Lawyers for Sean “Diddy” Combs urged an appeals court Thursday to overturn the US hip-hop mogul’s prison term of more than four years for prostitution-related crimes.
Combs, 56, was sentenced in October after a salacious trial that detailed the alleged “freak-offs” he organised: sexual marathons involving hired male escorts and his ex-girlfriend, Casandra Ventura and another unidentified woman.
He was acquitted by a jury of the most serious charges against him — sex trafficking and racketeering — but convicted of two counts of transporting people across state lines for prostitution.
The disgraced artist was not present at the Manhattan courthouse on Thursday as defence lawyer Alexandra Shapiro sought to persuade a three-judge panel that Combs’s sentence of four years and two months was unfairly long for his crimes.others
“The evidence the judge was relying on was totally separate and, in fact, was acquitted conduct,” Shapiro said.
She said District Judge Arun Subramanian should not have considered evidence that Combs made threats against Ventura and the other woman, as it was related to the acquitted charges.
Prosecutors disagreed and pointed to an instance where Combs showed Ventura he had videos of her engaging in sex parties hours before another “freak-off” in an apparent bid to ensure her continued participation.
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