Hello and welcome to the sidebar presented by True Crime News, taking you inside the

courtrooms of high profile and notorious cases from across the country.

I'm your host, Joshua Ritter.

I'm a criminal defense lawyer

based in Los Angeles and previously in LA County prosecutor for over a decade. We're doing something

a little different this week. In this week's episode, we're going to be taking a look back at some of

the biggest cases from the year, including salacious headline-grabbing trials, plea deals that you never saw coming,

and long-awaited courtroom conclusions that spent years in the making. You can see I'm not exactly

in my same studio setup, but I did manage to get all dressed up for this special occasion. So let's go ahead and jump right in and take a look back at the year that was 2025.

First, out of Manhattan, New York, no case captured the cultural zeitgeist quite like the prosecution of Sean Diddy Combs,

which dominated conversations from true crime aficionados and pop culture fans alike.

From the time FBI agents raided the homes of the bad boy entertainment CEO,

prosecutors made it clear they were looking to take the hip-hop billionaire down in a very public way.

However, despite a high-profile trial, disturbing allegations, harrowing testimony, and some

meme-worthy evidence, Combs managed an acquittal on the most serious counts.

Despite speculation and likely some irreparable damage to his public image, Combs received

a sentence of just over four years on two counts of transportation for the purpose of prostitution,

avoiding convictions for racketeering and sex trafficking. Though allegations against Combs may carry out in

civil court for years to come, this closed the criminal proceedings for the hip-hop magnate for the time

being. Well, a couple of things to go

through about this one. First of all, if you're the prosecution, how do you view this case? How do you

feel about the results? I've got to say, having been a prosecutor, I don't care that this

...