Jane Rosenberg/REUTERS
Shortly after a jury acquitted Sean “Diddy” Combs of the most severe charges against him, a prosecutor still warned that he was a danger to society.
The two Mann Act counts for which he was convicted, related to transporting victims for prostitution, still carried a combined sentence of up to 20 years in prison, said Assistant US Attorney Maurene Comey Wednesday, urging the judge to keep Combs in jail until his sentencing hearing.
“The maximum sentence the defendant faces is 20 years in prison under the two statutes of which he’s been convicted now,” Comey said.
While Combs could get a severe sentence, he’s not likely to get anything close to 20 years.
“Even though the Mann Act carries a potential 10-year maximum sentence, Diddy is going to get time served or close to it,” said Neama Rahmani, the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers and a former federal prosecutor. “His sentencing guideline range may be as low as 15-21 months.”
The sentence will ultimately be decided by US District Judge Arun Subramanian, who presided over the trial in a lower Manhattan courtroom.
In a letter to the judge later on Wednesday, prosecutors said that sentencing guidelines called for more like five years in prison.
Even though Combs was acquitted of racketeering and sex-trafficking charges, which could have resulted in a lifelong prison sentence, prosecutors said Subramanian should still take into account the violence and drug use that witnesses testified about. They estimated a sentence of between 4 years and 3 months to 5 years and 3 months, but cautioned that they were still evaluating a sentencing recommendation and may come up with a new estimate before the hearing.
Combs’ attorneys say the sentencing guidelines point to a range of 21 to 27 months, and that he would be entitled to even less time behind bars.
Nadia Shihata, a former Assistant US Attorney who prosecuted R. Kelly on racketeering related to sex abuse, said a 20-year sentence was unlikely even if Subramanian takes a broad view of the evidence.
In order to get 20 years, prosecutors will have to ask the judge to consider acquitted conduct, Shihata said.
Even though those predicates and sex trafficking weren’t proved at trial, the judge can decide if there was a perponderance of evidence proving those acquitted crimes.
Shihata believes it’s unlikely the judge “will give him anywhere near 20 years.”
Combs has already spent 10 months incarcerated in the Metropolitan Detention Center, which would count toward any sentence decided by Subramanian.
The judge on Wednesday indicated he is already considering Combs’ violent conduct, which his lawyers had admitted to jurors at trial. Subramanian did not grant Combs bail to allow him to be released from custody ahead of the sentencing hearing, noting that the trial evidence demonstrated he couldn’t prove he wouldn’t be a danger to those around him.
“This type of violence, which happens behind closed doors in personal relationships, sparked by unpredictable bouts of anger, is impossible to police with conditions,” Subramanian said. “Having conceded the defendant’s propensity for violence in this way, it is impossible for the defendant to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that he poses no danger to any other person or the community.”
Subramanian set a tentative sentencing hearing date for October 3, but said it may be sooner depending on whether the federal sentencing commission could prepare a report on a recommended sentence before then.
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