Cassie Ventura — the star witness in the Sean “Diddy” Combs case —entered the courtroom on Tuesday with a visible baby bump. But prior to her testimony, Combs’ defense team made their best effort to have Ventura seated at the witness stand before the jury entered the courtroom.
“I’m going to ask that victim number one, when she testifies, be already in the jury box when the jury comes in,” Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, requested in court on Monday, adding that he was making the request because of Ventura’s “physical condition.”
Ventura is expecting her third child with husband, Alex Fine.
Judge Arun Subramanian denied the request.
In any trial, optics may impact a juror’s perception positively or negatively. In this case, however, a source close to Combs told CNN that Agnifilo made the request specifically to avoid Ventura being “paraded in” past the jury.
A representative for Combs declined to comment.
Ventura’s attorney, Douglas Wigdor, told reporters outside court Tuesday evening in response to a question about Agnifilo’s request that his client “walked in front of the jury like every other witness who takes the witness stand.”
“The jury is going to judge her based on her testimony – not based on her appearance, hopefully,” Wigdor added.
Ventura has returned to the witness stand to continue her testimony on Wednesday.
