Lou Shapiro
Appearances
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
No, I don't think they're going to be sequestered like in the OJ case where they're taken to hotels and being given food and no access to television and so forth because back then, You could actually have a chance at sequestering a jury, meaning cutting them off from the media and so forth, so it won't influence their decision-making in the trial.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
These days, with phones, tablets, and computer systems, which we all rely on, it's just unreasonable to expect a juror to not be able to know what's going on in the public. Because it's unreasonable, I don't think a judge would even bother with sequestering these days. And that's why we don't hear about it anymore.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Yeah, the judge will admonish them when every every break and when they go home, do not read, speak about, talk about. or watch any materials related to this case. If you've ever been on jury duty, you want to keep that honor as much as you can.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Yeah. Like I said, I don't think we're ever going to see something like that again.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
I think it's really not in Diddy's hands, even how he's looking to that extent, because it's not like he can go get his hair done in the cell there, right? So he has to play with the hand that he's dealt. I don't think he's intentionally looking for sympathy or anything like that. It's just the nature of having to defend a case from the inside. It's very challenging.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
I'm sure he'll be wearing a suit and tie at the trial itself. He'll be well-groomed, shaven, and so forth. I'm sure it's very stressful leading up to the trial, obviously. Oh, I mean, yeah, just all sorts of thoughts are going through somebody's mind. The defense is going to be that this is all consensual. So it's going to come down to credibility. Who is believed? Who has motive?
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
And just all sorts of thoughts are going through somebody's mind. What the jurors are going to think, what the judge is going to do. It doesn't get more stressful than this, especially because it's federal, not state. So there's a lot of time on the line here for him.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Meaning the prosecution may want to call her and we'll see if she wants to have any kind of involvement for that matter in this case. But certainly she's not going to be testifying on Diddy's behalf. That we know.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Yes. So Diddy and Kanye speaking, it won't have any effect whatsoever. In the trial itself, only acts or evidence that took place during the incidents will come into play. But it does show you, moreover, how Hollywood is really not behind Diddy on this one, because if Kanye is the one that he's sort of resorting to speak with, it shows you much that he's pretty much on his own at this point.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Yeah, so the idea is, again, we haven't seen the actual evidence in the case. We did see that video regarding Cassie, and that is so offensive and disturbing. The greatest of lawyers... I don't know how one can get around that. I guess the only argument will be that he's on trial for sex trafficking and racketeering, not for domestic violence. But this is not evidence
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
of sexual abuse and so forth. So that's the main piece of evidence that we know is out there. It's going to be tough to get around, but that's the only way to address that. Overall, Diddy said this is going to be about consent. We can expect a large part of the argument by the defense will be, where were these three accusers 10 years ago or five years ago?
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Why are they all coming out of the woodwork now? These were not children. These are adults. So that's where it gets a little gray. And Diddy's going to say it was all consensual. They're going to have to say otherwise.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
And unless there are percipient witnesses to those incidents to say, yeah, I was there, I can tell you that this person was not consenting, this person was, and so forth, it's going to come down to a real he said, she said case. And we don't know how those alleged victims are going to come across on the stand under cross-examination. But we can expect that Diddy's counsel
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
We'll be putting up some serious, ferocious, and fearsome cross-examination because that's the only hope of trying to get Diddy out of this situation.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Yes, uncharged victims or witnesses can be brought in. At the same time, a judge is going to perform a balancing test. Because if too many are brought in, then it could be deemed more prejudicial and probative and basically not allow the jury to focus on these three victims. They're just going to get lost in the overall evidence that's being presented.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Like we saw in the Cosby case, Cosby was the hung jury the first time. Second trial, the judge let in more witnesses testify against previous conduct. But the Court of Appeal ended up reversing that conviction, saying that was just too much for a jury to have to swallow.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
I think it's going to take minimum two to three weeks, but federal cases do tend to run quicker than state cases. They go longer hours. Lunches are less in terms of the time of the day, not an hour and a half lunches like in state court. So it moves. So while a state court case like this might take four to five weeks, this could take two to three. We're assuming it's not a lot of witnesses.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
If it's anywhere from like five to 10 witnesses in total, we're talking about two, three week trial max. It's 20 witnesses. on the four-week track.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Those cases are staged. They're basically frozen, pending what happens to the criminal case. And that's routinely done when somebody has both a criminal and civil case going at the same time. The criminal one takes precedence.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Well, they're making sure that all the witnesses that they intend on calling, that their testimony is organized, how they come across that they might be running what's called mock jury proceedings where they have other jurors that are being paid. To hear how these witnesses come across so they can figure out maybe how to tweak the form or things that they're saying or how they say it.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Also in terms of timelines, exhibits, what will be presented to the jury. Are they clean? Are they easy to understand? PowerPoint slides, checking out, making sure grammar spelling is correct. All those factors are being put into place right now.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Yeah, part of it is the voir dire, all the questions that are going to be asked to the jury, as well as questions that are going to be asked of witnesses. When you start a trial, you basically work from the end backwards. So you know where you want to get to, and based on where your end game is, you think, okay, how do I get to this goal of proving that everything was consensual?
