Opening statements are expected in the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sex trafficking trial

By MICHAEL R SISAK and LARRY NEUMEISTER Associated Press NEW YORK AP Federal prosecutors will begin trying to prove Monday that Sean Diddy Combs turned his hip-hop conglomerate into a racketeering enterprise that forced women to satisfy his sexual desires for two decades Testimony in Combs New York trial could begin as soon as the afternoon following a final phase of jury selection in the morning and opening statements from the lawyers Combs has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment that could land him in prison for at least years if he is convicted on all charges He has been imprisoned at a federal jail in Brooklyn since his arrest in September Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a party-loving lifestyle that may have been indulgent but was not illegal Prosecutors say Combs coerced women into drugged-up group sexual encounters then kept them in line through violence He is accused of choking hitting kicking and dragging women often by the hair Combs former girlfriend the R B singer Cassie is expected to be among the trial s early eyewitnesses She filed a lawsuit in saying Combs had subjected her to years of abuse including beatings and rape The lawsuit was settled within hours of its filing but it touched off a law enforcement scrutiny and was followed by dozens of lawsuits from people making similar asserts Prosecutors plan to show jurors video a safeguard camera video of Combs beating Cassie in the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel in Jurors may also see recordings of events called Freak Offs where prosecutors say women had sex with male sex workers while Combs filmed them The indictment explained the events sometimes lasted days and participants required IV-drips to recover Combs attorney Marc Agnifilo has explained that the Bad Boy Records founder was not a perfect person and was undergoing therapy including for drug use before his arrest But he and other lawyers for Combs have argued that any group sex was consensual and any violence was an aberration After the video of Combs assaulting Cassie in the hotel aired on CNN last year Combs apologized and reported he took full responsibility for his actions I was disgusted then when I did it I m disgusted now The Associated Press doesn t generally identify people who say they are casualties of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly as Cassie whose legal name is Casandra Ventura has done The trial is expected to last at least eight weeks