EXTREME PERVERSITY:
The Diddy Sex Diaries

A photograph of Sean "Diddy" Combs at one of his famed "white parties" in the Hamptons in 1998, was included in a civil complaint accusing him of fondling a teenager's genitals as "rite of passage" into the entertainment business.

Sleaze, shame, lust revealed in Sean Diddy Combs sex perversion trial

Court testimony thus far would shame the devil, leaving no salacious stone unturned or raw detail unrevealed

By JOSH RUSSELL, Contributing Writer

MANHATTAN (CN) — (Parts 1,2,3) Entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and his inner circle used a pattern of “lies, drugs, threats and violence” to coerce women into drug-fueled sexual rendezvouses with male prostitutes while he watched and taped, federal prosecutors said during opening arguments on Monday morning.

“Kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told jurors. “These are just some of the crimes that the defendant and his inner circle committed again and again.”

Combs, 55, is standing trial on a five-count indictment charging him with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

The Bad Boy Records founder has been held at a federal jail without bail since his September 2024 arrest in a New York City hotel.

At the center of the sex trafficking conspiracy claims are so-called “freak off” extended sex parties since as early as 2004, which prosecutors say Combs manipulated female victims into participating in "as part of his pattern of abuse.”

Johnson told jurors Combs and his inner circle supplied women with the drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy or molly, which made the participants “more uninhibited and sexually aroused."

Prosecutors claim the “freak offs” took place at luxury hotels across the country, and involved the coordinated transportation of commercial male escorts hired by Combs to have sex with women while he watched, masturbated and sometimes recorded.

Johnson told jurors they will be shown some of explicit videos Combs recorded and later used as blackmail material against the women in the tapes. “You will see them put on a performance high on ecstasy, where they pretend to enjoy themselves, because that is what the defendant said he wanted."

Combs directed every detail of these sexual performance in dark hotel rooms, prosecutors said, including demands that the women dress in lingerie, wear tall platform heels and have manicured white nails.

According to the indictment, Combs and the victims typically received IV fluids to recover from the physical exertion and drug use — including ketamine, ecstasy and GHB — during the marathon sexual exploitation.

Prosecutors said Combs deployed a loyal inner circle of bodyguards and close confidants, who helped for facilitate the hotel sex parties and “closed ranks” to handled damage control covering up evidence of the alleged crimes.

Central to the case is the March 2016 video showing Combs violently hitting and dragging his then-girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie Ventura, in a hallway of the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles. Prosecutors say Combs and his chief of staff paid a $100,000 bribe in cash hotel security to bury surveillance footage of the violent incident.

Combs, dressed in a light-colored sweater on top of a white collared shirt, with khaki pants, sat stone-faced, with his hands clasped across his lap, while prosecutors described the alleged physical abuse and sexual coercion leveled at Cassie.

"Time and again, the defendant hit Cassie in the head, threw her to the floor and dragged her by the hair … stomped repeatedly on her face," Johnson told jurors.

"Cassie will tell you how she felt like she was choking when the defendant made an escort urinate in her mouth, and how she overdosed during a 'freak off' when she still had an open wound on her face from the defendant's most recent assault," Johnson said.

The violence recorded on the video footage of the Cassie attack weighed heavily on multiple judges’ decisions to deny bail to Combs, keeping him detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since his arrest.

Combs is also accused of physically beating another woman, who will testify under the pseudonym “Jane,” when she hesitated to participate in the extended "freak offs."

“You’re not gonna fuck up my night,” prosecutors claim Diddy told her, directing her to hide a black eye with makeup before having sex at a hotel with one of the hired male escorts.

Jane is expected to testify about she wanted the hired escorts to wear condoms, but many times the Combs did not let them.

Combs’ defense conceded to jurors there was domestic violence fueled by “primal jealousy,” but insisted he is “simply not guilty” of the federal racketeering and sex trafficking counts he has been charged with in the case.

“Domestic violence is not sex trafficking,” defense attorney Teny Geragos repeated during opening statement. "Had he had been charged with domestic violence, we would not be here.”

“This is a case about Sean Combs’ private, personal sex life, which has nothing to do with his lawful businesses,” Geragos told jurors. “The government can say over and over again that this is not about his private sex life, but the evidence will show you that it is.”

Combs’ defense argued the so-called “freak offs” were actually consensual threesomes with “willing” partners as part of Combs’ non-monogamous “swingers lifestyle.”

Geragos said the episodes of anger and domestic violence were principally caused by “jealousy or drugs.”

“The role of jealousy is critical here and it’s pervasive,” she said.

Geragos conceded that Combs paid the $100,000 bribe to the Los Angeles hotel staff to make the surveillance video of the Cassie assault, solely for publicity reasons, not to cover up or obstruct any evidence of a crime.

The first witness called by prosecutors on Monday was Israel Florez, a former security director at the InterContinental Hotel, who responded to Combs and Cassie’s hallway spat at the hotel in 2016.

Florez, currently a Los Angeles police officer, testified he accompanied the pair back to their hotel room. He said Combs gave him a tall stack of cash that he interpreted as “pretty much” a bribe to keep quiet about the couple’s fight that had spilled out of their room.

During Florez’s testimony, jurors were shown the hotel’s silent surveillance video showing Cassie brutally assaulted and dragged on the floor near the elevator lobby.

Florez said he recorded additional iPhone videos of the hotel security footage because he thought his wife wouldn't believe him if he just told her what he'd seen at work that day.

Later on Monday afternoon, prosecutors called Daniel Phillip, a male dancer who was hired by Cassie to show up the Gramercy Park Hotel ostensibly to perform a striptease for a group of women at a bachelorette party.

Phillip testified Cassie handed him around $4,000 in cash, far in excess of the $200 required by his company upon his arrival as a private dancer, and asked if he would give her a baby oil massage. He testified Combs sat in a corner and masturbated while the dancer and Cassie had sex, a pattern they recreated at different locations in Manhattan, including the Jeremiah Essex House, the InterContinental, Combs’ apartment on 56th Street and Cassie’s home on the Upper West Side.

