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- [00:00]
Lauren LaRosa
You're listening to an iHeart podcast. I'm the home girl that knows a little bit about everything and everybody. Exclusive know if you don't lie about that. Right. Lauren came in hot. Hey, guys. What's up? It's Lauren LaRosa. This is the latest with Lauren LaRosa. This is your daily dig into pop culture news. Everything that's going down but the conversations that shake the room. Baby, y' all know that I'm the home girl that knows a bit about everything and everybody. Now we gonna check in real, real quick, because I want to get to the fact that I was outside in court in the rain telling baby PJ are here. How you feeling, Taylor?
- [00:43]
Taylor
I'm feeling good. I don't like this weather out here.
- [00:47]
Lauren LaRosa
But, you know, so anytime I do these Diddy updates from court, even if I'm in here with Taylor recording a podcast at the Breakfast Club studio, I wanted to give this. Like, I feel like one of the things that I miss about being in a newsroom is sometimes you got to do run and gun style, which is running gun style means you're on the street, you're reporting, you're doing what you need to do. You figuring it out. Weather doesn't matter. Nothing matters. You're getting the story, and that is it. And that's exactly what I did yesterday. So today I am feeling rejuvenated because I fell asleep in the midst of watching the Met gala last night. But I'm not tired. I'm excited.
- [01:23]
Taylor
I admire your not consistency, willing, your drive to, you know, you're gonna go get the facts.
- [01:32]
Lauren LaRosa
It's no. No other way. I feel like it's It. It did the. The court, so. So Sean Combs Diddy is on trial right now. His trial was actually happening. Literally, if I was to walk maybe, like, 10, 15 minutes from where I am majority of my day, because we're here at the Breakfast Club studio, a lot of the day, I would be remiss, I would not be the person I say I am if I did not end up there, at least even if outside.
- [01:57]
Taylor
So was that hectic?
- [01:59]
Lauren LaRosa
Oh, my God. It wasn't hectic because it was the first day. And a lot of times. And I knew this. I knew that a lot of times people don't show up for jury selection because jury selection is very. It's like sitting in a boring class that you hate. It's very long. We were there from 9 to, like, 6, 6:30.
- [02:15]
Taylor
Do they start right away? It's like, I'm assume it's like, almost now, like, jury duty, where you're just waiting.
- [02:20]
Lauren LaRosa
Yes. It feels like jury duty, which is crazy, because what you're watching is people arrive to jury duty for the second time. So by the time a jury selection is happening, the jury duty, like, check in has already happened. They've sent you a questionnaire of things that you have to answer and stuff like that to be on the jury. But this is your first time reporting back. And now, you know. You know, like, now. Now you in it. So, like, they're going through the questionnaire. So we feel like we're on jury duty. We as the media that are watching it, because you're literally watching them go through all the drawers. Like, we went through over a hundred people yesterday. And when I say we, I mean me. The other media outlets that were there shout out to a lot of the media that I met. I met Lisa Evers yesterday. I met Ava. I'm gonna get. What outlet is Ava from? Hold on. I want to look. Might mess up my lighting. But I met. I met so many journalists yesterday that I was like, yo, this is so fire. Ava Pittman from News Nation. I met her yesterday. She was like, my road dog yesterday. We was out. Me and Ava. Yesterday was like. Because they weren't trying to let me into the court. Like, the actual courtroom where Diddy was yesterday. And we was there. Oh, yeah, he was there. Diddy is very involved in his case.
- [03:27]
Taylor
Like, but why? Okay, so what's he doing there?
- [03:30]
Lauren LaRosa
Like, I'm just saying he's there because he, you know, I mean, he could say no to. Yeah. Diddy is fighting for his life right now, girl.
- [03:37]
Taylor
I know that.
