Law&Crime Sidebar - P. Diddy Should Be Charged with Kidnapping, Get Locked Up for 15 Years: Parkland Judge

Episode Date: May 22, 2024

Sean “P. Diddy” Combs appears to be laying low after what some have called a “weak” apology on social media to his ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura. Combs was caught on surveillance cameras inside a hotel in 2016 when he apparently attacked Ventura for trying to leave. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber turns to attorney Elizabeth Scherer, a former Florida judge who oversaw the trial of the Parkland school shooter, to get insight into how she would handle a case like this.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you’ve used Incognito mode in Google’s Chrome browser, find out if you have a claim in a few clicks by visiting https://www.incognitoclaims.com/sidebar/?v=sb4Download EarnIn today in the Google play or Apple app store. When you download the EarnIn app type in Law and Crime under PODCAST.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Why are we not charging this guy with false imprisonment? Why are we not charging this guy with kidnapping? Why are we not charging him with aggravated battery? Those are all second-degree felonies, each of which carries a 15-year prison sentence, each of which would have a much longer statute of limitations period for the filing. We have had a lot of reaction to the latest diddy news from the highly disturbing video of him purportedly beating his ex-girlfriend to his apology. We now ask former Judge Elizabeth Scherer, who presided over the Parkland School shooting case, her take on these developments.

Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Hey, everybody, this is a law and crime legal alert. Google Incognito tracked users browsing data without their knowledge. While Mass Tort Alliance, one of our legal sponsors, is helping users file for compensation due to Google users' privacy issues surrounding Google Incognito. So if you've used Google Incognito any time since 2016, you can start your claim in less than 10 questions at incognito claims.com slash sidebar. Well, with all of the Sean Diddy Combs developments, it can be kind of tough to make sense of it all. Well, that's why we're getting some incredible perspective from some amazing experts and guests. And, of course, there is a lot going on right now because over the weekend, Combs responded to the incredibly alarming and sickening video obtained by CNN of him allegedly beating his ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura back in 2016.

The video seemingly showing him kicking, pushing, dragging her, throwing a vase in her direction, all at the intercontinental hotel in an elevator bank out in L.A. this is all while he was wearing a towel, by the way. That's what the video seems to show. It is a brazen attack right in the open. And from a legal perspective, it also matches up to Ventura's description as she laid it out in her civil complaint that she filed against Sean Combs. She had sued him for sexual abuse and sex trafficking back in November 2023. She settled the case. But two days after this video was published and shocked the entire world, Diddy decided to respond on instance.

It's so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life. Sometimes you gotta do that. I was up. I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. Disgusted.

I was disgusted then when I did it, I'm disgusted now. I went and I sought out professional help. I had to go into therapy and go to rehab. Had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I'm so sorry. But I'm committed to be a better man. He's in every day. I'm not asking for forgiveness. I'm truly sorry.

And we have been trying to make sense of why he put this out, the issues surrounding this response, and what is next? Well, as I said, we have great perspective. And right now, I have terrific perspective because I'm bringing on former judge, Elizabeth Scher, now in private practice with Conrad and Sherer. Thank you so much for coming on. Judge. Great to have you. Let's first start since I haven't spoken to you. Your reaction to the 2016 video obtained and published by CNN. Let's start there. It's brutal. I mean, I'm watching that thinking. The first thing that comes to my mind is this poor girl. And the second thing that comes to my mind is, what an idiot. I mean, this is 2024. And I understand that was

2016, but there are cameras everywhere, especially in a hotel. It's shocking. It's one of the most shocking videos I've ever seen. I can't say it's the most, unfortunately, but it's, it's pretty bad. It's, it ranks up there with, with some other really bad ones that I've seen in my experience. But here's the thing. He allegedly purchased the footage for $50,000 from the Intercontinental Hotel. That's what Cassandra Ventura said. So for me, when I've, I've read all the lawsuits and I've heard the allegations. And the theme is, the theme is he's so powerful. He can get away with whatever he wants to get away with. He'll have people be the fall guys for him. If I take that as true, it's almost not surprising that he's allegedly running down the hallway in his towel and beating her in an open hotel, right?

