In a tearful speech, protection legal professional Nicole Westmoreland made an emotional enchantment to the choose about Sean Combs’ enterprise success and impression on the Black neighborhood.
“Our neighborhood lastly had a seat on the desk. A voice — an actual voice. After Mr. Combs found out the right way to transfer inside that business, he moved on to assist others,” Westmoreland stated, as her voice often cracked.
In comparison with the protection legal professional Jason Driscoll’s legalistic speech — which provided a breakdown of what the protection group says are comparable prison circumstances to argue for a lighter sentence — Westmoreland targeted solely on Combs’ character and impression.
“I need to communicate with the court docket about how he used his success to assist others,” she stated. “Mr. Combs touched many extra lives than the court docket has heard about this final 12 months.”
Westmoreland argued that Combs’ success as a musician and report label govt confirmed others what they will accomplish “it doesn’t matter what race you might be.”
“By Mr. Combs carrying all of these hats and pouring himself into that label like he did, it despatched a message. It despatched a message that you are able to do it. You don’t must be signed to the label, you will be the label,” she stated. “If Mr. Combs may do it, they may do it, too.”
She additionally spoke at size about Combs’ clothes line and his work serving to assist constitution faculties in New York.
“Mr. Combs has touched the lives of so many,” Westmoreland stated. “He has given alternative to internal metropolis people who by no means had actual company alternatives.”
“He has actually impressed a neighborhood,” she stated. “Mr. Combs has impressed generations and generations to observe.”