According to NBCnews.com, Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal team urged an appeals court to overturn his conviction and 50-month prison sentence on alleged prostitution-related charges by arguing that the judge who presided over his trial last summer was wrong to consider the artist’s alleged abusive conduct. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik, who is one of the prosecutors behind the case, insisted that Combs’ four-year, two-month prison term was appropriate.
The three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan did not immediately rule, as is standard. Combs was convicted last July on two counts of alleged interstate prostitution but acquitted on the more serious charges of alleged racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. The federal prosecutors who brought the case had accused the hip-hop mogul of orchestrating a criminal scheme to force women to participate in drug-fueled, marathon sexual encounters known as “freak offs.” Comes has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied any wrongdoing.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian “defied the jury’s verdict” when he found that Combs had “coerced, exploited and forced” his girlfriends to have sex, the defense lawyers wrote in an 84-page court filing in late December. “These judicial findings trumped the verdict and led to the highest sentence ever imposed for any remotely similar defendant,” the lawyers wrote.
It was not clear whether Combs’ defense team objected to particular comments from Subramanian. In remarks at Combs’ sentencing, Subramanian said he had to consider “all” of the defendant’s history. “You abused the power and control with women you professed to love,” the judge said. “You abused them physically, emotionally and psychologically.”
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