LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – MAY 15: Sean “Diddy” Combs attends the 2022 Billboard Music Awards at MGM Grand Backyard Enviornment on Could 15, 2022 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Choose Arun Subramanian, who’s overseeing the federal prison trial towards hip-hop tycoon Sean Combs, has dismissed one of many jurors who has been listening to the case and changed him with an alternate juror.
The unique juror, often known as Juror No. 6, has given inconsistent solutions about his place of residence. When he was seated on the jury, he mentioned that he lived in The Bronx, a borough of New York Metropolis and an space throughout the bounds of the Southern District of New York, along with his fiancée. Final week, nevertheless, the juror advised a court docket employees member that he lately moved in along with his girlfriend in New Jersey, which is outdoors the jurisdiction of SDNY. Prosecutors expressed considerations that the person was not being candid.
Subramanian dismissed Juror No. 6 as court docket concluded on Friday afternoon; on Monday, the choose upheld that call.
The unique juror, a person of shade, might be changed with an alternate juror who’s a white man. The protection group had vigorously argued to permit Juror No. 6 to remain, saying that changing him would pose an unfair drawback to Combs as a Black defendant.
In his ruling Monday, Subramanian mentioned that he took the protection’s argument significantly, however in the end that his considerations in regards to the juror’s “candor and whether or not he shaded solutions to get on and keep on the panel” of such a high-profile case prevailed.
Prosecutors have additionally repeatedly raised considerations that they’ve noticed Combs nodding at jurors, visibly reacting to testimony and in any other case attempting to interact with the jury as federal witnesses have testified towards him. Earlier within the trial, Subramanian admonished Combs and advised the protection group that their consumer wanted to cease such conduct, saying that it was “completely unacceptable.” The choose added that Combs could be barred from the courtroom if he continued. Final Friday, the prosecution raised the problem once more. Subramanian mentioned whereas it was unattainable to police each response within the courtroom, Combs had beforehand been warned and will know the best way to behave.
