Kayla Brantley (1:50)

Yeah, I think there's a few of our guests who betted on this trial not making it to today. Not starting today.

Marjorie Hernandez (1:56)

Right.

Kayla Brantley (1:56)

And Diddy even rejected a plea deal just a few days ago. So this trial is full steam ahead. And both of us were at the courthouse this morning. I was surprised actually at how empty and dead it was. There were a handful of media, there was press all lined up, camera crews right outside of the courthouse. But other than that, I thought we would see either fans or maybe Diddy protesters. Usually high profile trials like this really attract a crowd.

Marjorie Hernandez (2:26)

I'm wondering it's because of the rain or more people are planning to possibly go right at the start of trial for opening statements. I think there'll be probably more of a crowd of public in general next week.

Kayla Brantley (2:39)

Yeah, I think that actually might be the case too because, you know, jury selection is typically pretty boring. It's a whole bunch of jurors sitting there getting asked questions. Do you know about this trial? What do you know? Can you be impartial? So really the drama happens. What everyone really wants to know about starts next week on Monday.

Marjorie Hernandez (2:58)

Well, typically it is boring if you're actually sitting, waiting in the courtroom waiting for your number to be called. However, we have reporter Dan Bates actually sitting inside and watching this all unfold. And some actually pretty interesting points came up from the actual potential jurors. So they're given a questionnaire which says, how do you feel about if you hear anything about intimate partner abuse or rape? Do you know these celebrities on this potential witness list? And one of the potential jurors said that, oh, yeah, I actually recognize this name, Mike Myers, who is, as everybody knows, Wayne's World, he's a big actor.

Kayla Brantley (3:37)

Austin Powers.

Marjorie Hernandez (3:39)

Austin Powers, yes, Austin Powers.

Kayla Brantley (3:41)

That's how I know Mike Myers the best.

Marjorie Hernandez (3:43)

So it was interesting. I'm trying to connect Mike Myers and Diddy so that it will be interesting to see who else is on this list right now. We do know that again, Mike Myers and Michael B. Jordan, possibly also on this list. And Kid Cudi.

Kayla Brantley (3:58)

Oh, wow. Michael B. Jordan's having a big moment right now. His movie Sinners just came out.

Marjorie Hernandez (4:02)

That's right.

Kayla Brantley (4:03)

Number one at the box office, in the news. Everyone's so into it. This is a surprise to me to hear that Michael B. Jordan's name is brought up at all. Of course, just because his name is brought up doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean he had anything to do with anything. But if you're a celebrity and you have status, the last thing you want is to be tied to this in anyway. You don't want your name thrown out at all. So I can only imagine that Michael B. Jordan, who, you know right now, you can say is at the height of his career, wants nothing to do with this.

Marjorie Hernandez (4:33)

Right. Again, as Kayla mentioned, even though the celebrities names are out there, doesn't necessarily mean they are connected with any of the charges. Also, they might not even be called. This is just a long list of people who might be called. So we'll see how that all shakes out. Right now, potential jurors are given this list and if they feel some sort of way about a witness on there, they might say, look, I actually worked with this person before. That's why I can't be impartial. So it'll be interesting to see which potential jurors drop off because of that or which actually stay. That's the whole process this week.

Kayla Brantley (5:09)

Yeah. And from reading Dan's story, I believe there was a potential juror who worked for a publisher, Simon and Schuster.

Marjorie Hernandez (5:15)

Right.

Kayla Brantley (5:16)

Who had insight, knowledge, because I believe they repped Al B. Shore's book. Al B. Shore, who's an R and B singer. And then he said it is a salary position, but that he gets commission based off sales. So is the outcome of the trial going to affect how he makes his money? Is that going to affect the book sales that would eventually put money in his pocket? You know what I mean? So there's a lot that needs to be taken into account.

Marjorie Hernandez (5:42)

And speaking of Al B. Famously, you know, him and Kim Porter had dated before and also have a child together. Quincy Interestingly enough, Terry Garrigo is one of the defense attorneys for Diddy mentioned in court that they expect there to be a discussion about Kim Porter and they might be frequently bringing her up. During a debate about one potential juror who might be allowed to serve, prosecutor Maureen Comey actually disputed that claim and said that she doesn't think that they're going to bring up Kim Porter a lot. Again, it seems like a small world. And being that Diddy just knew everybody and worked with everybody in the industry, there'll be a lot more celebs names coming up in this witness list.

