker 1: that he had driven by their home multiple times, phone
- 51:46Speaker 1: and things like that. As part of his plea deal,
- 51:49Speaker 1: Coburger pleaded guilty to four counts of first degree murder
- 51:52Speaker 1: and the stabbings of Ethan, Xanna Madison, and Kayley, who
- 51:55Speaker 1: were killed in their home. This was a college house
- 51:58Speaker 1: in Moscow, Idaho, during the early morning hours of November thirteenth,
- 52:01Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. He was also charged with one count
- 52:04Speaker 1: of burglary. Coburger faces up to four consecutive life sentences
- 52:08Speaker 1: without the possibility a parole, one for each murder charge
- 52:12Speaker 1: and a ten year sentence for the burglary charge. With
- 52:14Speaker 1: this deal, Coburger gives up all rights to appeal, making
- 52:17Speaker 1: the sentences final.
- 52:20Speaker 2: Uh, he's never coming out then, right, Oh, no, he never.
- 52:24Speaker 2: If he pled guilty, that means he knew. I mean,
- 52:27Speaker 2: he is his defense duty. He's probably told him, there's
- 52:29Speaker 2: so much evidence against you. Yeah, you're screwed, and the
- 52:32Speaker 2: only thing you can do is try to not get
- 52:34Speaker 2: the death penalty.
- 52:35Speaker 1: If Coburger was convicted a trial, prosecutors were seeking the
- 52:38Speaker 1: death penalty, likely by firing squad, making the stakes extremely high.
- 52:42Speaker 1: Coburger's defense pushed for delays, tried to block most of
- 52:45Speaker 1: the prosecution's evidence against him, and even suggested a list
- 52:49Speaker 1: of alternative perpetrators who they claim could have committed the killings,
- 52:53Speaker 1: but the judge denied most of their motions, allowing a
- 52:56Speaker 1: tidal wave of evidence to be presented against Coburger at
- 53:00Speaker 1: his trial, which was scheduled for next month. I think
- 53:04Speaker 1: a lot of these motions that they were filing try
- 53:06Speaker 1: to get evidence withheld. None of it stood stood, and
- 53:10Speaker 1: I think that's when they were like, look like the
- 53:13Speaker 1: mountain of evidence against.
- 53:15Speaker 2: You is, Yeah, you're no Diddy Combs, but it's.
- 53:19Speaker 1: A lot, so you might want to take a complete
- 53:21Speaker 1: deal good. There was overwhelming evidence against Coburger. Prosecutors had
- 53:25Speaker 1: amassed DNA evidence, including the knife sheet with his DNA
- 53:29Speaker 1: cell phone geolocation data linking him to the crime scene,
- 53:32Speaker 1: Amazon purchase history that showed he bought the knife and
- 53:35Speaker 1: sharpener a few months before the murders, and video footage
- 53:38Speaker 1: of a car that looked just like his circling the
- 53:40Speaker 1: home of the victims. I don't remember which college student.
- 53:43Speaker 1: But she also saw him. Remember he had the black
- 53:47Speaker 1: mask on and she saw him in the house and
- 53:49Speaker 1: she said he had the bushy eyebrows. Then he took
- 53:51Speaker 1: that selfie the next morning, Yeah, which the prosecution wanted
- 53:55Speaker 1: to enter that showed that he had bushy eyebrows, and
- 53:57Speaker 1: I know the defense tried to suppress that. They got
- 54:00Speaker 1: it in. Also, remember he said he was like, what
- 54:03Speaker 1: did you say? He liked to look at stars or something,
- 54:05Speaker 1: and that's why he was driving around at three am
- 54:07Speaker 1: around their house like he was a stargazer.
- 54:09Speaker 2: Or something like that.
