Rapper 'Puffy' Combs says trial has changed his life

"I've changed, I've matured," the hip-hop mogul told Time magazine Saturday. "This whole thing has made me deeper. It's not what it was about before ... I want to sit down and think about it and try and understand it on an intellectual level."

A jury on Friday acquitted Combs and his bodyguard, Anthony "Wolf" Jones, of gun possession and bribery charges stemming from the Dec. 27, 1999, shooting inside Club New York in which three people were injured.

Rapper Jamaal "Shyne" Barrow, a Combs protege who admitted firing a gun inside the nightclub near Times Square, was convicted of assault, reckless endangerment and weapons charges. He faces up to 25 years in prison.

In an interview published in yesterday's Newsday, Combs said that the trial had been "a life-changing experience. I'm going to be taking some time off to make sure I evaluate everything and get my priorities straight. I have to see what's important: my family, my children, my faith in God."

He said the ordeal had upset his children -- Christian, 2, Justin, 7, and stepson Quincy, 10 -- "because kids were talking about it at school."

Combs credited God, his lawyers Johnnie Cochran and Benjamin Brafman, and the jury for his victory.

"I thank God, I'm blessed, I was able to find fine lawyers like mine," he told the newspaper. The jurors "took the time and followed the facts. If you really broke it down like the jury did, you would know the proof wasn't there."

Brafman, in a telephone interview yesterday with The Associated Press, said the key to winning over the jury was "to get 12 ordinary citizens to get past the hype and the terribly prejudicial media coverage going in and simply look at the facts."

Brafman said part of his task was to get the jury to see Combs, 31, as "an extraordinary young man who has accomplished so much at this early stage of his life."

Brafman said Combs had "learned a lot" about protecting his image. "I think he's going to be more careful about where he goes and who's going to be allowed into his inner circle," he said.

Brafman also said he succeeded in getting an acquittal in part by bringing out two important elements that were not related to anyone's account of what happened in the club.

"One was the fact that within minutes of Sean and Jennifer (Lopez, his then-girlfriend) arriving at the precinct, you had the duty sergeant calling up the press because he deemed this to be a newsworthy case," he said. This suggested to the jury that Combs' celebrity might have affected how his case was being handled, the attorney said.

The other element, Brafman noted, was that Combs faces lawsuits seeking more than $1 billion.

Combs is being sued by the three people who were shot in the club; by his driver Wardel Fenderson, who claimed Combs tried to bribe him to take the gun charge and is suing for $3 million for emotional distress; and by the owner of Club New York, who claims his business was harmed by the shooting.

"The amounts of money being requested by these people made them look not like victims but like opportunists," Brafman said.

Luke Pittoni, the lawyer who is defending Combs against the civil lawsuits, said yesterday in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that he will seek to have the lawsuits dismissed in the wake of the acquittal.

He noted that the money sought from Combs is not directly related to the criminal trial, but Pittoni said he believes the acquittal could "discourage them from continuing the lawsuit."

Combs did not respond to calls seeking comment left at his office or with his spokeswoman, Nathalie Moar.