Phillip described Combs initially wearing white robe with a bandana concealing his face and, but said he recognized Combs as soon as the rapper-producer spoke.

“He told me he was in exporting and importing,” Phillip recalled Combs telling him. He said Combs took a cell phone picture of his driver’s license. “He said it was for insurance purpose, just in case,” Phillip testified. “I understood it to be that he was threatening me.”

Phillip testified he began experiencing erectile dysfunction around the couple after he first witnessed Combs violently hit Cassie into submission.

Phillip said he was shocked by the violence but did not intervene out of fear of retribution by Combs. "My thoughts were that this was someone with unlimited power,” he testified. “And chances are that, even if I did go to the police, I might still lose my life."

Jury selection in the case was finalized earlier on May12. The 12-person jury is comprised of eight men and four women, while six alternates are made up of four women and two men.

The trial is expected to run up to eight weeks into early July.

Categories / Courts, Entertainment, Media, Trials

Part 4 - Raw sex videos reveal all

MANHATTAN (CN) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday afternoon showed jurors still images of male escorts in video footage of the sex parties that entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is accused of recording and keeping as blackmail material to coerce women into continued participation in the dayslong swinger trysts.

Across two days of witness testimony in Manhattan federal court, Combs’ former girlfriend Cassie Ventura has described in frank detail the physical abuse and emotional humiliation she says she experienced in connection to the drug-fueled, multi-day marathons where Combs directed her to engage in protracted sex acts with male escorts while he watched.

On Wednesday afternoon, jurors saw seven individual frames from videos of the so-called “freak-offs,” which came from broken cell phones turned over to investigators by Ventura.

The jury appeared focused and rapt as they looked at the video stills on the screens in the jury box: one juror shot his head back in a double take at one image, while another arched her eyebrows.

Otherwise sealed from the public, the images were published directly to monitor screens in front of each of the twelve jurors and six alternates, while lawyers viewed them in an evidence binder.

Ventura identified three male escorts hired for “freak offs” in the images from the videos — Jules, Dave and Greg — along with a friend who has previously been referred at trial under a pseudonym, Mia.

She testified earlier on Wednesday that Combs kept the recordings of some of “freak offs,” despite her requests to delete them, for the “leverage of having incriminating, or derogatory humiliating video” that he could threaten to make public if she didn’t behave a certain way.

“I just felt trapped,” she said, recalling Combs once showing her sex videos she thought had been deleted on his laptop during a flight after the Cannes film festival.

Ventura, who dated Combs for 11 years, said she worried he would use those videos to “ruin me, embarrass me, just make me out to be somebody that I’m not in a very unfair way.”

"I just feared for my career, I feared for my family," she said. "It’s just embarrassing. It’s horrible and disgusting, nobody should do that to anyone."

She testified Combs threatened to release a pair of explicit “freak off” videos in 2011 after he found out she was dating rapper Kid Cudi, in addition to threats of physical violence.

She said Combs boasted he was going to explode Kid Cudi's car in his home driveway.

"Sean wanted Scott’s friends to see Scott’s car get blown up," she said, referring to Kid Cudi by his birthname Scott Mescudi.

The “freak offs,” also dubbed “wild king nights” or “hotel nights,” took place at luxury hotels in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami, Ventura testified, in addition to both her and Combs’ personal residences in Manhattan.

During the trial, prosecutors showed photos Ventura took documenting her injuries she sustained from beatings by Combs, including black eyes, a swollen cut eyebrow and bruises all over her body.

Ventura said she took the drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy, ahead of the “freak offs” for its effects on sexual arousal and inhibition, and also used ketamine and GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) for their dissociative properties during the sex acts with strangers.

On Wednesday, she testified she was concurrently experiencing an ongoing opiate addiction, taking downers after the “freak offs” to come down from the stimulant effects of the MDMA.

In addition to the dehydration and sleeplessness from the “freak offs”, Cassie said the cycle of extended drug caused stomach issues and gastrointestinal problems.

Ventura said Combs expected her to participate in sexual performances while she was on her period, and testified Wednesday she had ended up doing successive back-to-back “freak offs” with an untreated urinary tract infection.

On Wednesday morning, prosecutors showed a message Ventura wrote to Combs in 2017, complaining about his controlling abuse.

“Nothing good comes out of [freak offs] any more, you treat me like you’re Ike Turner,” she wrote in the e-mail, referring to the years of violent domestic abuse that the late singer Tina Turner endured from her then-musical partner Ike.

Towards the end of her direct testimony on Wednesday, Ventura testified Combs raped her on the floor of her Los Angeles apartment after she broke up with him in 2018 over his infidelities.

Ventura said has been sober from illegal drugs since 2022, and sought rehab and trauma therapy in 2023 after experiencing traumatic flashbacks and suicidal ideation.

“I couldn’t take the pain I was in anymore, so I just tried to walk out the front door into traffic,” she said.

Ten months before Combs was arrested, Ventura filed a bombshell civil lawsuit against him in November 2023 accusing him of rape and repeated physical abuse. They settled the next day for an undisclosed amount.

Ventura testified Wednesday that Combs and his company paid $20 million to settle the lawsuit, which was brought under the New York’s Adult Survivors Act.

Combs, 55, is standing trial on a five-count indictment charging him with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

The 12-person jury is composed of eight men and four women, while the six alternates are made up of four women and two men. The trial is expected to run up to eight weeks into early July.

Categories / Courts, Entertainment, Media, Trials

Part 5 - Sex, illicit drugs, guns, drive ‘freak off’ sex parties

MANHATTAN (CN) — Two glassine baggies of pink powder drugs found inside of a prescription pill bottle at Sean "Diddy" Combs' hotel room in New York City after his September 2024 arrest. (Courthouse News via Department of Justice)

MANHATTAN (CN) — A federal law enforcement search of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ famed Miami Beach mansion uncovered two disassembled automatic rifles stashed among platform heels and lingerie, the special agent in charge of the March 2024 search testified Tuesday afternoon.

