Transcript

[Speaker 1]

We’re going to talk a little bit world up to life in prison if convicted. So let’s get into this. Joining me now is criminal defense lawyer Lauren Johnson Norris.

We thank you so much for being here. I got to tell you, I’ve been covering this case from the beginning. I want to ask you first.

What do you think was the biggest takeaway moments from this week for me? I was surprised to hear that the defense said after the prosecution wraps up their last witness on Monday. They’ve only got one or two days of their case.

[Speaker 2]

Absolutely. The defense initially said they thought this case would take about two weeks for the defense case. And now what they’re suggesting is that the prosecution may not have been as strong as initially had thought that their burden of proof has not been met.

And so they are underscoring that there are holes and they don’t want to emphasize or take away from the prosecution’s burden of proof. They may just not have much to add because there wasn’t much put on by the prosecutors.

[Speaker 1]

Now, a lot of people will say that, look, we heard a lot about these hotel nights. We heard a lot about what happened behind closed doors during the relationships with the witnesses that testified and some of the people who were brought in to have sexual relations with girlfriends. I mean, it was, it’s been crazy.

It has been crazy. I can tell you, and a lot of it X rated, but again, does it go to racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking, transportation for prostitution? Some people say we might be looking at a split verdict.

It’s hard to tell. You can never know what a juror is going to, how they’re going to vote. Right.

Uh, but we’re talking about the prosecution wrapping up Monday defense two days. Then we’re talking about closing arguments coming maybe by Thursday. Uh, what do both sides need to do to convince jurors?

Because he is facing life if convicted on all these charges.

[Speaker 2]

Correct. It’s an extraordinary amount of exposure for these charges. And like you said, well, there’s salacious facts and there’s some things that, you know, people might make them uncomfortable or be X rated.

The question is whether or not the prosecution has proven Rico, this conspiracy basically to human traffic people. And so the question will be whether or not they’ve proven that now the prosecutors are going to want to try to connect all the dots and say that all of these witnesses, 34 witnesses have put together enough evidence to move their case forward beyond a reasonable doubt. And what we’ve seen the defense do is poke holes along the way and say that these witnesses have grudges against combs, that they have problems with him and that they’re just bringing it forward as really aggrieved parties, but not people who were coerced or forced in any way to be part of a conspiracy.

[Speaker 1]

All right. Well, we did hear a lot of about text messages. We have seen some paper trails.

We’ll see how it all plays out. And if I can tell everybody one thing, this is a huge week coming up because this could be at criminal defense lawyer, Lauren Johnson Norris. Thank you so much for joining us today.

I appreciate your time also.