- 54:12Speaker 1: The plea was accepted on July second, twenty twenty five
- 54:14Speaker 1: by Judge Steven Hipler. He will formally sentence Coburger on
- 54:18Speaker 1: July twenty third and Boise, Idaho. The sentencing is expected
- 54:21Speaker 1: to take one day and victim impact statements will be
- 54:24Speaker 1: read at that time. I don't know what do you
- 54:27Speaker 1: think about someone like that? Being able to take a
- 54:28Speaker 1: plea deal. I mean, I understand that it alleviates the
- 54:32Speaker 1: cost on the state on the court system. Yeah, but
- 54:36Speaker 1: it is taxpayers money.
- 54:38Speaker 2: Isn't it up to the victims' families too? Or is
- 54:40Speaker 2: it just a courtesy thing where they usually talk to
- 54:43Speaker 2: the victims families to see if they're okay with it?
- 54:45Speaker 2: Because I've seen that happen before. I don't know if
- 54:48Speaker 2: it's a legal thing or if it's just a courtesy
- 54:50Speaker 2: thing to say, are you okay with allowing for a
- 54:53Speaker 2: plea deal?
- 54:54Speaker 1: You know, I don't know if there were discussions with
- 54:55Speaker 1: the family before the plea deal.
- 54:57Speaker 2: But I know that that does happen on occasion, right, Yeah,
- 55:00Speaker 2: because then sometimes the family would be like, we don't
- 55:02Speaker 2: want to testify, we don't want to be a part
- 55:04Speaker 2: of it. We just want to put it to rest
- 55:06Speaker 2: and go home. Yeah. I don't know if that that
- 55:09Speaker 2: took place.
- 55:09Speaker 1: In this way, I don't know, But you know, on
- 55:11Speaker 1: one hand, it's like I want I wanted this guy
- 55:14Speaker 1: to go to trial because I had so many questions.
- 55:16Speaker 1: Remember when we did the episode, I was like, I
- 55:18Speaker 1: can't wait for trial because I feel like a lot
- 55:20Speaker 1: of things will be.
- 55:20Speaker 2: Answered, well, I think, aren't all those things answering now
- 55:23Speaker 2: that he pled guilty.
- 55:25Speaker 1: No, No, I had questions that had to do with
- 55:29Speaker 1: when she saw him in the house, Why did it
- 55:31Speaker 1: take so long before she called the police. Then they
- 55:33Speaker 1: were in the room together with those those Yeah, I
- 55:37Speaker 1: mean maybe some of the obviously they were tight lit
- 55:39Speaker 1: because they were going to trial, So I was I
- 55:41Speaker 1: was looking forward to the trial.
- 55:43Speaker 2: There'll be something the questions.
- 55:45Speaker 1: That I had about this case were hopefully answered. So
- 55:48Speaker 1: now that there's a plea deal, I don't know. Legal
- 55:51Speaker 1: experts weigh in on this case. Gretchen Ingle, the executive
- 55:54Speaker 1: director of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation, said that
- 55:57Speaker 1: in her experience, it's pretty common for a plea deal
- 55:59Speaker 1: to come together at the very last minute. However, she
- 56:02Speaker 1: said she is a bit mystified that prosecutors in this
- 56:05Speaker 1: case agreed to a deal just some month before trial.
- 56:08Speaker 1: One reason could be that there's a weakness in the case.
- 56:11Speaker 1: CBS News legal contributor Caroline policy Policy said the state
- 56:16Speaker 1: of Idaho will benefit from the plea deal, especially since
- 56:19Speaker 1: Coberg will not be able to appeal, and that may
- 56:21Speaker 1: also offer relief to the families they're getting a conviction
- 56:25Speaker 1: right away. They're getting the absolute guarantee of life behind
- 56:27Speaker 1: bars without the possibility of parole. It costs way more
- 56:31Speaker 1: money to have a capital case to impose the death
- 56:33Speaker 1: penalty than it does to have somebody serve life behind bars.
- 56:36Speaker 2: Wait, he agreed, so he's plea He pled guilty and
- 56:42Speaker 2: he we already know that the outcome will be life
- 56:45Speaker 2: behind bars.
