When federal authorities brought sweeping criminal charges against Sean “Diddy” Combs last year, they said the case was about much more than the mogul’s alleged illegal behavior.
They said their cases would expose how the music legend-turned-entrepreneur used his power and money to get away with shocking crimes, often with help from a cadre of advisors and aides.
This week, the stories of those in Combs’ inner circle were heard in his federal trial on racketeering and sex trafficking charges. They told of his threats of murder, coercion, kidnapping and the beatings he inflicted on his former girlfriend.
Prosecutors called a series of witnesses to bolster their contention that the hip-hop mogul is more than a domestic abuser and uses his entire Bad Boy empire to coerce, threaten and abuse his victims and, most specifically, his onetime lover Cassie Ventura.
One witness described himself as a Combs cleanup man who tossed out liquor bottles and narcotics after wild parties. Another witness said he once drove a heavily armed Combs for a confrontation with rap mogul Suge Knight.
The most dramatic testimony came from the former global brand director for Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment, Capricorn Clark, who described years of threats and violence by the mogul.
The federal indictment alleges that Combs and his associates lured female victims, often under the pretense of a romantic relationship. It alleges that he then used force, threats of force, coercion and controlled substances to get women to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes while he occasionally watched in gatherings that Combs referred to as “freak offs.” Combs gave the women ketamine, ecstasy and GHB, a date rape drug, to “keep them obedient and compliant” during the performances.
Combs’ alleged “criminal enterprise” threatened and abused women and utilized members of his enterprise to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice, prosecutors said. In bringing so-called RICO charges, prosecutors in opening statements said Combs was helped by cadre of company employees, security staff and aides.
Clark said that on the morning of Dec. 22, 2011, she heard banging on her L.A. apartment door. She opened it to find Combs holding a gun. She testified that he asked, “Why didn’t you tell me? Who is Scott?”
Clark told a Manhattan jury that she knew Combs was referring to Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, according to Associated Press reporting from inside the courthouse. Clark knew Cudi and Ventura were in a relationship, but she told the hip-hop mogul that she did not know who Scott was.
But Combs knew he was the rival musician and declared, according to Clark: “We’re going to kill this n—.”
About 15 minutes later, they arrived outside Cudi’s home. A gun-wielding Combs, along with a bodyguard, went inside, but Cudi wasn’t there.
Clark testified that she called Ventura on a burner phone and said, “Cassie, stop [Cudi], he’s going to come get himself killed.” Ventura, Clark testified, said Cudi was on his way to the house.
Clark said Combs got back in the car and realized she had called Ventura’s burner phone. Shortly after, Cudi pulled up next to Combs’ Escalade outside his home and then accelerated away. Combs’ vehicle gave chase unsuccessfully, she said.
She testified that they ended up at a nightclub and Combs told her to call Ventura and tell her that “he has me, and he’s not going to let me go until I come get her.”
Clark testified that Combs then said she and Ventura needed to convince Kid Cudi to not tell police that Combs was involved in the break-in at Cudi’s home. Clark quoted Combs as saying: “If you guys don’t convince him of that, I’ll kill all you,” according to CNN.
Clark said Ventura then went with her to Combs’ home in L.A. at the time and he began kicking the singer. Clark said she and a security guard stood and watched as Combs repeatedly kicked Ventura with “100% force” as the singer curled up to protect herself, according to Associated Press. Clark said Combs threatened to hurt her too if she tried to intervene. The security guard ordered her to leave. She then called Ventura’s mom to warn her.
During four days of testimony in the trial’s first week, Ventura described being raped, beaten at least six times, most severely in 2009, recalling him “stomping” on her face after he discovered she was dating Kid Cudi.
Cudi testified about several incidents involving Combs, who prosecutors contend was so upset at the rapper that he arranged to have Cudi’s Porsche 911 convertible firebombed. Cudi told jurors about finding his car burned in the driveway of his Hollywood Hills home in 2012, the AP reported.
Cudi said his dog watcher called him to say his Porsche was on fire. He told jurors it looked like the top of his Porsche was cut open and “the Molotov cocktail was put in.”
Clark admitted she hung up on arson investigators who called her.
She testified that Combs threatened her 50 times during her last year of work.
Clark said Combs once accused her of stealing diamond jewelry that was on loan to him from a jeweler. She said a Combs aide administered a lie detector test to her. He warned her that if she failed the test or he couldn’t get a clear reading, “they’re going to throw you into the East River.” After five days of testing and being held, she was released, she said.
Combs’ defense attorneys have sought to distinguish between the violence described in testimony and the charges facing the mogul, saying that “domestic violence is not sex trafficking.”
Combs has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers say he never kidnapped Clark. Under cross-examination by Combs’ attorney Mark Agnifilo, Clark acknowledged that while Combs waived a gun when arriving at her apartment, he never pointed it at her. The defense lawyer got her to acknowledge that she repeatedly returned to work for Combs after leaving his employment.
George Kaplan, a personal assistant for Combs from 2013 to 2015, told jurors he was a cleanup man who tossed out liquor bottles and narcotics and scoured the scene for items from freak offs. Kaplan, who was granted immunity by prosecutors, testified he never reported abuse to authorities. He testified that he heard Ventura screaming in the bedroom of Combs’ jet. “Isn’t anybody seeing this?” he recalled her crying, accompanied by the sound of crashing glassware.
David James, another personal assistant in 2007 and 2008, testified that Combs had him stock hotel rooms with Viagra, condoms and baby oil. He said he once drove Combs, who had three handguns on his lap, to a Los Angeles diner looking for Knight, the rap mogul.
James recalled a conversation one night with Ventura on the Miami dock by Combs’ home as they smoked cigarettes. He asked her why she did not leave. “I can’t get out,” James testified that Ventura told him.
“Mr. Combs oversees so much of my life,” James recalled her saying. “He controls my music career, he pays for my apartment, he gives me an allowance.”
James told the jury he believed her: “I just didn’t think that she could easily leave.”