Combs, 55, is standing trial in Manhattan federal court on a five-count federal indictment charging him with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. If he is convicted on all counts, he could face life in prison.

Special Agent Gerard Gannon, based in Miami, testified Tuesday that he was the special agent in charge on the ground for the search of Combs’ mansion on Star Island, near Miami Beach, on March 25, 2024.

Prosecutors showed jurors photographs taken by the investigators around the outside of the property and inside the rooms.

One photograph entered into evidence showed sex toys and lubricant neatly organized in a closet of the master bedroom, while another photograph showed a generic brown cardboard box containing the disassembled “lower receiver” parts of two AR-15 rifles, surrounded by large, branded boxes containing platform high heels.

Gannon testified that two complementary AR-15 “upper receiver” gun barrels were found separately wrapped inside a white towel. He said investigators also found two loaded rifle magazines in the bedroom closet; a 30-round magazine found in the mansion contained 19 bullets, while a 10-round magazine was fully loaded.

One barrel was equipped with a “red dot optics” sight, he said, while the other was mounted with an iron sight.

Prosecutors handed him the two ammunition magazines in a plastic evidence bag to examine on the witness stand on Tuesday.

Gannon said approximately 80 to 90 law enforcement agents, including members of a special response team, participated in the search because of the size of the 20,000 square foot gated property.

Shortly after his arrest in September 2024, Combs requested his pretrial release on bail on a proposed $50 million package secured by the $48 million Star Island mansion.

Earlier on Tuesday, Cassie’s mother, Regina Ventura, testified that she and her husband used $20,000 from a home equity loan to pay off an extortion demand from Combs to prevent him from releasing graphic sexual videos of Cassie from "freak offs" after he found out she was dating the rapper Kid Cudi.

During Regina Ventura’s testimony, prosecutors showed jurors an e-mail from Cassie to her mother in December 2011, frantic about the looming release of the embarrassing videos.

“The threats that have been made towards me by Sean 'Puffy' Combs that he is going to release 2 explicit sex tapes of me. One on Christmas Day, maybe before or right after and another one some time soon after that,” Cassie wrote in the e-mail," she said.

“He has also said that he will be having someone hurt me and Scott Mescudi physically. He made a point that it wouldn’t be by his hands. He actually said he’d be out of the country when it happened,” the e-mail continued." Cassie Ventura testified.

“I was physically sick. I did not understand a lot of it,” Regina Ventura said. “The sex tapes threw me, but I knew that he was trying to hurt my daughter.”

She testified she paid the Combs the $20,000 “because he demanded it,” but the sum was returned several days later.

Cassie testified last week that Combs told her he wanted Kid Cudi’s friends to watch his car get blown up.

Prosecutors announced later on Tuesday that they intend to call Kid Cudi to testify this week, as early as Wednesday afternoon.

Prosecutors also called Sharay Hayes, an exotic dancer who performs professionally as “The Punisher,” on Tuesday to testify about being paid to perform baby oil-drenched “freak offs” with Cassie Ventura while Combs watched.

Echoing similar testimony by another male escort on the trial’s opening day, Hayes said he was always paid "either $1,200 or $2,000" in cash for each hotel tryst, which he said typically consisted of around 45 minutes of actual sexual activity during each approximately four-hour, late-night appointment.

He testified he was hired to “create a sexy scene” with Cassie while Combs watched from a distance and gave subtle directions on “angles, lighting, positions and sometimes the sexual activity.”

Hayes said he experienced performance issues maintaining an erection, which led to him no longer being called back for the so-called “freak offs” after March 2015.

“A sexual scenario with a woman’s partner present, actively giving directions and stuff, was not the norm for me,” he testified, adding he tried remedies including “Cialis, Viagra, the corner store pill.”

Earlier on Tuesday, one of Combs’ personal assistants, David James, recalled the details of working for the Bad Boy and Sean John mogul in the late 2000s.

James, now a real estate agent, testified that Combs always carried a toiletries bag with various pills, including ecstasy and Percocet. He said Combs had a penchant for ecstasy pills pressed into the shape of the face of then-current U.S. President Barack Obama.

James said a confrontation with former Death Row Records boss Suge Knight outside of a diner in Los Angeles in 2009 ultimately led to his resignation from working for Combs.

“It was the first time being Mr. Combs’ assistant where I realized my life was in danger,” he testified.

Categories / Courts, Entertainment, Media, Trials

Bill Cosby can’t dodge lawsuit by 10 women after Nevada lifted statute of limitation

A federal judge rejected the former comedian's argument that the Nevada law violated his due process rights. She said, he has no vested property right in the statute of limitations.

By EDWARD PETTERSSON, Contributing Writer

LAS VEGAS (CN) — A federal judge in Las Vegas allowed 10 women to proceed with their sexual assault lawsuit against Bill Cosby Jr. in the wake of a state law last year that lifted the statute of limitations for civil claims by survivors of sexual violence.

Bill Cosby

US District Judge Gloria Navarro on Monday rejected Cosby's argument that the law, Senate Bill 129, violates Nevada's prohibition on laws that only apply to a select group of people — in this case, victims of sexual assault.

Although the judge agreed that victims of “other heinous crimes” and “interpersonal violence" may suffer from similar trauma as sexual assault survivors, she disagreed that the perpetrators of such other crimes stand in precisely the same relation to the victims of sexual assault.

"Indeed, the Nevada Legislature sought to address the 'uniquely intimate' crime of sexual assault, when they created SB 129," Navarro wrote. "Although victims of other crimes classified by defendant may suffer similar trauma and be reluctant to report, defendant has not shown how these other crimes are of the ‘uniquely intimate’ nature such that their victims stand on precisely the same ground as sexual assault victims.”

