Diddy protests, heckling, laughter: Inside the wild world of US justice

Inside the Diddy circus: I’ve been covering Aussie courts for more than a decade and our judges would have declared a mistrial in the Sean Combs case a dozen times on the first day alone.

Two weeks into the Diddy mega trial and there’s a lot to be shocked about from the truckloads of baby oil found in his house to the sexually explicit details of “freak offs” and the alleged firebombing of a rival rapper’s Porsche.

But as an Australian journalist covering the case, the thing I find most surprising is the Wild West nature of the American justice system.

Quite frankly if this trial was taking place in Australia there would have been grounds for a dozen mistrials on the first day alone and hundreds more since.

I have spent more than a decade covering Australian courts where reporters navigate a meticulous juggling act of legislation, practice directions, verbal and written orders from judges, and unwritten rules and traditions all designed to ensure defendants receive a fair trial.

Like in the US, our jurors are directed to ignore all media coverage during a trial, but beyond that, Aussie lawyers and journalists go to great lengths to ensure only the information directly put before the jury is reported.

Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean "Diddy" Combs appear at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating "China: Through the Looking Glass" in New York on May 4, 2015. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

This means that until a verdict is returned, there is no reporting of legal argument held in the absence of a jury, no case background and no mention of related civil or criminal proceedings.

File photos of defendants in handcuffs from their arrest can’t be published, comments from victim’s families outside court cannot be reported and every story and headline is checked over by pre-publication lawyers. Any evidence that cannot be tested by lawyers is off limits.

After a verdict is returned, those floodgates are opened to a large extent, but in the United States, those gates are rusted open right from the start.

Sean Combs, better known as P. Diddy or Puff Daddy, could be sentenced to life in prison if he is found guilty of the charges against him including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation across state lines to engage in prostitution.

But the gravity of that seems utterly lost on the hundreds of people who pack the courtroom to watch his trial in lower Manhattan each day, many heckling and laughing raucously at the disturbing testimony.

Switch to any television network in the morning and lawyers with no connection to the case are offering up their opinions on the veracity of witnesses, the performance of the trial attorneys, and Combs’ culpability.

Crates of baby oil found at the home of Sean Combs.

In Australian courts, bailiffs go to great lengths to keep jurors away from interactions that could taint or be perceived to taint their impartiality, often moving them in private elevators and letting them out of side doors to avoid the press.

But in the US, jurors walk directly into the maelstrom each day as they come and go.

People in “Free Diddy” shirts wave placards and chant about his innocence.

Supporters of complainant Cassie Ventura blare her hit song Me & U on boom boxes.

Meanwhile, Youtubers and social media streamers summarise the day’s evidence for tens of thousands of followers, casting judgment on the witnesses, lawyers, complainants and Combs himself.

“Justice for Cassie,” one girl screams into her camera on the courthouse steps.

“My black brother is a scapegoat, he got too big and now they’re coming for him,” another man smoking a joint meters away tells his livestream.

As she left court after a harrowing four days on the witness stand, Ms Ventura issued a statement expressing hope that her testimony had “given strength and a voice to other survivors and can help others who have suffered to speak up and also heal from abuse and fear”.

Meanwhile, the fire hose of allegations against the fallen music mogul continues.

Days into the trial, headlines across the country read “itty bitty Diddy”, outlining a fresh civil case filed against Combs by a woman alleging he raped her, describing his penis as the size of a Tootsie Roll candy bar.

Any single one of these examples could be grounds for a mistrial in Australia but in the US, it’s just another day, not even rating a mention from prosecution and defence lawyers.

Combs is a wealthy celebrity and his own lawyers conceded the evidence paints him as a jerk, a terrible boyfriend and a perpetrator of heinous acts of domestic violence.

But everyone deserves a fair trial and it’s difficult to see how that can happen within the chaotic circus that is the American justice system.

Originally published as Diddy protests, heckling, laughter: Inside the wild world of US justice