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\n\tSean Combs\u2019 reported plan to get out of federal custody and counsel domestic violence abusers is striking a nerve with his accusers.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThis is utterly preposterous,\u201d Douglas Wigdor, the victims\u2019 rights attorney who represents Combs\u2019 ex-girlfriend Casandra \u201cCassie\u201d Ventura tells Rolling Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cHow are you going to counsel someone else when you haven\u2019t done the work on yourself? This is manipulation at its best,\u201d one source who alleges they were physically assaulted by Combs in the 2010s, whose story has been corroborated by Rolling Stone<\/em>, adds.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s [making] a mockery of the system. It\u2019s a mockery of everyone he\u2019s harmed,\u201d another alleged victim now pursing litigation against Combs says. \u201cHe needs intensive therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe chorus of criticism followed one of Combs\u2019 trial lawyers, Alexandra Shapiro, telling Business Insider<\/em> the Bad Boy Records founder hopes to become an anti-domestic violence counselor \u201cto help in whatever ways he can to kind of encourage other people not to do this and really to help in positive ways in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShapiro reportedly said Combs\u2019 defense team plans to include his intended pursuit of counseling work in court filings requesting a sentence of time-served for his recent conviction on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe idea is that he would work with programs and be able to go in and talk to people, talk to youth, talk to others about the issue in a proactive way and be an advocate for this,\u201d Shapiro reportedly said. \u201cAnd sometimes, people like him can be the best spokesperson to try to help.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tGloria Allred, a lawyer representing two plaintiffs with lawsuits pending against Combs, says the convicted mogul has a long road ahead of him before he\u2019s ready to even consider counseling. (She also represents other alleged victims who spoke to law enforcement and were on the potential witness list at the criminal trial but were not called to the stand, she says.)<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cAt this point, his stated goal does not pass the laugh test,\u201d Allred tells Rolling Stone<\/em>. Once he\u2019s released, she says, his first stop should be a treatment program for anger management. \u201cAfter that, he should take responsibility for any wrong that he has inflicted on any of his many alleged victims and compensate them for the damages, which exist as a result of his conduct,\u201d she says. \u201cFinally, he should ask the individuals he has victimized for forgiveness for the wrongs that he has inflicted on them.\u00a0Then and only then, he should enter a training program to learn how to be a counselor against sexual or any other type of physical violence.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tCombs, 55, was found guilty of the two prostitution-related Mann Act violations last month after an eight-week trial. Jurors acquitted him of the more serious charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. Prosecutors had alleged Combs coerced Ventura and a more recent girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym \u201cJane\u201d into drug-fueled threesomes with male escorts. They said Combs choreographed the \u201cfreak offs\u201d while masturbating and taking videos.<\/p>\n \n\tShortly after Ventura filed the\u00a0bombshell sex-trafficking lawsuit\u00a0that alleged extensive physical abuse against him in November 2023, which led to his arrest\u00a0on criminal sex-trafficking charges last September, Combs denied any wrongdoing through his lawyer. But in May 2024, CNN obtained video showing Combs kicking and dragging Ventura in a hallway of the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles in 2016. Combs took \u201cfull responsibility\u201d for the beat down in an apology video, saying he was \u201ctruly sorry.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\tAt trial, he and his lawyers admitted he was violent with Ventura on several occasions, but they repeatedly argued \u201cdomestic violence is not sex trafficking.\u201d\u00a0They claimed the hotel surveillance video was a domestic dispute caused by romantic jealousy. Ventura testified that she was fleeing a freak-off that had turned violent.<\/p>\n \n\tOver four days of\u00a0harrowing testimony, Ventura described how Combs\u2019 \u201ceyes went black\u201d during one horrific attack inside an Escalade in January 2009, near the start of their relationship. Combs allegedly stomped on her face with his shoes on for 10 minutes. She said the physical abuse continued until they broke up for good in fall 2018. She claimed Combs also threatened to release her intimate videos if she didn\u2019t meet his freak-off demands.<\/p>\n \n\tWhen it was time to cross-examine Ventura, the defense did not challenge her domestic violence claims. \u201cWe own them,\u201d Agnifilo said. \u201cIf he was charged with domestic violence, we wouldn\u2019t all be here having a trial because he would have pled guilty \u2014 because he did that,\u201d the lawyer said in his closing argument. It proved to be a winning strategy with the jury.<\/p>\n \n\tHow U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian will view Combs\u2019 aspirations to counsel other abusers is not clear. At a detention hearing the day Combs was convicted, the judge noted that Combs had \u201cconceded\u201d his violence in his personal relationships, so he was enough of a danger to the community to warrant keeping him in custody pending sentencing.<\/p>\n \t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n \n\t\u00a0\u201cThis type of violence, which happens behind closed doors in personal relationships, sparked by unpredictable bouts of anger, is impossible to police with conditions,\u201d the judge said. He noted that even after the March 2024 searches of Combs\u2019 homes, when he was \u201caware he was under investigation for sex trafficking,\u201d he still battered Jane at her home. This was \u201cat a time when he should have known that he needed to stay clean,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n \n\tCombs\u2019 sentencing is set for Oct. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sean Combs\u2019 reported plan to get out of federal custody and counsel domestic violence abusers is striking a nerve with his accusers. \u201cThis is utterly preposterous,\u201d Douglas Wigdor, the victims\u2019 rights attorney who represents Combs\u2019 ex-girlfriend Casandra \u201cCassie\u201d Ventura tells Rolling Stone. \u201cHow are you going to counsel someone else when you haven\u2019t done the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[1553,634,1843,8395,2369,1436,2937,1841],"class_list":{"0":"post-14798","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-abusers","9":"tag-call","10":"tag-combs","11":"tag-counsel","12":"tag-critics","13":"tag-plan","14":"tag-preposterous","15":"tag-sean"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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