As cited by the plaintiffs in their court filings, an expert witness told a Nevada Senate committee last year that, given the uniquely intimate nature of rape and sexual assault, it can take many years, if not most of one's life, for a victim to gain the strength and the courage to come forward and report the abuse.

Likewise, the judge was unpersuaded that the state law violates the due process clauses of the Nevada and US Constitution because, she said, Cosby has no vested property right in the statute of limitations and, therefore, the notion of due process doesn't apply to his purported deprivation right.

Nor did the law run afoul of constitutional hurdles against legislation that makes certain conduct punishable retroactively, as Cosby had argued, according Navarro.

"SB 129 was not enacted to punish perpetrators of sexual assault, but instead to compensate survivors and foster healing," the judge said.

Following the report and recommendations of a magistrate judge, Navarro dismissed the sexual assault claim brought by each of the 10 women. Although all the women accuse Cosby of drugging and raping them, sexual assault isn't a civil tort claim under Nevada law. The women also brought claims for battery, assault, emotional distress and false imprisonment.

The judge deferred a decision on whether the claim by one of the women, who accuses Cosby of forcing her to masturbate him, was revived by SB 129, and said she will ask the Nevada Supreme Court to weigh in on that question.

An attorney for Cosby did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

The now 87-year-old former comedian has been accused by dozens of women of drugging and molesting them, and he spent almost three years in prison after he was found guilty of assaulting college sports administrator Andrea Constand.

His 2018 conviction was foiled, however, over an old press release from the time he was first accused in 2005. The press release said Cosby would not be prosecuted because the evidence at the time made a conviction unattainable, but it also said the decision could be reconsidered “should the need arise.”

Cosby went on to settle a civil suit from Constand that year. He was deposed at time under the impression that his testimony would never be used against him. He did not invoke his Fifth Amendment right to counsel or to stay silent, and he admitted that he drugged Constand and had access to quaaludes to be used on young women he wanted to have sex with.

Once the depositions were made public at the dawn of the #MeToo era, the investigation of him was reopened and charges were reconsidered.

Categories / Courts, Entertainment, Regional

Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crime charge in New York

Prosecutors announced the new indictment last week, but the charges were sealed since Weinstein couldn't make it to court for health reasons.

By ERIK UEBELACKER, Contributing Writer

MANHATTAN (CN) — Harvey Weinstein was arraigned Sept. 17 on a new indictment charging the disgraced Hollywood film producer with an additional sex crime in New York.

Manhattan prosecutors charged Weinstein with one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree. Weinstein, who attended Wednesday’s hearing wearing a dark suit, a light blue tie and bound to a wheelchair, pleaded not guilty.

“The defendant, in the County of New York, during the period from on or about April 29, 2006 to on or about May 6, 2006, engaged in oral sexual conduct with a person who is known to the grand jury, to wit, contact between defendant’s mouth and the vulva and vagina of a person who is known to the grand jury, by forcible compulsion,” the one-page indictment says of Weinstein.

Weinstein’s attorney Arthur Aidala told reporters outside the courthouse that his client was “somewhat relieved” to hear of the charge, but he still does not know who the supposed victim is in the new indictment.

“He is somewhat relieved because, as you all know, there were reports that there were going to be three indictments handed down today,” Aidala said. “In fact, there was one indictment that was unsealed. We’re making the assumption that that’s the only indictment that’s going to be unsealed.”

Last week, Aidala told reporters that he expected prosecutors to charge Weinstein for three separate “incidents,” likely of sexual misconduct, taking place between 2005 and 2016.

For the time being, Weinstein's latest accuser will remain under wraps, according to her attorney Lindsay Goldbrum.

“Our firm represents Jane Doe, whose grand jury testimony formed the basis of the new indictment against Harvey Weinstein," Goldbrum said in a statement Wednesday. "Mr. Weinstein is charged with one count of Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree. Ms. Doe has not shared this story publicly before, nor does she want to be identified at this time. She will be fully prepared to speak her truth at trial to hold Mr. Weinstein accountable before a jury of his peers. We would like to thank the media in advance for respecting Ms. Doe’s privacy while she prepares for her testimony.”

The new indictment comes ahead of Weinstein’s highly anticipated retrial for sex crimes he was convicted of previously. In 2020, a Manhattan jury’s split verdict found Weinstein guilty of committing a criminal sexual act and third-degree rape, but acquitted him on the more serious first degree rape offense and two counts of predatory sexual assault.

The New York Court of Appeals overturned that conviction this year, finding the trial judge had allowed prejudicial testimony from three women whose accusations of sexual assault by Weinstein were not part of the state’s case-in chief.

Prosecutors hope to roll the new charge into the retrial of the old case “because a trial on these offenses will involve such significant overlap” with evidence, according to Assistant District Attorney Shannon Lucey.

“Separate trials will be extraordinarily inefficient and burdensome,” Lucey said in court Wednesday.

Weinstein’s team wants separate trials so they can have more time to prepare for the new indictment.

“We’re vehemently opposed to consolidation,” Aidala said to reporters. “This is a new case that was handed down today from 2006. We have a lot of work to do, we have to find out who the person is … [but] we’re basically ready to go to trial on the old case.”

New York Supreme Court Justice Curtis Farber previously set a tentative trial date for November. But prosecutors on Wednesday said they won’t be ready to bring the case to a jury until January 2025.

Prosecutors announced last week that a Manhattan grand jury returned the new indictment against Weinstein, but the charge was sealed since they were unable to arraign him at the time — Weinstein couldn’t make it to court after an emergency heart surgery left him bound to a bed in Bellevue Hospital.

His health remains a roadblock. Weinstein’s legal team wants him to be kept at Bellevue until trial so doctors can more closely monitor his health, rather than return him to his prison cell at Rikers Island.

Farber is yet to rule on the request.