Kayla Brantley (6:25)

And I do just want to make it clear to our listeners that the reason that Al B. Shore, that connection to the juror could potentially be problematic is because, yes, Al B. Sure dated Kim Porter. They have a child, Quincy, together. And Kim Porter is Diddy's ex who passed away a few years ago. There were claims that said Diddy was involved. Of course, none of those were substantiated. I believe the cause of death was pneumonia. But Quincy, which is their son, is basically adopted by Diddy. Quincy considers Diddy a father. So there's a lot of conflict of interest there when it comes to Al B. Shore and then that potential juror.

Marjorie Hernandez (7:02)

We want to also explain how the UK And US Courts differ. In the US Juries are preselected and require a unanimous verdict, whereas UK Juries are actually randomly selected and can reach majority verdicts. Also, typically in the US Court system, federal cases, no cameras are allowed. So what you're seeing from there are just court artists rendition of what Diddy looks like. And it's actually been interesting because the court sketches that we're getting right now, Diddy walked in with a, quote, preppy look, according to our reporter, again, Dan Bates, who's inside the courtroom. And Diddy is wearing gray pants, navy crew neck sweater and a crisp white shirt with no tie. And he's still rocking the gray beard and hair.

Kayla Brantley (7:49)

Yeah, I wonder what the decision was behind him having the gray beard, gray hair, if that was to gain sympathy. That look at this guy who is so put together, look how he's aged, he needs to get out type of thing, because, correct me if I'm wrong, I think they could get their hands on some hair dye his team if they wanted to make him look more presentable in core or just make him look like the Diddy that we all know.

Marjorie Hernandez (8:14)

Another source of mine tell me that hair dye is actually in the commissary list. So he could have actually have his hair did before court. But again, he's still rocking the gray, so we'll see. Interestingly enough, as Kayla's out there standing in the rain waiting for this jury selection to unfold, not too far away is the Met Gala that's going to happen later on today. So interestingly enough, when we're talking about Diddy and how he looks in court, normally he would actually be in prep mode for the Met Gala, which is actually happening tonight. Not seeing him there will be interesting. And Kayla, can you talk a little bit about why this year's Met Gala theme, Diddy would have probably excelled in his outfit.

Kayla Brantley (8:58)

Absolutely. I guarantee you that if Diddy wasn't in court right now behind bars, he would be one of the co chairs of the Met Gala. You have Lewis Hamilton, you have LeBron James, lots of successful black men. Because the theme this year is tailoring black style, the Black Dandy style. So this really would be Diddy's time to shine. And before all of this happened, he was revered in both the music industry and the fashion industry. You know, he had Sean John, he frequented the Met Gala, he was on those steps with Cassie in the past. Elaborate outfit. So this was definitely his kind of place at this weird poetic justice that the day that his trial begins is the biggest day in fashion and in Hollywood.

Marjorie Hernandez (9:45)

Right. And we have to always note that he has pled not guilty to all the charges. And he's facing, again, very serious charges. Kidnapping, sex trafficking for prostitution, involving at least two victims with male commercial sex workers, and racketeering conspiracy. So again, he could actually face potential life sentence if he's convicted of all charges, which again, he has vehemently denied. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.

Kayla Brantley (10:28)

Welcome back to the trial of Diddy. I am still outside in the rain outside of the courthouse where Diddy's inside as jury selection is underway. Day one of jury selection. But this morning, Marjorie, you got off a plane in New York at midnight from la and I texted you this morning saying I'm heading down to the courthouse. And you said, I'm going to be running a little late because I'm writing this exclusive story about the case. So can you tell our listeners what that was all about?

