In the case of Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, prosecutors and defense attorneys alike submitted their drafts for the jury quesitonaire.
On May 5, official jury selection for the sex trafficking trial is slated to begin. Before formal selection, potential jury members will be asked to respond to a series of questions as submitted and agreed to be each side. In the suggested questions recommended by prosecutors in a filing obtained by The Mirror, they hinted toward a desire to know more about potential jurors’ television habits.
They want to ask, “What television programs the juror regularly watches.” Additionally, they took that question a step further, wondering, “Whether the juror watches ‘Law and Order,’ ‘CSI,’ or other police dramas.”
Fan favorite NCIS might count as one of those police dramas. After all, it follows the investigations performed by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. The group includes an eccentric cluster of detectives, investigators, forensic scientists, and more as they fight crime and evaluate evidence.
The television series’ spin-off show, NCIS: Origins, which follows the early days of Jethro Gibbs’ career, is winding down for a season finale tonight at 10 p.m. EST. CBS teased, “When the murder of Pedro Hernandez is unearthed, Gibbs faces a reckoning. But when he needs his team most, the loyalty of one is brought into question.”
It wasn’t specifically indicated by prosecutors whether or not watching police drama could lead to a potential juror’s elimination. However, Anthony Capozzolo an attorney, at the litigation firm Lewis Baach Kauffmann Middlemiss., previously predicted this sort of question when speaking to The Mirror. He claimed the questionnaire might include details about “TV shows they watch, news sources, hobbies and other activities all to try to provide some insight into they type of juror they would be.”
Typically, these pretrial questions are meant to help prosecutors and defense alike pick out impartial jury members. Each side, though, as their own attributes they are looking for in a model jury that would help them win the case.
Diddy is facing five charges across three federal indictments, including sex trafficking, conspiracy racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Diddy pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. Additionally, he vehemently denies all allegations of wrongdoing against him, including those alleged in civil lawsuits.
Following the scheduled jury selection, opening statements are slated to being on May 12. The trial does not have a hard end date set, but Criminal Defense Solicitor and legal expert Katie McCreath told The Mirror the complexity of the case might make it run longer than average.
“Prosecutors must prove a pattern of criminal conduct within an enterprise, likely relying on multiple victims, digital evidence, and financial trails,” she explained. “Trials of this nature often run six to twelve weeks, sometimes longer.”
As for the other shows, Diddy does hold unexpected connections to both Law and Order and CSI. In Law and Order Season, 3 Dawg Night, a fictional rap icon, Darryl “G-Trane” Collins hangs around a nightclub that becomes the scene of a shooting. The episode additionally includes a Latina pop star. The details of the episode are reportedly inspired by a similar shooting that occurred in 1999 which allegedly involved Diddy and then-girlfriend Jennifer Lopez. He was slammed with a weapons charge, but was later acquitted. Charges against J.Lo were dropped.