Weinstein remains behind bars. Despite his tossed New York conviction, Weinstein is serving a 16-year sentenced imposed by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge for raping an Italian model in 2013.

More than 80 women in total have come forward with accusations of Weinstein’s sexual misconduct. Weinstein denies all accusations, holding that his encounters were consensual.

Categories / Criminal, Entertainment, National

Kat Von D working on a tattoo of Miles Davis that has become the subject of copyright infringement lawsuit. (Source: U.S. court of filing)

Court settles unlicensed use of Miles Davis photo

The jury in downtown LA took only a few hours to decide the purportedly infringing tattoo wasn't substantial similar to the photo.

By EDVARD PETTERSSON, Contributing Writer

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D prevailed in the copyright infringement trial over her unlicensed use of a photo of Miles Davis for the tattoo she inked on the arm of a friend.

The jury in downtown LA on Friday took only a few hours to reject the claims by photographer Jeff Sedlik. He sued Von D because she hadn't approached him for a license to use the photo he took in 1989 of the jazz legend raising his index finger to his lips in a "shush" gesture.

Jurors concluded that the tattoo wasn't substantial similar to the original photograph and that any social media posts that showed Sedlik's photo in the background of Kat Von D working on the tattoo was fair use.

Robert Allen, Sedlik's attorney, said the verdict seemed a hurried decision and that they would appeal.

"The question of substantial similarity should never have gone before the jury," Allen said. "That should have been decided as a matter of law."

Sedlik had sought about $45,000 in compensatory damages for willful infringement, for the tattoo and social media posts by the artist showing her work on the tattoo, or $150,000 in statutory damages.

Allen said the case was never about money but about protection the rights of all visual artists. If the tattoo wasn't found to be substantial similar to Sedlik's photo, he said, than no intellectual property rights of visible artists were safe.

Katherine Von Drachenberg, who goes by Kat Von D, rose to fame through her appearances on the reality TV shows Miami Ink and LA Ink, the latter of which was shot at her High Voltage Tattoo shop in Hollywood. Now a stay-at-home mom, Von D testified on Wednesday that she hasn't charged anyone for a tattoo in over a decade and only has done work for friends for free.

"I'm excited to be done," Von D said after the verdict. "If we didn't fight this, it would have done so much harm to an industry that's already struggling."

The Miles Davis tattoo had been a gift to Von D's friend Blake Farmer, a lighting technician who worked on some shoots for her makeup business in 2017. After talking with Farmer, who plays trumpet himself, and learning how important Miles Davis was to him, she offered to create a tattoo of the musician.

Von D told the jurors that no one in the tattoo world gets a licenses to use a photograph as a reference for their creations. She maintained her use of the Miles Davis was "fair use" because it was her interpretation of the image and served an entirely different purpose than Sedlik's work.

Farmer provided Von D with the photo that became the subject of the copyright lawsuit. Sedlik, however, turned out to be a stickler when it comes to unlicensed use of his work; he regularly scans the internet to find infringers. He testified how in 2014 he tracked down another tattoo artist who had posted on social media a tattoo he had done based on the same Miles Davis photo.

That artist got away with a free retroactive license after Sedlik contacted him and agreed to waive a $5,000 licensing fee as a "professional courtesy" because, he testified, the artist apologized and showed contrition for not seeking a license beforehand.

Von D said after the verdict that she may never create another tattoo again because her heart had been crushed by the ordeal. She added that she might make an exception for Farmer, who testified at the trial, because the lawsuit had tainted his Miles Davis tattoo.

Boosie Baddass petitions

court

Louisiana rapper Boosie Badazz, aka Torrence Hatch Jr., previous- ly known as Lil Boosie, appears in court for arraignment, May 15, 2023. Photo by Sam Ribakoff, Courthouse News

Federal attorneys opposed the request to visit fiancee, citing yet unspecified security concerns

SAM RIBAKOFF, Contributing Writer

SAN DIEGO (CN) — In a felony gun possession case that’s ricocheted from state to federal court in San Diego, rapper Boosie Badazz asked a judge to modify the conditions of his release on Friday to allow him to make contact with his fiancée after spending months apart.

“We vehemently oppose that,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat.

When asked by US. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo, an Obama appointee, to explain why the government is so opposed, Wheat said that they have security concerns. The Baton Rouge, Louisiana, rapper, born Torrence Hatch Jr. and previously known as Lil Boosie, has been ordered to not make contact with his fiancée since the beginning of his federal trial in June 2023, his attorney Damon Alimouri said.

Hatch appeared in court over the phone in US District Court for the Southern District of California Jan. 12.

“This seems like a fairly serious curtailment of his rights,” Bencivengo said, considering that Hatch’s fiancée is not a witness in the case and was not in California during the rapper's May 2023 arrest.

“It’s vague, unless we have some details to fill the gaps,” Alimouri said, because the government hasn’t shared what information it has to suspect Hatch’s fiancée is a security concern.

To explain the government’s position, Wheat requested a sidebar with Bencivengo. After a lengthy conversation, during which the court played white noise to prevent the opposing counsel and the public from hearing what was being discussed, she imposed another 60 days of the stay-away order.

If there are no other objections from the government once those 60 days are up, the stay-away order will lapse and Hatch’s motion to end it will be granted.

Later on in the hearing, Hatch asked Bencivengo if the order would affect plans he had to get married in April.

“Boosie, I suggest that you remain silent and not say anything on the record,” Alimouri said.

Hatch initially faced charges for being a felon in possession of a firearm in San Diego County Superior Court after he was arrested in a traffic stop where police said they found him and a companion with two loaded handguns in their car.

According to prosecutors, a San Diego police officer was watching an Instagram Live video of what they described as a local gang member when they spotted Hatch, and the handle of a pistol in his waistband.

Hatch was in San Diego to perform and shoot a music video.

