As Diddy’s legal team concentrates on the character of accuser Lil Rod, the music mogul’s alleged drug mule Brendan Paul enters a not guilty plea.
This week saw the formal arraignment of 25-year-old former Syracuse University basketball player Brendan Paul in a Miami-Dade County courthouse. Paul is accused of acting as a “drug mule” for music and business magnate Sean “Diddy” Combs. Paul was charged with a felony of cocaine possession, and his lawyer Brian Bieber submitted a not guilty plea on his behalf. A controlled substance possession accusation against him was withdrawn.
Miami-Dade Police claimed in an arrest affidavit that Paul was brought into custody last month after being found with edible cannabis and cocaine at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport. Day following his arrest, on March 26, he posted bond and was let go.
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Diddy was seen on film pacing the same airport that day while Homeland Security officers searched his Miami Beach and Los Angeles properties as part of a continuing investigation into sex trafficking. In describing the raids as a “unprecedented ambush,” Combs’ lawyer said his client is innocent and “will continue to fight every single day to clear his name.”
A felony drug allegation against Paul, though, would be problematic for the Bad Boy entrepreneur. With the Combs investigation still under progress, authorities are in a prime position to make Paul an offer that might see charges withdrawn or lowered in return for his cooperation.
Sean Combs’ legal team, meantime, is concentrating on producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Smith, who is suing the rapper for $30 million on claims that he was drugged, coerced into having sex, and saw several criminal activities while the two were employed together. They contend he is an untrustworthy witness because of his past “troubling arrests and convictions.”
According to records, Smith was charged with both a misdemeanor sexual assault in 2005 and domestic abuse in 2009 and 2014. All of those accusations were dropped, but in 2003 he was found guilty of careless homicide.
Combs’ team has questioned Lil Rod’s integrity, and his lawyer Tyrone Blackburn provided more details about that conviction, which happened when the producer was 17 years old.
Driving a car, he had his cousin in the passenger seat. When the cops pulled him over, he fled because he was scared, according to Blackburn. When the cops pulled over a young Black boy in Chicago, his actions were rather normal. He thus totaled the car, and his closest buddy, his cousin, passed away.
“He has to live with the guilt of the death of his best friend and family member for the rest of his life,” Blackburn said. You should still be able to run the story and earn clicks, though.
“Can do nothing to distract from the fact that he will be indicted soon,” Blackburn added.
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