Elizabeth Geddes
Appearances
Diddy On Trial
What is sex trafficking?
So in prosecuting a sex trafficking charge, you need to convince a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant committed all of the elements of the sex trafficking offense. And that's a high burden for prosecutors to meet at trial here because to show that someone has engaged in sex trafficking.
Diddy On Trial
What is sex trafficking?
Prosecutors will need to show that the defendant enticed or recruited or otherwise caused an individual to perform some type of commercial sex act. And commercial sex itself is very broadly defined as any type of sexual conduct in exchange for which someone receives a benefit. And benefit itself is also very broadly defined under the statute.
Diddy On Trial
What is sex trafficking?
That's correct. Sometimes, sort of most traditionally, benefit is actual cash in hand to the person who is performing the sex act. But it doesn't have to be to the person performing the sex act. It can be somebody who arranged for the service itself could also be paid and that's sufficient. And the benefit can be financial or it can be more of an intangible benefit.
Diddy On Trial
What is sex trafficking?
That's right. And again, the statute was written so that it would be very broadly applied to different types of conduct. And fraud, I think it's maybe more understandable to juries. It simply means where there's some type of deceit or lies that were used in order to cause someone to engage in the Commercial Sex Act.
Diddy On Trial
What is sex trafficking?
Coercion is maybe even potentially more difficult for a jury to understand because it's defined as when someone uses some type of pattern, plan, or scheme to cause someone to believe that if they don't perform a particular act, that they will suffer serious harm.
Diddy On Trial
What is sex trafficking?
That's right. In most of these cases, the primary evidence are the witnesses who take the stand and tell the jury about exactly what happened to them. And they're subject in many instances to really significant cross-examination where their credibility is going to be attacked by the defense and maybe, you know, viewed suspiciously by the jury. But at the end of the day, in most of these cases...
Diddy On Trial
What is sex trafficking?
It comes down to whether or not the jury believes. I was going to say women, but it can be men as well. But for the jury to believe the individual who says that she has been or he has been trafficked in some way.
Diddy On Trial
What is sex trafficking?
He was charged with operating a racketeering enterprise in connection with he committed various types of crimes, including sexual exploitation of minors and forced labor, among other acts.
Diddy On Trial
What is sex trafficking?
Yeah, witness preparation in those cases is really challenging because generally speaking, the prosecutors and law enforcement agents want to avoid re-victimizing somebody who has already gone through extraordinary trauma. But at the end of the day, in order to prove up
Diddy On Trial
What is sex trafficking?
the case, the prosecutor requires the witnesses to come in and take the stand and rehash for the jury in very vivid detail some of the worst days of their lives. It helps when there are multiple witnesses because
Diddy On Trial
What is sex trafficking?
It's certainly true that there is safety in numbers, but it's the job of the prosecutor to make sure that the witness is prepared to talk about these very difficult matters in front of a jury and prepared for a cross-examination where it's the defense's job to question that witness and sometimes ask really difficult questions that itself can be extremely traumatic.
Diddy On Trial
What is sex trafficking?
Yeah, certainly. There was a lot of publicity on the case. There were lots of reporters and fans who had their own view as to what was going on. And so there was incredible pressure on the witnesses involved. to come in and tell their story.
Diddy On Trial
What is sex trafficking?
One thing that we did in that case was ask the court to let our witnesses testify using aliases so that they didn't have to tell the public their first and last name and subject them to additional scrutiny. So that was one small thing that we did to try to ease the burden on them. But even so, it was an incredible burden that they had to overcome.