- [03:38]
Lauren LaRosa
He better be there. I mean, you. So it doesn't work where he. Diddy's just like, no. And the judge is like, okay. It's more so, like, you know, we'll get into it. But, yeah, I met a lot of people. It was kind of hectic. It weren't. It wasn't hectic as far as, like, the lines were crazy or anything. Like, it will get once the witness testimony start. But it was hectic in the sense of, like, everything was so fast, and it was my first day, so I didn't even know how to navigate, like, content. So I didn't put too much pressure on myself. I was like, oh, yo, look, I'm going to just attend. I'm going to step out midway through whatever I'm hearing or watching. Update the people. And then I'll go back in there and just, like, be there for the Rest of the day just to fill it out. So it's hectic because you, you don't really know what you're walking into and it takes forever. It's all. It literally was my whole day. So I woke up yesterday for breakfast club at what, 3:45, 4:00 clock? Got here, did the full day here, and then I went to the Diddy trial until like 6:30. Made it home by like 8, 9 o' clock. Tried to. I watched the Met Gala, tried to prep some notes for the day and I fell asleep.
- [04:37]
Taylor
Yeah.
- [04:38]
Lauren LaRosa
Yeah. So it's hectic as far as that. It just like takes, it consumes your whole day. But I'm feeling good. I'm, I'm feeling really informed and I like having a front row at like, aspect into things. I think that is the easiest to report on. I stopped in my Uber because I realized on the way in there that I wasn't approved. Of course you can't take a cell phone in unless you're actual court inside news. And I'm going to figure out how to get that because I need that. But so I stopped at FedEx and got, you know, just this Cambridge notebook, which I'm going to be taking notes in for the remainder trial. I'm gonna need some more because yesterday I took notes up until like this point yesterday, just from yesterday, and I only got this left. And we got eight weeks of trial left because you just never know what's going to make sense at what point in time. And I have everything listed by like, drawer number. I put the date on everything.
- [05:28]
Taylor
What she's showing is like. Yes, like eight to 10 pages back, front and back. Maybe more than.
- [05:34]
Lauren LaRosa
Yeah, yeah, eight to ten pages. Like, and it's very detailed because you just never know, like, something might come up later where you're like, oh, I made notes on that. And then you go back. It's really like a case study. Which is so weird because when I was in high school, my mom used to always tell me to go to school for law and I could do anything I wanted with that. I was a legal administrative assistant at my VO tech school. So I've always enjoyed like, case studies. That's why I was like a marketing major because you get to dive into cases and break things down and analyze it. But yesterday I was sitting in that courtroom and I'm like, oh, I really do enjoy this. By like 4:00 clock, I was, I was like nodding out. I was falling asleep. But I. Yeah, so I'm good. I'm. I'M I'm in a good space. I want to get into the latest and I've been trying to figure out, because we will be talking about this on the Breakfast Club, of course, as well, how to angley here for the podcast listeners and viewers so that it's different so that they get a little bit more. And I think the best thing is to just kind of open it up. Like, I would love to know what you want to know from me. Like, what are your thoughts? What do you think of when you, when you think of Diddy, you know, in court for the first time, you asked me, was he there? Yes, he was there. Very involved in his case.
- [06:42]
Taylor
Okay.
- [06:42]
Lauren LaRosa
Very involved.
- [06:43]
Taylor
When you say involved, as in just.
- [06:45]
Lauren LaRosa
Watching who they're picking, I mean, when I say involved, I mean, so Diddy was in. He was in a blue crew neck, like, sweater that he pulled over, a white button up, blue slacks. He had reading glasses he, that he would put on and take off as a juror was coming in. You could see him pulling up the drawer's profile on the tablet and just reading through different things as the drawers were like, you know, different things were revealed. Like, for instance, there was one juror that got on a stand and said, okay, so the last time I talked to y' all, you know, because once you're sequestered as a juror, you can't talk to anybody about the case, not even your wife, not even your husband, right? So they're sequestered. They can't talk to their significant others or anybody in their family or anybody about the fact that they're on this Diddy case, one man got up and this man was like, listen, since the last time I saw y' all, and I answered that note sheet and told y' all that nobody knows I'm here and like, I have no, you know, conflicting things in relation to this case. He said, my wife found out that I was on this case and she came to me. His wife is an attorney and said, I was one of the attorneys that was on the case when Puff had the incident back at Howard. Remember that party? That was a part of a documentary where people got stampeded and people passed away.