That charge was dismissed in June 2023, but after Hatch exited the courtroom, he was arrested by federal agents and handed an identical charge in federal court. The timing of the federal charge, and why the case was transferred from state to federal court, also came under discussion at Friday’s hearing.

Alimouri claimed that he was told by a state prosecutor that they would not even consider agreeing to a plea deal that would have kept Hatch out of jail, even though a judge had offered one, because of social media videos showing Hatch leading his audience at his concert in town in a chant of “fuck San Diego Police.”

Hatch’s attorneys asked the government to produce records of written communications between the US Attorney’s Office and the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office relating to the case to try to demonstrate that claim.

“There’s nothing I see that would support that,” Bencivengo said.

“I doubt that would be put in writing,” Alimouri retorted, which Bencivengo agreed with.

Hatch’s defense hasn’t yet filed a motion alleging prosecutorial vindictiveness, though Alimouri said they were open to it.

“The court finds nothing there to claim that this is vindictive,” Bencivengo said. “It’s a legitimate case in federal court.”

Another status hearing in the case is set for mid-February.

Hatch, known for his bluesy Southern drawl and his pain-soaked lyrics chronicling the struggle to overcome poverty, systemic injustices afflicting Black Americans and the criminal justice system, is one of rap music’s most influential and celebrated artists.

Hatch has had several prior run-ins with the law in Louisiana and Georgia. In 2009, Hatch pleaded guilty to a charge of marijuana and gun possession in Louisiana. In 2011, Hatch pleaded guilty to attempting to smuggle drugs into prison, which added more time to his previous sentence. Hatch was also arrested in 2019 in Georgia on gun and drug possession charges.

In 2012, Hatch was acquitted in a 2009 murder case in Louisiana.

“I honestly think this prosecution is overblown and exaggerated,” Alimouri said after the hearing. “And this wouldn’t have gone on for so long if Boosie wasn’t Boosie.”

Keywords: Courts, Criminal, Entertainment, Rap, Boosie Baddass

While defense attorneys argued that lyrics are forms of protected free speech and should be excluded from the upcoming trial, Atlanta prosecutors told the judge they were admissions of gang activity.

Judge rules rap lyrics as evidence in Young Thug’s racketeering trial

By MEGAN BUTLER, Contributing Writer

ATLANTA (CN) — Rap lyrics can be used as evidence by prosecutors in the upcoming racketeering trial against award winning hip-hop artist Young Thug and others, a judge ruled Nov. 9.

During an hours-long hearing on Wednesday, prosecutors argued that the lyrics were "admissions" of criminal activity committed by members of what they claim to be an Atlanta street gang called "Young Slime Life."

“The question is not rap lyrics. The question is gang lyrics,” said prosecutor Mike Carlson. “These are party admissions. They happen to come in the form of lyrics.”

Young Thug, whose real name is Jeffery Williams, has been accused of being the co-founder and leader of YSL, although the artist claims that the acronym only applies to his record label, "Young Stoner Life."

The 32-year-old Grammy winning rapper has been in jail since May 2022 after being one of 28 people charged in the sweeping gang and racketeering indictment.

Prosecutors contend that certain lyrics and music video scenes glorified YSL’s alleged criminal activities, including fatal shootings of at least three rival gang members, selling drugs and violence against police.

Defense attorneys fought to have the lyrics excluded from evidence, arguing that the rap verses were protected forms of creative expression and subject to interpretation by the listener.

“Rap is the only fictional art form treated this way,” Doug Weinstein told the judge. The attorney represents defendant Demontre Kendrick, who performs under the stage name Yak Gotti. “No other musical genre, no other art is treated the same way.”

Weinstein said that the stage name his client uses represents a character he portrays on screen and in performances and argued that the lyrics such as "bodies on bodies" can have multiple meanings and interpretations.

"If you let it in, there is a high risk that the jury will misinterpret that," Weinstein said.

The attorney gave several examples of music artists from other genres, including Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash, that never had their lyrics used against them in court.

But prosecutors argued that is because those artists were never charged with committing crimes expressed in their lyrics.

“We are aware that the Johnny Cash metaphor is here but no one’s ever come up with … proof that Johnny Cash was ever accused of murdering a man in Washoe County, Nevada,” Carlson, said, referring to the 1965 hit “Folsom Prison Blues.”

“Had that happened, his lyrics would, in all likelihood, be used against him.”

Despite the use of rap lyrics as evidence in court being largely criticized by First Amendment advocates as prejudicial, Carlson argued that free speech protections do not apply because the defendants are not being prosecuted for the lyrics. Instead, he said the lyrics refer to the criminal act or intent behind the charges.

One of the songs included in the state’s evidence is Young Thug’s 2018 track “Anybody” featuring Nicki Minaj, where he sings, “I never killed anybody, but I got something to do with that body,” and later refers to himself as “a general.”

During trial, prosecutors plan to argue that in the song, Williams is admitting to being the leader of the purpor- ted gang and ordering to have people killed.

Fulton County Chief Judge Ural Glanville said there were 17 sets of lyrics that he would preliminary admit as evidence, and that additional verses may also be admitted if prosecutors can “lay the foundation” and tie them directly to the crimes.

The trial against Williams and five others is set to begin Nov. 27 after a grueling 10 monthlong jury selection process. Some defendants also charged in the case reached plea deals or were separated to be tried later.

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Kevin Hart

Judge dismisses woman's suit vs. Kevin Hart over leaked sex tape

VAN NUYS (CNS)—A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a woman who
accused Kevin Hart of secretly recording them having consensual sex in 2017 and using the video for commercial reasons.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Shirley K. Watkins issued the order June 22 during a final status conference in plaintiff Montia Sabbag's $60 million suit against the 43-year-old comedian, which alleged negligence and invasion of privacy. Neither Sabbag nor an attorney appeared on her behalf for the proceed- ing, but two lawyers made remote appearances for Hart.

The dismissal ruling was "without prejudice," meaning the case can be refiled.