Yeah, I mean, I find it, I get what you're saying. And if that's what goes on in California, maybe, but, oh, gosh, I just find it so hard to stomach the idea that you can buy evidence because of who you are, how much money you have. And I'm sure that I'm, that I'm being too, not close-minded, but I'm being too idealistic, thinking that, no, people wouldn't possibly do that. But I guess that stuff goes on in California. And it's disgusting. Well, it allegedly happens everywhere. It's about the wealth and power. That's what some of the themes that we've seen so far in other cases.

You know, one of the interesting things about it, and unfortunately, the reason this has changed the game is there are allegations put out. in complaints, and there's allegations put out in cases all the time, but it's another thing to see it. And that visual will forever be in people's minds. And it makes me wonder, seems why he wanted to settle that case as soon as possible, because during the, right? He's kicking her like a dog on this, you know, some, not that you should kick a dog, but he's kicking her like some kind of wild animal who's, you know, the only time you should ever act like that is perhaps you're being attacked. I mean, she's just laying there. You can tell trying to get away from him and he's just trying to prevent her from leaving, kicking her,

hitting her. And, you know, a lot of times when you watch surveillance videos like these, they are very powerful, but you have to imagine you're only getting up a certain perspective. Usually it's a camera that's way up in the corner. So you're not getting the emotion. You're not getting the talking. You're not getting the sweating, the heart beating, the, the, if you were standing right there. You'd probably hear her moaning or crying or begging for her life while he's screaming at her and insulting her. And you could probably hear smacking when he's hitting her. So yes, I think this evidence is incredible, is absolutely incredible. But you sometimes have to step back and say, you know, we're just watching it with no sound. And it sort of happens very

quickly. And without that other component to it, without maybe her to explain exactly what was going on and a play by play, we're really not even getting exactly. how bad it is. From a legal point of view, I want you to clear something up for us. Sure. Let's the L.A. County District Attorney's Office said we can't prosecute this case because it happened in 2016. There's a statute of limitations, I believe, for felony assault, it's three years.

I even kind of did a brief research about whether or not he could be charged for allegedly tampering with evidence or something like that. I think it does also fall into the statute of limitations. Your former judge, attorney, it's important to have the statute of limitations. but you can also understand why it would be frustrating for people to see this and say, how is he not being brought up on criminal charges in California for this? Well, first of all, if this woman tried to press charges and they declined the case and said there wasn't enough evidence, and it in fact turns out that it's because he purchased the

evidence or he tampered with evidence, there will be an exception to the statute of limitations. That's number one. Number two, why are we not charging this guy with false imprisonment? Why are we not charging this guy with kidnapping? Why are we not charging him with aggravated battery? Those are all second-degree felonies, each of which carries a 15-year prison sentence, each of which would have a much longer statute of limitations period for the filing. I mean, he's hitting her with a vase.

That's a deadly weapon. He's holding her gun. He's keeping her from leaving that particular hotel. You can tell she's trying to get out. She has her bag. She's trying to get on the elevator. And he's dragging her back. That's kidnapping.

could be argued what armed kidnapping because he's throwing deadly weapons at her a shoe a vase can all be considered a weapon the fact that the la county district attorney's office said they didn't receive a report from law enforcement about this what does that mean what does that tell you it tells me that that she didn't she didn't go to the police right maybe she was embarrassed and you mean that happens it's sort of the nature of domestic violence people just go ahead to give you context in her lawsuit she put off the allegation she couldn't go to law enforcement it was just too much she was she was in fear yeah and and that's um that happens unfortunately that happens so much even even when victims

of domestic violence initially report an incident to law enforcement i would say more than 50 percent at a later point change their mind and don't want to pursue the prosecution and without a witness without the victim's testimony it's very hard to prove this type of domestic violence situation. In this case, you wouldn't need a victim because you'd have a video. Correct. Right. I've said this before. It's a misnomer that you need someone to press charges in order for the media charges. I said the same thing during the Will Smith, Chris Rock, incident. You didn't need Chris Rock to report it to the police. We all saw it. You want probable cause. You have it on tape. But here's the thing. It's a reasonable person. What would be in the