- [07:59]
Taylor
When was that?
- [08:00]
Lauren LaRosa
That was a lot. It was a long, long, long time ago. Like, when I say it was a long time ago, it was a long time ago. But it was the center of one of the Diddy documentaries that has, you know, it's been all these documentaries over the last, like, year. And it basically made that documentary, made him out to be a Monster who just has no regard for human life and, you know, all these things. So the man was like, look, my wife came to me and said, hey, I know you're on the Diddy trial. He revealed how he knew, which also told on another witness. He said, found out. Right. One of the witnesses told their husband, I don't like him. He's a horrible person. When I prosecuted or when I. When I litigated that whole party incident where people were stampeded, when people got ran over and they passed away, I didn't like his regard for human life. I thought he was a horrible person. And he specifically said his actions were disgusting. He said, my wife found him. And this is why I take notes. Because you. I wrote down the quotes. He said, because the judge asked him, because. Because basically he was like, look, I'm here and I'm telling y' all the truth. So I could still be a juror. I could still do this. Like, it's not going to impact the way I think about this case at all. But the judge had to dig deeper. The judge asked him, well, what did your wife say? Because he said, my wife said negative things when she found out that I was on this case. So he said, my wife found out. My wife found his behavior to disturbing and she does not like him. That juror, potential juror was excused. And I say, excuse, that means that you're not able to, because what. So the prosecutors weren't really tripping off that. The judge was like, the judge is very lenient. He's super fair. He was like, what do y' all think? Mark Agnifilio, who was Diddy's attorney, was like, no. For him to say, my wife does not like him. That is a very definite feeling. And I'm just nervous that that may have spilled over onto the husb. No, not happening, right? But I was thinking, yo, how small is the world? And how crazy is that? And I really was looking at Puff and I'm like, I wonder how he feels to have that come back up again after all these years. And not just in a documentary, but you're sitting in front of this man whose wife prosecuted you at that time. Right. And he was young. This was a long time ago when it happened. Prosecuted you at that time. You had a party. People were not protected in a way that they should have been. And people died because of that. And now you sitting here and it's come back up again. Why you fighting for your life?
- [10:17]
Taylor
Yeah. And good for him for being honest 100%. Like, I feel Like, a lot of people aren't honest, so it's interesting that he even says something.
- [10:26]
Lauren LaRosa
Yeah. And in the courtroom, when Diddy walked out, I mean, just seeing him, because I've seen Diddy in person a few times and, you know, things of that nature. But, like, just seeing him when he walked out into the court, it, like, instantly, it was just like, oh, wow, this is really real. He looks. He. Very much gray hair, some black, but very much gray hair. He's a lot skinnier. He looks like puff from, like, the 90s where he was, like, skinny and, like, slim. I'm not as skinny, though, but a lot skinnier. You can almost. You. You can catch. How. You can catch his height more because he's slimmer. I feel like when he was, like, you know, filled out a little bit, you didn't really. He didn't come off as tall. A little bit more. But, like, even when he was sitting next to his attorneys, I'm like, you could catch his height a bit more because his body is slimmed down. His face is very, like, gray, pale. Because he's been, you know, behind bars all this time. He just. I mean, he looks his age for sure. I want to say he looks stressed, but I don't even think it's that. I just think it's just different to how I'm used to seeing him.
- [11:32]
Taylor
Yeah.
- [11:32]
Lauren LaRosa
And I think for me, it really hit me then. I'm like, reporting on this is one thing, but to see him walk into that courtroom and to see how he looks, I was like, man. And I just started thinking about all these things, and I actually wrote them down because I was like, in real time. I really want to, like, be able to, like, document. Not that it's about me at all, but just be able to document, like, what I was feeling and seeing him. And one of the things I thought about is, like, I wonder if he. Cause he's in New York. He's in this trial. We're here all day long. His daughter Chance. His daughter Chase. Is it Chase or Chance? I believe it's Chase. Chance. Hold on.