Sabbag's suit was originally brought in federal court, where it was dismissed. She then filed suit in Superior Court in April 2020 and her last amended com- plaint was brought there in August 2021. Sabbag alleged Hart knew their sexual encounter in his hotel room at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas in August 2017 was being recorded and that he used the publicity it generated to promote his "Irresponsible Tour" as well as to increase his overall pop culture status.

Last August, the judge dismissed all of Sabbag's claims, including negligence and invasion of privacy, against Hart's former friend, Jonathan "JT" Jackson.

Jackson was originally charged with trying to extort money from Hart, but the criminal case was dismissed in 2021.

Sabbag alleged Hart allowed Jackson access to the comedian's hotel room and that the two men conspired to record the sexual encounter. Hart has maintained that he had no idea that there was a camera taping his encounter with Sabbag and he urged the judge to dismiss the part of the case against him at the same time she did so with Jackson.

"I did not participate in any videotaping or recording of Sabbag, either while she and I were engaged in sexual relations or

at any other time, nor do I know who did," Hart said in a sworn declaration in which he also maintained he "did not conspire with anyone to record or videotape" the plaintiff.

But in her 2022 ruling rejecting dismissal at that time, Watkins said there was a triable issue as to whether defendant Hart knew there was a camera recording, based upon Sabbag's own sworn declaration in which the plaintiff said the comedian moved or adjusted the mirror in his bedroom prior to the intimate encounter.

Watkins further wrote that Sabbag additionally said in her declaration that the sex tape appears to show that the recording device was placed in front of the bed in Hart's bedroom and that it seemed to be reflecting off the same mirror Sabbag says she saw Hart move and adjust before their intimacy.

Rock & Roll Queen Tina Turner succumbs

LOS ANGELES (CNS)—The music and entertainment world is mourning the loss of dynamic singer/dancer/ actress Tina Turner, the undisputed Queen of Rock 'n Roll who died in Switzerland at age 83 following a long
illness.

"I'm so saddened by the passing of my wonderful friend Tina Turner," Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger wrote on his Twitter page. "She was truly an enormously talented performer and singer. She was inspiring, warm, funny and generous. She helped me so much when I was young and I will never forget her."

Jagger was said to have developed his energetic stage presence by watching Turner's high-octane performances.

Tina Turner

Gloria Gaynor called Turner an "iconic legend who paved the way many women in rock music, Black and white."

"She did with great dignity and success what very few would even have dared to do in her time and in that genre of music," Gaynor said.

Turner was a two-time inductee into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, first as part of a duo with husband Ike Turner then later as a solo artist.

"Two-time inductee Tina Turner worked hard to reimagine the role of a Black woman in rock & roll—one that was firmly placed front and center," according to a statement from The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. "During her time in the duo Ike and Tina Turner (inducted in 1991), her electric onstage presence forever raised the bar for live performance.

"Their hits 'River Deep-Mountain High' and 'Proud Mary' endure to this day. But this Queen of Rock & Roll went on to make music history again with her solo career (for which she was inducted again in 2021) and with her bravery in sharing her life story as a book, film, and Broadway musical. There was nothing her deep, robust voice couldn't do, as displayed on her solo hits like 'What's Love Got to Do with It' and 'Private Dancer.'"

Musician Bryan Adams wrote on Twitter, "I'll be forever grateful for the time we spent together on tour, in the studio and as friends. Thank you for being the inspiration to millions of people around the world for speaking your truth and giving us the gift of your voice."

Singer Ciara wrote, "Heaven has gained an angel. Rest in Paradise, Tina Turner. Thank you for the inspiration you gave us all."

Laker legend Magic Johnson posted a photo with Turner on his Twitter page, noting that she gave "one of the best live shows I've ever seen."

"Tina [had] so much energy during her performances and was a true entertainer," Johnson said. "She created the blueprint for other great entertainers like Janet Jackson and Beyoncé, and her legacy will continue on through all high-energy performing artists. Cookie and I are praying for her husband, friends and family."

Flowers will be placed on Turner's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She received the star in front of the Capitol Records building in 1986.

In addition to her singing career, Turner occasionally showed up on the big screen, most notably portraying The Acid Queen in the 1975 film version of The Who's rock musical "Tommy." She also appeared in the Beatles musical "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," played a mayor in the Arnold Schwarzenegger film "Last Action Hero," and portrayed the leader of a post-apocalyptic wasteland city in "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome."

"The world lost a legend [...]," the SAG-AFTRA union said in a statement, noting that Turner was a member of the union since 1961. "Tina Turner was a genre-defying powerhouse singer, dancer, actress and author who
rightfully earned the title of rock 'n roll queen. She broke down barriers for generations of artists to come."

Jamie Foxx

Rumor Jamie Foxx illness due to '87' attempt, just a vapor in wind

HOLLYWOOD (MNS)—Jamie Foxx is finally sharing details about his 2023 near-death experience in his new comedy special "Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was," according to CBS News.

Foxx was hospitalized in April 2023 while filming a movie in Atlanta. At the time, his daughter Corinne said on social media that the comedian had "experienced a medical complication." Fox later said that his daughter, his sister Diedra Dixon and medical staff saved his life. He said that he didn't remember nearly three weeks of his life following the unspecified scare.

In his newest special, which was just released on Netflix, Foxx said that he had experienced a brain bleed that led to a stroke. He said he was in a coma for 20 days, and his condition was so grave that his family traveled to be by his bedside, even as they worked to keep details of his condition private.

"I went to hell and back," Foxx said.

Foxx said that when he woke from the coma, he found himself in a wheelchair and unable to walk. The Oscar-winning actor said he had to relearn basic functions and rely on nurses for daily needs like showering. Doctors told him a recovery was possible, but that it would be a difficult process.

During the special, Foxx showed off just how effective his recovery had been. He sang, danced and played the piano, and said his family and faith had helped keep him heal.

"CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King attended one of three tapings of Foxx's special. King said that he was "in fine form" during the tapings, and said she was glad he had been able to tell his story.

"He did three nights in Atlanta with a packed audience," King recalled. "Nobody ever revealed what had happened, because everybody wanted Jamie to tell it on his own terms."

Chadwick Boseman: Virtuoso, actor, movie star, culture hero

Chad Boseman

Film star Chadwick Aaron Boseman, known most prominently for his role as the superhero Black Panther in the 2018 Marvel Cinematic Universe film, which made him an international star, was tragically taken from this life Aug. 28, 2020.

Boseman was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016, which eventually progressed to stage IV before 2020. He had never spoken publicly about his cancer diagnosis. During treatment, involving multiple surgeries and chemotherapy, he continued to work and completed production for several films, including Marshall, Da 5 Bloods, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and others.

Boseman died at his home as a result of complications related to colon cancer on Aug. 28, 2020, with his wife and family by his side.

Chadwick Boseman’s early life

Boseman was born and raised in Anderson, SC to Carolyn and Leroy Boseman. His mother was a nurse and his father worked at a textile factory, managing an upholstery business as well. According to Boseman, DNA testing indicated that some of his ancestors were Krio people from Sierra Leone, Yoruba people from Nigeria and Limba people from Sierra Leone.

Boseman graduated from T. L. Hanna High School in 1995, where, in his junior year, he wrote his first play, Crossroads, and staged it at the school after a classmate was shot and killed. Boseman attended college at Howard University in Washington, D.C., graduating in 2000 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in directing. One of his instructors was Phylicia Rashad, who became a mentor. She helped raise funds, notably from her friend and prominent actor Denzel Washington, so that Boseman and some classmates could attend the Oxford Mid-Summer Program of the British American Drama Academy in London, to which they had been accepted.

Boseman wanted to write and direct, and initially began studying acting to learn how to relate to actors. Returning to the US, he went on to graduate from New York City’s Digital Film Academy.

The entertainer lived in Brooklyn at the beginning of his career and worked as the drama instructor in the Schomburg Junior Scholars Program, housed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York. In 2008, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.

Boseman got his first television role in 2003, in an episode of Third Watch. That same year, Boseman portrayed Reggie Montgomery in the daytime soap opera All My Children, but stated that he was fired after voicing concerns to producers about racist stereotypes in the script; the role was subsequently re-cast, with Boseman’s future Black Panther co-star Michael B. Jordan assuming the role. His early work included episodes of the series Law & Order, CSI: NY, and ER. He also continued to write plays, with his script for Deep Azure performed at the Congo Square Theatre Company in Chicago; it was nominated for a 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work. In 2008, he played a recurring role on the television series Lincoln Heights and appeared in his first feature film,

The Express: The Ernie Davis Story. He landed a regular role in 2010 in another television series,

Persons Unknown.

Boseman had his first starring role in the 2013 film 42, in which he portrayed baseball pioneer and star Jackie Robinson. He had been directing an off-Broadway play in East Village when he auditioned for the role, and was considering giving up acting and pursuing directing full-time at the time. About 25 other actors had been seriously considered for the role, but director Brian Helgeland liked Boseman’s bravery and cast him after he had auditioned twice. Robinson's widow, Rachel Robinson commented that Boseman’s performance was like seeing Jackie again.

In 2013, Boseman also starred in the Indie film The Kill Hole, which was released in theaters a few weeks before the film 42.

In 2014, Boseman appeared opposite Kevin Costner in Draft Day, in which he played an NFL draft prospect. Later that year, he starred as James Brown in Get on Up, doing some singing and all of his own dancing. In 2016, he starred as Thoth, a deity from Egyptian mythology, in Gods of Egypt.

In 2016, he began portraying the Marvel Comics character T'Challa / Black Panther, with Captain America: Civil War being his first film in a five-picture deal with Marvel. He headlined Black Panther in 2018, which focused on the character and his home country of Wakanda in Africa. The film opened to great anticipation, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of the year in the US. He reprised the role in both Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, which were released in 2018 and 2019, respectively. Both films were the highest grossing of the year they were released, with Endgame going on to become the highest-grossing film of all time. Also in 2019, he starred in 21 Bridges, an American action thriller film directed by Brian Kirk, as an NYPD detective who shuts down the eponymous 21 bridges of Manhattan to find two suspected cop killers.

In 2019, it was announced that Boseman was cast in the Netflix war drama film Da 5 Bloods, directed by Spike Lee. The film was released on June 12, 2020. Lee, in choosing Boseman for the divine like character of “Stormin” Norman said, “This character is heroic; he’s a superhero. Who do we cast? We cast Jackie Robinson, James Brown, Thurgood Marshall, and we cast T’Challa.”

Reviews

According to film critic Owen Gleiberman in Variety, “Boseman was a virtuoso actor who had the rare ability to create a character from the outside in and the inside out [and he] knew how to fuse with a role, etching it in three dimensions [...] That’s what made him an artist, and a movie star, too. Yet in Black Panther, he also became that rare thing, a culture hero.” Similarly, reviewer Richard Brody in The New Yorker finds the originality of Boseman's formidable acting technique in his ability to empathize with the interior lives of his characters and render them on screen as fully and completely belonging to the character. The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw wrote of the actor’s “beauty, his grace, his style, his presence [...] These made up Chadwick Boseman’s persona [and he became] the lost prince of American cinema[,] glorious and inspirational".

Personal life

Boseman began dating singer Taylor Simone Ledward in 2015. The two reportedly got engaged by October 2019, and they later married in secret, as revealed by Boseman’s family in a statement announcing his death.

Boseman was raised a Christian and was baptized. He was part of a church choir and youth group and his former pastor said that he still kept his faith. Boseman had stated that he prayed to be the Black Panther before he was cast as the titular character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In his last tweet on Aug. 12, he congratulated Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris on her nomination.

Wikipedia contributed to this report.