mind of a reasonable person? In fact, I've prosecuted cases where the victim was against me. The victim was testifying for the defense and I still got a conviction um it was a situation where a man set his wife on fire and she said that it was an accident that he accidentally lit her on fire um but the reasonable person and the juror can see that you don't accidentally set yourself on fire thank god because that guy was that domestic violence cases are sometimes the worst of the worst terrible and and let me ask you this so putting the state charges for the side. We know that there is an ongoing federal investigation. Diddy's

houses have been raided. It's possibly pursuant to an ongoing sex trafficking investigation. Do you think that that video, it could constitute federal crimes, federal charges, and what would that look like? I don't know. It could. There is a

kidnapping, a federal crime of kidnapping. I mean, but Jesse, come on. We know the feds. They don't file anything unless it's a slam dunk. U.S. is going to win 99% of the time. That's why so many federal cases don't get ever, ever filed or sent to a jury. The assistant U.S. attorneys, you know, they need permission from Washington on every single case they file. The odds, they want to make sure the odds are stacked against the defendant so that they can

maintain their 99% conviction rate. So although this case on video, you would think would be a 99% conviction rate if they could come up with some type of crime that would get over the hurdle of the statute of limitations, but they're the feds. They can do what they want. I think it could be a piece of evidence used in a sex trafficking case. If you're going to say that you're using force or coercion to force somebody into commercial sex acts, and the allegation was, I mean, it's a very graphic lawsuit that she basically said she was forced into sexual slavery and was given things in value and opportunities. I think this could be evidence of that.

Here's my question to you. Whatever charges he's brought up of assuming their felonies. Okay. If you were presiding over this case and you had to sentence him and there was a range of sentence, how would you sentence Diddy to crimes pursuant to this video? Depends. You know, usually a guy his age isn't just wake up one morning and start beating on a woman. So I don't know if he has priors.

I think we would have heard about that if he did. in front of me for that type of a, you know, unprovoked attack, I would at least give him 15 years in prison. He's in Florida, 100%. And I don't care if he's P. Diddy. Well, life doesn't happen biweekly. So why should pay date? The money you earn can be in your hands today with the sponsor of this video, Earning. Earning is an app that gives you access to you pay as you work up to $100 per day or up to $750 per pay period. All you got to do is just download the Earnon app and you verify your paycheck. Then you access up to $100 a day as you work and leave an optional tip. And any money you access plus tips are automatically repaid from your next paycheck. And think about

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See Ehrnan.com slash TOS for details. Bank products are issued by Evolve Bank and trust member FDIC. Would you revoke his bond? If he was out on you, I don't think that the charge would fit a punishable. In Florida, you have to have a charge that's punishable by a maximum of life in prison to be held without bond. Any other offense is bondable. However, given his means and his resources, I wouldn't certainly set a very high bond like in the millions. And I would have a lot of requirements attached to that bond because I saw that apology, Jesse.

and I don't believe a word of it. Can we talk about that? Can we talk about that? Sure. So you posted two days after. Again, I thought it was very interesting that it was posted after the LA County District Attorney's Office said they would not prosecute. What was your take on? Did he's response?

It's a textbook self-serving apology. And I actually, that's the first thing that came to my mind. All he says is, and I'm going to just refer to my notes, is I was effed up. I hit rock rock bottom I I tried to get help I'm all about me you don't hear anything about this woman you don't hear anything about I am so sorry for what I did to this woman I am so sorry if she is having you know residual effects if she's having nightmares you know I can't imagine if somebody had done this to a woman I care about my mother my sister the the way that I treated you is is is unspeakable it's inhuman and I am sorry And I hope there's some way that you will be able to go and live a productive and healthy life. And I would, you know, be willing to do anything to make that happen. That's an apology. And apology is not, oh, I was messed up and I did this and I did that.

It's all about me. You don't hear him say anything about the victim the entire time. Well, let me ask you about that. Because CNN has reported that it is possible that the reason he didn't mention is because their settlement agreement from that lawsuit prohibits them from speaking about each other. This is what sources have told one of their reporters at CNN. If that is true, I mean, do you think that she would have gone after him for apologizing to her? I don't think so, right?