- [12:10]
Taylor
Yeah.
- [12:12]
Lauren LaRosa
Yeah. His daughter Chance is literally right up the street at nyu. She goes to nyu. His other kids are, you know, la. They're. I was thinking about the girls. I was thinking about so much because I was looking around to see if any family was. There was no one that I recognized. And I was like, I wonder if he feels like he failed. Like, I wonder after all of this success and after all of these heights, if he feels like he's failed because he is sitting here devoting all of this of his day to this. And you could tell that he was nervous.
- [12:42]
Taylor
At one point I was missing the. His twins birthdays and he missed that and yeah, yeah.
- [12:47]
Lauren LaRosa
And. And his report with his attorneys were. It was amazing. I was shocked to see it. He was laughing with them and you know, he was very. When I say involved, I mean like when certain things would happen on the stand, like when this guy revealed that his wife was one of the attorneys who litigated. And that whole like party incident where Puff was like, you know what I mean? All of that, the whole, all of us was like. Because it was like oh shoot, what a coincidence that this is coming back up right now, right. Even then when, when that happened I saw him smile and I, and I. And I feel like. Because, because there was another time too. They kept bringing up the hbcu. Hbcu, the HBO documentary that was like horrible that that document tore him to shreds. I saw him look over at his attorney like. And like nod his head at that point too. And his attorney made it.
- [13:30]
Taylor
He probably, probably. They probably prepped him saying like look, they're going to bring this son up.
- [13:35]
Lauren LaRosa
I don't think that they knew that that HBO documentary would come up because the attorney, Mark Agnifilio did a really good job of like pressing a judge on like look, when we. Because they do the jura, the juror interviews separately. So we go, we went through each of those people. It was so many damn people separately, right? And then they bring them back in in a group. So the, the, his attorney kept saying to the judge when the group comes in, basically, I don't want to poison their mind. I don't want to bring up that HBO documentary. A group of jurors who might not have seen it. Cuz then we got to go through what it talked about, all of that stuff. But I think there are certain points that they're going to get to in the case that the. And and he mentioned this too, that the HB HBO doc is a part of, number one, how they were going to strike that witness. Like and strike means like object to the witness being on a jury. But just bringing up like how social media in the media has impacted this case.
- [14:29]
Taylor
Okay.
- [14:29]
Lauren LaRosa
Which was also a big point too. Majority of these jurors, even if they had never. Cuz there were a lot of people who. I believed them too cuz you know, just, I just, I believed them who had never heard of Puff because of the life that they Live. They're older.
- [14:41]
Taylor
You know, they never.
- [14:42]
Lauren LaRosa
There was, like, an older white lady who had no idea she thought. Michael. Because in the. In the questionnaire, they asked you about people in places, right? So they want. I guess they want to identify how close to celebrity you are. One, there was this older white lady. She was such. God bless her heart. She came on the stand and they were asking her because she identified that she might have known one of the people on the people in places list. She was talking about Michael B. Jordan, and she said, is that the basketball player Michael Jordan? She really had no idea.
- [15:12]
Taylor
Well, I mean, that's different.
- [15:15]
Lauren LaRosa
But she said that she really didn't know. Because a lot of them admitted, too, that since they had received the jury questioning and info about the case that they'd be on, they begin to see headlines that they weren't really paying attention to before. Cause they had to tell, like, they had to let the judge know that that was a thing. Cause if it had come back up in court, you could. You know what I mean? Like, I would have lied. Well, that lady who was a juror, who then went and told her husband, she gonna get in trouble. So, yeah, I was thinking about all that stuff. Like, yo, his time and his days are so different now.
- [15:46]
Taylor
Can you retell what he's on trial for?
- [15:49]
Lauren LaRosa
Yes. So currently he is being charged on five different counts. The counts include charges spanning from sex trafficking, racketeering, conspiracy, and transporting to eng. Engage in prostitution. There's arson. That is a conversation. And Puff has pled not guilty to all of these charges. And he also turned down the plea deal as well. And one of the things that they discussed. And I'm gonna leave it here. I'm not gonna get into this. They mentioned in the court yesterday that that Cassie video probably will not be used in court.
