By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -A Black juror was dismissed from Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial on Monday, despite defense objections that the dismissal would reduce the racial diversity of the panel determining the hip-hop mogul’s fate.
U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said the juror’s inconsistent answers to questions about where he lived raised questions about his honesty and could taint a verdict.
Subramanian said he took defense concerns about race seriously — Combs is Black — but could not take into account that the Black male juror would be replaced by a white male, who had been an alternate juror.
“The court should not, indeed cannot, allow race to enter into its consideration,” Subramanian said outside the jury’s presence, as the sixth week of Combs’ trial got underway in Manhattan federal court.
The jury is anonymous, which is common for high-profile trials where jurors could face threats or harassment if their identities were known.
Subramanian said the jury was “diverse.”
Combs has pleaded not guilty to racketeering and sex trafficking charges. Prosecutors say he coerced women over two decades to take part in drug-fueled sexual performances with male sex workers, sometimes known as “Freak Offs.” The defense says the sexual activity described by prosecutors was consensual.
Lawyers for Combs, 55, have argued that their client was unfairly targeted because of his race. In a Sunday night court filing, defense lawyers wrote that the juror in question was one of two Black men on the jury.
“The fairness of the trial depends in part on having jurors with backgrounds similar to Mr. Combs share their perspectives on the evidence with other jurors from diverse backgrounds during deliberations,” Combs’ lawyers wrote.
Prosecutors said in a Monday court filing that it was “baseless” for the defense to suggest that they had a racial motivation to seek the juror’s dismissal.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New YorkEditing by Nick Zieminski)
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