I mean, you never know, but here's the thing. If you're sorry, you're sorry. And if you really want to make amends, you want to make amends. You know, he didn't even say, I'm sorry, I did this. Or he didn't even say who he was sorry, too. Is he apologizing to the public? I mean, I get it. Maybe his lawyer told him not a good idea.

But his lawyer should have also told him to issue this sort of half-ass self-serving apology where he only talks about, poor me, poor me this, poor me that. I don't think that that helped him at all. I think that if I'm the victim, that's going to make me even more upset about the situation because to me it shows he has absolutely no insight into what he did. Do you think he was advised to put this out? because there's an ongoing federal case. He just admitted it was him in the video.

I can't imagine he was advised to respond like this. He looked like he was high. He was very slow and kind of like, you know, the eyes are droopy. And to me, he looked like he was either extremely tired, hadn't slept, or he was on something. And if he was going to do a press release, I'm thinking he would have, you know, an organized press release per the advice of counsel, per the advice of a publicist, I'm thinking he's going to be wearing a suit and tie. He's going to be dressed nice. The lighting's going to be good.

And he's going to actually make sense of what he's saying as opposed to just babbling away on some, you know, cell phone camera in the, in the, it wasn't dark, but it wasn't, you know, well lit. And I would think one would put more thought into the appearance if that was an orchestrated apology. I think he went rogue. Do you think, though, that put him in even more legal jeopardy? I mentioned the fact that he admitted it, but remember, he didn't, when all these allegations came out, he didn't just say, I'll wait for my day in court, I look forward to clear my name, or no comment at this time, he flat out denied that he, all these allegations against him, and now is seemingly saying, no, I admit to one of these allegations.

So not only does it hurt his credibility on a PR point of view, but wouldn't it hurt his credibility at a future trial? Well, certainly if he takes the stand, because he can be confronted with all of that, those inconsistencies. But, of course, I can't see that happening? I mean, can you, him taking the stand in a criminal case? Well, what about it? He could be called to the stand in the civil cases, and it makes me wonder if he wants to settle them after all this. True. I mean, again, I don't think that was a very good attempt at reaching an agreeable settlement.

because I think, again, what he did that was completely self-serving. I don't think it was heartfelt. I don't think he mentioned any of the things that one would mention. You know, if you wanted to apologize to your wife or your family member or your loved one, and you were really sorry for something that you did, even if it's not some horrific act like this, you would say, I feel terrible. I am so sorry. I can't believe I hurt you.

I am horrified by my actions, and I want to make this very. right, and I want you to know that I don't feel that way about you. You're a wonderful person. You would try to, you know, you would try to really express to the person that you do feel bad and that, and why. Right. And let me, let me end on this point because it was interesting the way you talked about a potential sentencing. Would you bring this apology up in your sentencing? Because we know that judges sometimes can, you know, provide some context and explanation to the defendant before handing down a sentence. Would you bring up this apology video if you had the opportunity? Oh, yes. I would tell him that I have received your apology video. I've reviewed it,

and I would tell him exactly what I just told you all. I find that it's self-serving. I find that because I used to have people all the time that would get a pre-sentence investigation report where they would issue a statement before sentencing. And very often the apology goes like this. And a lot of times I would say to the person, well, what exactly are you sorry for? Who are you apologizing to? You're apologizing to me. You didn't do anything to me. This is my job.

Who are you sorry? Who are you apologizing to? And what are you sorry for? I want to know specifically. And most of the time, people like that that don't have insight and they're not really sorry, they'll try to answer you, but they can't because they're not sorry. So they don't know what to say when you put them on the spot. Wow.

judge elizabeth sharer thank you so much for coming on no no i i appreciate your perspective and i'll tell you it's very interesting because i as i mentioned i'm getting perspective from a lot of different people on this um and there's a lot to make of it and we are very curious to see what will happen next but judge thank you so much for coming on always appreciate your perspective thank you so much thank you for having me all right everybody that's all we have for you right now here on sidebar Thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber.

I'll speak to you next time.