- [16:20]
Taylor
They're probably going to use the Cassie video. But I have a question about, like, did they. They did pay a juror, like some jurors, though.
- [16:28]
Lauren LaRosa
No, no. They do. Is. Is. So. No, no. Jurors were picked yesterday. It'll take a week. It'll take a week because they want to go through everybody. Like, they have a whole pool of people that potentially are able to be jurors. They go through everybody. They get. They get. They ask tons of questions because they want to know your motive. Like, why do you think you could do this? Do you have any conflicting ties to the case? Any conflicting ties to Puff? Are you a fan or not? Can you make a sound decision if, you know, if all of the above or can you not? It gives Diddy's team a chance to be like, nah, we don't want this juror because of ABC and D. It gives the prosecutors a chance to be like, nah, we don't want this juror because of ABC and D. It also gives you a chance to kind of, like, think about how you speak to your audience or to the jury, because they do these group interviews where they find out who you are, where you're from, do you have spouses? What music did you listen to? Like, that whole thing, it is really like a. It's almost like when you do a brand identity kit for a business that you get to really get into the. The crevices of it, and then you pick those 12 people, and then that's who you're speaking to the whole time. So Monday the 12th, the judge said that that's his plan. Monday the 12th, he wants opening statements to start. So this will be going on all week.
- [17:41]
Taylor
Okay.
- [17:41]
Lauren LaRosa
Because they gotta narrow it down.
- [17:44]
Taylor
Do you think it's ideal or. The people you saw was. It was a good combination of different races?
- [17:51]
Lauren LaRosa
Oh, yeah, 100%. It was very much a different combination of different races, different ages, different. Like, I was even like, there were some black girls on the. In the selection that I was like, oh, they definitely Diddy fans. There's no way. And then they got on, like, the. The group interview, and they were like, I don't even listen to music, like. And I'm like, I don't think some.
- [18:10]
Taylor
Of them are lying, though.
- [18:11]
Lauren LaRosa
I think you have to know who he is for sure. But to say that you're a fan, where it's like, oh, my God. Oh, my God, Diddy. Oh, my God. And there was somebody in the courthouse. The first go around, when I was not in the actual court, I was in overflow. I was told that somebody was in there with a free puff shirt on, and they made them turn it around. Because the public can join too. The public can just come?
- [18:28]
Taylor
Yeah.
- [18:32]
Lauren LaRosa
Why they.
- [18:33]
Taylor
So they weren't part of the jury. They just came there with their free.
- [18:36]
Lauren LaRosa
No people. I met a woman yesterday who works for the mta, who. She's not a journalist or anything like that. She's just a person of the public who just wanted to come. You know, she has her own reasons, but she just wanted to come. All right, so we're gonna be breaking this down more, y' all, as the weeks go on. I just kind of wanted to give y' all a gist of what my day was like. Yesterday. All the stuff I tweet me and ask me questions. I feel like with this diddy trial, I don't just want to, like, throw everything at you guys. I really want to be able to answer your questions from my handy dandy notebook. Tweet me @lauren larosa, Instagram. Lauren larosa, lowriders. Thank y' all for being right here with me. I was out during the rain yesterday.
- [19:11]
Taylor
Okay, it's gonna keep raining.
- [19:13]
Lauren LaRosa
It's gonna keep raining, but I'm not out there until Friday again. So. Yeah, it's the. The Latest with Lauren LaRosa. I'm your host, Lauren LaRosa, the homegirl that knows a bit about everything and everybody. We didn't get to all the segments today because we just had to, like, you know, do what we do. Eli's here. He's. He's on the pod. Say hi to the podcast. Say hi to the podcast.
- [19:31]
Taylor
You hear now?
- [19:32]
Lauren LaRosa
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You hear this over your Eli, y' all. I'm hopping out of here, cuz. I got to go finish Breakfast Club. I'll see you guys in my next episode. You're listening to an iHeart podcast.