Bryana Bongolan accused Mr. Combs of holding her over a balcony, but his lawyers said he was on the East Coast at the time of the alleged Los Angeles encounter.
The judge overseeing Sean Combs’s federal trial admonished the music mogul on Thursday for nodding vigorously at jurors while his lawyer questioned a witness about an account of violence.
Mr. Combs’s enthusiastic reaction came as one of his lawyers cross-examined a woman who has accused him of lifting her up onto the railing of a 17th-floor balcony in a violent act of intimidation. During her questioning, the defense threw the timeline of the account into question.
“I saw your client looking at the jury and nodding vigorously,” Judge Arun Subramanian said after the witness left the stand, out of the presence of the jury. “That is absolutely unacceptable.”
Speaking to Marc Agnifilo, Mr. Combs’s lead lawyer, the judge asked for an assurance that it would not happen again, saying that if the issue continued, it could result in the “exclusion of your client from the courtroom.” Mr. Agnifilo agreed.
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