Marjorie Hernandez (10:56)

Yeah, I had an exclusive this morning. Diddy actually hired a very well respected jury consultant to join his legal team. And her name is Linda Moreno. And Linda is again, no stranger to very controversial and high profile cases. She actually once represented actor Wesley Snipes on his tax evasion case back in 2008. But she's also helped the defense team with other high profile cases. The one that really put her on the map involved a college professor named Sami Al Arian who was indicted in 2005 on terrorism charges under the Patriot Act. So she was actually able to help the defense in formulating the questions that jurors would answer and whittle down who would be the best jurors for the defense. And that's really what these jury consultants do. They look through people's profiles and see if they have anything social media to see whether or not they know the defense or how much they followed up on the defense's post and case. It's rather controversial, but all legal. They can do their background research on these potential jurors. So having Linda Moreno there is really interesting that they have hired her to help with picking potential jurors.

Kayla Brantley (12:17)

I haven't seen her come in this morning. I got here this morning pretty early, around 9am a.m. jury selection started at 9:30, but when I got here it was already packed. And I spoke to a lot of the photographers, videographers, crew that were all here. Some who had been here since 4am others since 6am and then I was worried that I may have missed something. But what they told me is that they hadn't seen any of Diddy's legal team walk in. They hadn't seen Linda Moreno. They haven't even seen any of his family members come in, which strikes me as a little strange. I don't know about you, Marjorie, but his family for the most part has been at most, if not all, of his hearings.

Marjorie Hernandez (13:00)

Yeah, I'm pretty sure if they haven't shown up by today, that they will be there for opening statements on Monday. That is the big day. Maybe the rain had scared off some folks, who knows? But I'm sure the defense team probably walked around the side to the back door, away from the media frenzy outside. Jury selection is happening. So they are in there with Diddy. Actually, there's one picture from the courtroom artist that showed Diddy hugging his defense team. Right before juries came in. So they're all there next to him. Whether or not we'll see more celebrities or his family members, we shall see next week. One other thing I wanted to bring up related to this jury selection, obviously we're finding out now some of the questions that might come up during the trial itself. They asked whether or not as a potential juror, whether you've had experiences with domestic partner violence and how you feel about that and other questions also, have you seen or know anything about this particular celebrity? But you know, there'll be some jurors who will be dropped off. They might even have another excuse, a family excuse or something like that. But one of our jury experts, Renato Stabilo, actually told us, and he's also a jury consultant like Linda Moreno, he told us there could be some people who actually want to be a part of the jury. He brought that term up called a stealth juror, that there are people who actually want to sit through an eight week trial, want to see these celebrities, want to see Diddy. So it'll be interesting to see if any of those stealth jurors will be dropped by either side.

Kayla Brantley (14:43)

Very interesting, considering everyone wants to get out of jury duty. Nobody wants to typically sit in a courthouse. Typically sit in a courthouse for that long, getting pennies a day, missing work, missing collecting their livelihoods. Now, I don't know any stealth jurors. I don't think I would want to be a stealth juror. But they do exist, according to our jury experts.

Marjorie Hernandez (15:04)

Yeah, it'll be interesting to see who they suss out who might want to be stealthy and try to get in that jury box. But we shall see.

Kayla Brantley (15:12)

And I do want our viewers to remember that we are in US Federal court, where there are no cameras allowed, no photos allowed to be taken. We're only getting court sketches. And we have reporters inside doing great work, sending along information as fast as they can, as accurate as they can. But here on the Trial of Diddy, we take the transcripts from each day. We have voice actors who will play out each role. So here you really have the opportunity to be inside the courtroom that only a handful of people do get. So we absolutely hope that you listen along. We'll be here every Tuesday and Friday with the new episodes recapping what's gone on during the trial.

Marjorie Hernandez (15:53)

And for Friday's upcoming episode, I mentioned Renato Stabile. He will be back on Friday to give us a wrap up of how he thinks jury selection went. What he thinks was some of the interesting questions that came up during jury selection. Don't miss that because I think he will have some great insights. Thanks again for listening to us and please keep on following the trial of Diddy as this trial starts on Monday, May 12th.

Kayla Brantley (16:23)

Thanks for listening everyone. I am going inside out of the rain to get out of this rain. Yes.

Marjorie Hernandez (16:29)

Thank you, Kayla, Sam.