Puffy's Legal Saga Continues
Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' traffic stop on South Beach's Ocean Drive during Easter weekend won't cost him any more than the bills from his two lawyers.
Combs' legal team won dismissal Wednesday of a charge that he passed illegally while riding a motor scooter on April 14 on the two-lane road, which is gridlocked with rubbernecking motorists and pedestrians on a normal weekend.
Judge Sheldon Schwartz decided the less-stringent laws for mopeds, rather than motorcycles, applied to Combs and dropped the charge, which carried a possible $62 fine. Combs, who also goes by the nickname "Puffy," didn't have to be at the court hearing, and wasn't.
"The reality is, Puffy didn't pass seven cars, and we had witnesses to prove it," defense attorney Jayne Weintraub said outside court afterward, challenging testimony by Miami Beach patrol Officer Mario Rojo.
Miami prosecutors are still deciding whether to charge the 31-year-old Combs with running a red light and almost hitting a pedestrian with his Ferrari in June. He was in town after being acquitted of weapons and bribery charges after a 1999 nightclub shooting in New York.
Also on Wednesday, Combs reached a tentative agreement with model Kim Porter, the mother of his youngest child, on how much he'll pay to support their 3-year-old son.
He now gives Porter, 30, a court-ordered $11,000 a month for the support of Christian Casey Combs, according to comments lawyers made during a hearing in Manhattan's Family Court.
Porter had asked the court to award her as much child support as the law allows. This means 17 percent of Combs' adjusted gross income, which Porter's lawyer, Suzanne Bracker, estimated at several million dollars a year.
Combs also would have had to pay for medical expenses, a live-in nanny, tutors, after-school programs, summer camp, sports programs, private-school tuition and other expenses for the child.
Details of the tentative agreement, which Bracker said has a few minor points of contention, were not disclosed.
Meanwhile, a Long Island, N.Y., judge fined Combs $350 for chopping down protected vegetation around his Hamptons home.
Combs pleaded guilty to one count of clearing in a conservation area after reportedly missing nine court dates. He was accused of mowing down sea-grass and blueberry bushes at his $2.5 million estate.
"I couldn't get here sooner because I've been traveling and out of the country and very busy," he said Tuesday. "But I paid the fine. I'm a great neighbor."
East Hampton Town Justice Roger Walker, upset that Combs appeared to be setting himself above the law, threatened to issue an arrest warrant last month if Combs failed to respond to the charges.
Combs has spent $70,000 restoring the greenery, the Daily News reported Wednesday.
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