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
What witnesses, what pieces of evidence, what timeline, what arguments, what jury instructions? What questions in voir dire? For example, a question in voir dire would be, does anybody believe that an alleged victim of a sexual assault crime could be lying? Could you see that as a possibility? Why would somebody lie?
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
And if a juror is going to say, no, I always would believe a victim no matter what, then they wouldn't be able to sit on a jury like this. This jury would be for only open-minded impartial individuals that can hear both sides. And then after hearing all the evidence, make a fair decision.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Right. So the question that's going to be asked to the jury is, of course, they've all heard of him, but even though they have heard of him, Can they set aside what he has achieved in terms of his profession and just be impartial and apply the facts to the law in this case? That's what they will be asked to do.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Yeah, sure. I'm a criminal defense attorney, formerly worked for the government Los Angeles County Public Defender's Office. Since then, I've started my own criminal law practice 10 plus years ago where I do state and federal criminal defense.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Yeah, it seems like the judge is trying to keep the trial timeline on a shorter leash now. The final pieces of discovery and names of the alleged victims are being provided. So we are definitely nearing the finish line in terms of the pretrial phase.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Right. So when it comes to victims, of sexual abuse or domestic violence, the courts tried to make all efforts to protect those names, keep them confidential to prevent further harassment or embarrassment and so forth.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
So that's why the judge said to the attorneys, you can have this information, you can do what you want with it in terms of investigating their backgrounds, their statements and so forth. You just can't release that information to the general public.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
So even if they were previously disclosed by counsel, because the judge made an order from here on moving forward, they won't be able to say the names of those individuals out loud, even if it's obvious.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Yes, typically witness lists are provided shortly before trial. People at both sides are making last minute changes to who they're going to be calling or not. And in that sense, they're provided to the court And I don't see why the judge wouldn't allow those witness names to be at least provided to the public.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
I think the judge is going to be conducting a balancing test because there is the right of the public also to the press to understand the court system and right of information. So he'll be balancing that or she'll be balancing that.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Well, it also depends on who's willing to cooperate with the government in this case. I don't expect a lot of witnesses on Diddy's side. I expect a longer witness list on the prosecution side. But again, They probably would want to call some A-listers, but A-listers probably want to stay as far away as they can from a proceeding like this. So it's not to be associated with Didi in any way.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Right. It depends. how comprehensive the judge wants to make that order. He could tell everybody in the room, whoever is in the trial, that they're not allowed to release any information about the witnesses or the victims in the case. We have to see how the judge plays that. We don't know yet.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Yes, the judge can order that everybody else except for the parties involved, exit the courtroom and have that part of the proceedings closed.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Does that happen often? Yeah, it does happen, especially when it's requested by the victims. It's certainly something that is common, yes.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
So the testimony would be public, just their names would not be.
The Trial of Diddy
All He Has Is Kanye in His Corner
Right, because some wanted, I think, send a message to the public and stand for what they were testifying about and wanted to be reached out because they have a story to tell and they wanted to tell it. But others wanted to remain under the radar. So it's a personal decision made by the accusers.