The judge overseeing the US federal trial of fallen hip-hop giant Sean “Diddy” Combs threatened to remove him from the courtroom Thursday after he apparently made facial expressions at jurors.
It was “absolutely unacceptable” that Combs should be “looking at jurors and nodding vigorously” during witness testimony, judge Arun Subramanian told Combs.
“It cannot happen again.”
The court had been hearing testimony from Bryana Bongolan, who had alleged that Combs dangled her from a balcony before throwing her against furniture.
On Thursday defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland probed inconsistencies between civil lawsuits, pre-trial interviews with the government and Bongolan’s testimony this week, apparently provoking Combs’s vigorous engagement.
The judge also scolded Combs’s defense team for the lapse in courtroom decorum.
The prosecution is next expected to call Jane, a woman who will speak under a pseudonym in relation to one of the sex trafficking charges against Combs.
Combs, 55, faces upwards of life in prison if convicted of crimes of sex trafficking and racketeering.
Prosecutors say he ran a criminal enterprise of high-ranking employees and bodyguards who enforced his power with illicit acts including kidnapping, bribery and arson.