- 56:46Speaker 1: Well that's what his plea deal was. They took the
- 56:48Speaker 1: death penalty.
- 56:49Speaker 2: Well, okay, but sometimes sometimes there's plea deals and you
- 56:51Speaker 2: don't know what the sentencing is, no, and you just
- 56:54Speaker 2: accept it. You you agree to accept whatever it is
- 56:58Speaker 2: that the judge throws at you. In this case, part
- 57:01Speaker 2: of the plea deal was the sentencing.
- 57:02Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it was take the death penalty off
- 57:05Speaker 1: of the table. I'll plead guilty and then I'll just
- 57:08Speaker 1: get a life sentence.
- 57:09Speaker 2: Without the possibility because you know that happens. Sometimes they'll
- 57:11Speaker 2: plead guilty but you don't know what you're sensing is.
- 57:14Speaker 2: But you don't know what the sensing is. And that's
- 57:16Speaker 2: the risk you take, because I've seen that with usually
- 57:18Speaker 2: like dui cases and stuff. Right, and then they'll be
- 57:21Speaker 2: like Okay, I'll plead guilty. Then they get like twenty.
- 57:23Speaker 1: Years and like what, I guess the benefits of him
- 57:26Speaker 1: taking a plea deal is it costs way more money
- 57:28Speaker 1: to have a capital case to impose the death penalty
- 57:30Speaker 1: than it doesn't have somebody serve life behind bars.
- 57:32Speaker 2: So, contrary to what people think, it's more expensive to
- 57:38Speaker 2: push someone for capital punishment than it is to put
- 57:41Speaker 2: him in jail for the rest of their life.
- 57:42Speaker 1: Part of the rationale that the State of Idaho and
- 57:44Speaker 1: prosecutors said was we're saving these families the anguish of
- 57:48Speaker 1: going through the appeals process. This would not be a
- 57:51Speaker 1: quick process. I mean, a capital case is always has
- 57:54Speaker 1: an automatic appeal.
- 57:55Speaker 2: Oh after appeal, yeah, so autumn. But in this case,
- 58:00Speaker 2: he pleads guilty, he goes, he gets sentenced, as you said,
- 58:04Speaker 2: he goes to jail the next day and it's over. Yeah,
- 58:06Speaker 2: and now hopefully the families, you know, find some peace
- 58:10Speaker 2: or just be able to move on, which you know
- 58:12Speaker 2: is easier said than done.
- 58:14Speaker 1: The plea deal also allows the state to have judicial
- 58:16Speaker 1: resources and avoids the uncertainty of a trial and sentencing.
- 58:20Speaker 1: This is a slam dunk case by all accounts. The
- 58:22Speaker 1: DNA evidence on the knife sheath in particular. There's so
- 58:26Speaker 1: much evidence here, she said. But trials there's always a
- 58:28Speaker 1: wild card, right, There's always a chance that there wouldn't
- 58:30Speaker 1: be a conviction. Then there's the death penalty isn't necessarily
- 58:33Speaker 1: a sure thing either. However, the lack of a trial
- 58:35Speaker 1: means that some questions may remain unanswered. We may never
- 58:38Speaker 1: know the motive or the exact way that this crime
- 58:40Speaker 1: took place, which I think is frustrating for the families
- 58:43Speaker 1: as well. That's what that's the fust I understand. The
- 58:48Speaker 1: benefit is these families don't have to sit there and
- 58:50Speaker 1: listen and relive what happened that night.
- 58:52Speaker 2: People know how long.
- 58:53Speaker 1: Yeah, they don't have to go through the appeals process.
- 58:56Speaker 1: They don't have to look at him sitting in court
- 58:58Speaker 1: every day knowing.
- 58:59Speaker 2: That they took you know, they can just know he's
- 59:01Speaker 2: in jail now forever.
