The judge overseeing Sean Combs’s federal trial denied a request by defense lawyers for a mistrial on Wednesday, after they argued that prosecutors had unfairly suggested that Mr. Combs was responsible for the destruction of fingerprint evidence.
The defense objected to a line of questioning during the testimony of a Los Angeles Fire Department arson inspector. Answering a prosecutor’s questions, the inspector, Lance Jimenez, confirmed that fingerprint cards collected by police from an earlier trespass at the home of Scott Mescudi (the rapper known as Kid Cudi) had been destroyed, and so could not be compared to fingerprints found weeks later when Mr. Mescudi’s car was destroyed by a Molotov cocktail.
Outside the presence of jurors, Mr. Combs’s lawyers argued that those questions suggested to the jury that Mr. Combs was somehow responsible for the destruction of the fingerprint cards. The prosecution countered that their questions were entirely proper. The judge, Arun Subramanian, ruled that testimony struck from the record, but Mr. Combs’s lawyers said it was too late.
“There’s no way to un-ring this bell,” said Alexandra Shapiro, a member of Mr. Combs’s defense team who is an experienced appellate lawyer.
Judge Subramanian said there had been no testimony from the witness that was prejudicial to Mr. Combs. When jurors returned, the judge told them to disregard the exchange about the fingerprint cards.
Earlier in the day, police and fire officials testified about a trespassing and car fire at the Los Angeles home of Mr. Mescudi, who last week described being the focus of the music mogul’s jealous rage.
Chris Ignacio, a Los Angeles police officer, said he and a partner were called to the home, located up winding, narrow roads in the Hollywood Hills, on the morning of Dec. 22, 2011, for a possible burglary.
When Officer Ignacio and his partner arrived, they saw a black Cadillac Escalade with tinted windows in front of the home; the vehicle immediately took off down the street. Officer Ignacio said the license plate showed that the car was registered to Bad Boy Productions, Inc., one of Mr. Combs’s companies.
Inside the home, Officer Ignacio said, he saw “high-valued” watches and purses out on a table, but the house otherwise appeared to be undisturbed. Mr. Mescudi then arrived in his Porsche; he appeared “flustered,” Officer Ignacio said, and gave a police report; he did not report anything stolen.
Mr. Jimenez, the arson investigator, then testified, saying that he and a partner were called to the same address on the morning of Jan. 9, 2012.
They saw a burned Porsche convertible in a driveway about 10 feet from the residence, Inspector Jimenez said; the car’s cloth top had been cut. Inside the vehicle they found a glass malt liquor bottle and a “designer-type handkerchief” nearby. He said he could smell gasoline in the car and found that no mechanical or electrical issues with the vehicle were responsible for the fire.
The bottle did not break and the handkerchief fell out, the inspector said; otherwise, the damage to the vehicle and the property could have been worse.
Under questioning from Christy Slavik, a prosecutor, Inspector Jimenez said he determined that the fire was not random.
“In my opinion,” the inspector testified, “it was targeted for where the car was located.”
The story of Mr. Mescudi’s conflict with Mr. Combs is a key part of the government’s racketeering case against Mr. Combs, the music mogul also known as Puff Daddy and Diddy. The government contends that Mr. Combs intimidated Mr. Mescudi, and later directed the destruction of his car, out of jealousy when Mr. Mescudi briefly dated Casandra Ventura, who was Mr. Combs’s on-and-off girlfriend.
Last week, Mr. Mescudi testified that Mr. Combs had entered his home when he was out and that he suspected that a few weeks later Mr. Combs had his car blown up with a Molotov cocktail.
Mr. Combs is charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and has denied having anything but consensual sex with women. Lawyers for Mr. Combs have said their client was “simply not involved” in the arson incident outlined in the indictment.
In brief testimony before the jury broke for lunch, Deonte Nash, a stylist at Bad Boy and a friend of Ms. Ventura’s, said that Mr. Combs frequently referred to her friend as “bitch,” “slut” and “ho.” He said he heard Mr. Combs threaten to release explicit videos of her, and also threaten not to release her music.
When Mr. Combs said he would “beat her ass,” Mr. Nash testified, it would drive Ms. Ventura “crazy” and she would “go into a cocoon” for days.
Later this afternoon, jurors are expected to hear testimony from a former personal assistant of Mr. Combs who prosecutors say was coerced into sex with the mogul, and who is being identified in court only by the pseudonym “Mia.”
For months before trial, little was disclosed about Mia — then identified only as “Victim-4” — other than that she is a former Combs employee who prosecutors say was coerced into sex with him. In one filing last month, the government redacted virtually an entire page-long passage about her.
But in opening statements this month, lawyers for both sides fleshed out the woman’s profile somewhat. Emily A. Johnson, a prosecutor, described Mia as a former personal assistant whom Mr. Combs “worked to the bone for years.” At some point, she said, he then “forced himself on her sexually, putting his hand up her dress, unzipping his pants and forcing her to perform oral sex, and sneaking into her bed to penetrate her against her will.”
Teny Geragos, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, asked jurors to “evaluate” what motives Mia may have in testifying, and indicated that the defense, as they did with Ms. Ventura, may use texts messages or other communications in an effort to undermine her testimony on the stand.
Mia has also been cited by a number of witnesses throughout the trial, suggesting that she may be asked to corroborate accusations made by Ms. Ventura and others.
The core of Mia’s testimony is expected to relate to the racketeering conspiracy charge against Mr. Combs. That charge, which carries a possible life sentence, alleges that the music mogul operated a “criminal enterprise” in which employees, including security guards and high-ranking executives of his companies, carried out crimes on Mr. Combs’s behalf and helped cover them up.
Ben Sisario, a reporter covering music and the music industry, has been writing for The Times for more than 20 years.
Julia Jacobs is an arts and culture reporter who often covers legal issues for The Times.
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