Diddy trial live updates: Mike Myers and other celebrities on list given to possible jurors – UK Times

Prosecutors ask Judge Subramanian to exclude a juror who says that he sometimes finds reading hard when there are “difficult words.”

Diddy’s lawyer argues that it should be fine, given that the text messages that will be part of the evidence are written in simple English.

Prosecutors say that the messages are abbreviated and include typos, making them hard to interpret.

The judge says he will not exclude him for cause, but peremptories.

Another potential juror, a kitchen designer from Yonkers, admits to having seen some of the news coverage of the trial, saying it was on in his house as recently as this morning.

Nevertheless, both sides OK him to remain in the pool.

There was laughter when a potential juror was asked if she knew any of the people on the extensive list of celebrities connected to the case against Diddy.

“I wish I did, but no.”

She stays in the jury pool.

The infamous hotel video showing the defendant allegedly attacking his former partner surfaces again.

A potential juror wrote on his questionnaire that Diddy looked angry, hostile, and entitled in the video, but concedes he could be fair at trial.

He stays in the jury pool.

Next up is a doctor of surgical pathology at Mount Sinai who has been an expert witness in medical malpractice cases and who did a four-week rotation in psychiatry as part of his medical training.

His personal experience of crime is that his son was once beaten up and had his phone stolen, he says he was told it was by three young Black men.

Asked if he would be biased, he replies: “People are people.”

He remains in the jury pool.

Last Thursday, standing before a judge in his final pre-trial hearing, Combs said he rejected the government’s offer to plead guilty to charges in exchange for a lesser sentence.

Next up is an in-house lawyer for an insurance sales firm whose wife is a child cancer psychologist.

He reveals he read an article going home from the courthouse yesterday about who got excluded from jury service, which, as the judge points out, he was not supposed to.

This raises concerns from the prosecution, who note that he’s a trained lawyer who disobeyed the judge by reading the article.

Diddy’s team says they are not concerned enough to challenge for cause, given he was honest about it.

Judge Subramanian decides to strike the juror.

The next juror to be questioned, a realtor with Sotheby’s, tells the court he knows a lot of lawyers, and that he and his brother spent ten years in court fighting for their late psychiatrist father’s estate.

The judge notes that he wrote on his questionnaire that he was unsure if he could be fair. The juror clarified that he didn’t know the video was part of the case and would listen to instructions.

After he exits, Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, points out that a close variant of the video will be played at the trial.

The prosecution says they do not object to him being excluded, which he is.

Sean “Diddy” Combs, 55, has been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his September arrest. His formerly jet black hair is now almost completely gray because dye isn’t allowed at the detention center.

Combs, who had his own fashion line, has worn yellow jail uniforms in pretrial hearings.

However, for the trial, the judge said he can have up to five button-down shirts, five pairs of pants, five sweaters, five pairs of socks, and two pairs of shoes without laces.

Under federal court rules, no photos or video of the trial will be allowed. Courtroom sketches are permitted.

We now have our first potential juror from today’s group who will remain in the pool.

She is a psychology major who has taken sexual harassment training, said she could be fair, and said her experience of lawsuits concerned a fatal car crash involving her mother. Her sister, who passed away from cancer, was also an abuse victim, having gotten into drugs. There were no objections from either side to her participation.