- 59:03Speaker 1: However, you're probably not going to get like the questions
- 59:06Speaker 1: I had and the questions that they probably have, those
- 59:08Speaker 1: are never going to get answered, and you just have
- 59:10Speaker 1: to be maybe.
- 59:10Speaker 2: One day he'll do a interview or something. Interview.
- 59:14Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the families is against the plea deal.
- 59:19Speaker 1: That's the gone call. I never say this right, and
- 59:21Speaker 1: people tell me gon Solve, Gone Solve family Aubrey gunn Solve,
- 59:25Speaker 1: the family of Kailey gun Solve, said Brian Coberger. Facing
- 59:29Speaker 1: a life in prison means he would still get to speak,
- 59:32Speaker 1: form relationships and engage with the world. Meanwhile, our loved ones.
- 59:36Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you don't think there's gonna Females constantly messaging
- 59:40Speaker 2: this guy, sending him letters and and you know what,
- 59:44Speaker 2: that gets that part of it. He still gets a life,
- 59:46Speaker 2: albeit in a cell. He still gets a life.
- 59:49Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean some A lot of times people
- 59:51Speaker 1: create a life that's not so bad. You know, you
- 59:54Speaker 1: get three meals a day, you can have friends, You
- 59:56Speaker 1: get an education. Yeah, you can still talk to family.
- 1:00:00Speaker 2: Yeah, you can do a lot more than as if
- 1:00:01Speaker 2: you were dead.
- 1:00:02Speaker 1: You get access to internet. Meanwhile, our loved ones have
- 1:00:08Speaker 1: been silenced forever. That really stings more deeply when it
- 1:00:12Speaker 1: feels like the system is protecting his future more than
- 1:00:14Speaker 1: honoring the victims past. From the from the Gonsalvice family
- 1:00:19Speaker 1: social media post, we are beyond furious at the State
- 1:00:22Speaker 1: of Idaho. They have failed us. Please give us some time.
- 1:00:26Speaker 1: This was very unexpected.
- 1:00:28Speaker 2: I would say that it's understandable if a family is
- 1:00:32Speaker 2: happy with the plea deal, and it's understandable if a
- 1:00:35Speaker 2: family is not happy with the pat.
- 1:00:36Speaker 1: Right, And in contrast to that, the Mogan family is
- 1:00:39Speaker 1: in support of it. Ben Mogan, father of Madison Mogen,
- 1:00:42Speaker 1: in an interview with CBS, said, if you get that
- 1:00:45Speaker 1: quick death sentence, you don't have to spend decades thinking
- 1:00:48Speaker 1: about how terrible you made the world. We can actually
- 1:00:50Speaker 1: put this behind us and not have these future dates
- 1:00:52Speaker 1: and future things that we don't want to have to
- 1:00:54Speaker 1: be at. We get to just think about the rest
- 1:00:56Speaker 1: of our lives and have to try and figure out
- 1:00:58Speaker 1: how to do it without Maddie and the rest.
- 1:00:59Speaker 2: Of the kids. Yeah, and it won't be on the
- 1:01:01Speaker 2: news over and over again if you're changing channels and
- 1:01:03Speaker 2: you see them on there because they're giving updates.
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: It's just he's in jail, right exactly. So we were
- 1:01:10Speaker 1: actually going to cover or do our best to do
- 1:01:12Speaker 1: some episodes on the Brian Coburger trial because it was
- 1:01:15Speaker 1: coming up in August, but now that he took please deal,
- 1:01:17Speaker 1: we'll move on to other cases. So as always, if
- 1:01:20Speaker 1: you guys have interesting cases out there that you would
- 1:01:22Speaker 1: like us to discuss. Please DM me. We're always happy
- 1:01:26Speaker 1: to hear your thoughts, your critiques, your questions, your comments.
- 1:01:31Speaker 1: So thank you for doing that, and thank you for listening.
- 1:01:34Speaker 2: Thank you