Kid Cudi is expected to take the stand Thursday to testify how Combs allegedly firebombed his Porsche outside of his Hollywood Hills home in January 2012 in alleged retaliation for the musician dating Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.
The rapper and producer, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, has seen his name pop up numerous times in Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial over his brief relationship with Ventura in late 2011. (Combs has pleaded not guilty to the five felony charges against him.)
Southern District of New York prosecutors allege that throughout a decade-long relationship, Combs coerced Ventura into participating in highly choreographed, days-long sexual encounters with male exotic dancers and escorts, which Combs dubbed “freak-offs.” Prosecutors allege Combs kept Ventura locked in the abusive dynamic through frequent physical beatings, threats to release explicit tapes of her, and control over her career.
According to prosecutors, Combs’ volatile and allegedly pre-meditated reaction to Ventura’s short-lived romance with Mescudi was one example of the hip-hop mogul using his vast resources, including loyal employees, to reel Ventura back in.
Last year, Rolling Stone obtained a Los Angeles City Fire Department report that confirmed Mescudi was the owner of a Porsche that was set on fire by an “incendiary device” on the morning of Jan. 9, 2012. The cause of the ignition was listed as “intentional.”
The report did not mention any suspects. An official with the fire department in 2012 confirmed to Rolling Stone that the fire was called in and a woman at the home spoke with the fire department. The official recalled inspecting the fire-damaged vehicle and said it was not engulfed upon the department’s arrival.
Ventura and Mescudi struck up a short-lived romance in late 2011 during a rough patch in Ventura and Combs’ frequent on-off relationship. Combs discovered the dalliance when he went through Ventura’s phone during a freak-off and found emails where Ventura disclosed the relationship to Combs’ employee Capricorn Clark.
Combs flew into a rage, Ventura testified. “I just remember him putting like a wine bottle opener between his fingers and, like, lunging at me,” she said. “His eyes blacked out, super angry. And I just had to get out of there.” Ventura fled the freak-off and returned to her hotel, using a burner phone to contact Mescudi, who picked her up.
Ventura attempted to lie low but said she was ultimately convinced to see Combs. “I just felt like [it was] better to resolve it in that moment — was to go there and just speak to him,” she said. But Ventura alleged that Combs was not in the mood to smooth things over. “He was irate,” she explained. “He was just so angry, and when I was in the room, he told me about videos that he had that he was going to release and how he was going to hurt Scott and I.”
Upon leaving Combs’ house, Ventura alleged Combs kicked her in the back, sending her flying onto the ground, resulting in a large, purple bruise on her lower back — photos of which were shown to the jury.
Ventura then flew back to her family’s home in Connecticut for the holidays, emailing her mother, Regina Ventura, and Capricorn Clark on December 23, 2011. Ventura testified that she wanted to memorialize Combs’ threats. “The threats that have been made towards me by Sean “Puffy” Combs are that he is going to release 2 explicit sex tapes of me,” Ventura wrote from an email account under her alias Veronica Bang.
“One on Christmas Day, maybe before or right after and another one some time soon after that,” she added. “He has also said that he will be having someone hurt me and Scott Mescudi physically (he made a point that it wouldn’t be by his hands; he actually said he’d be out of the country when it happened).”
Ventura’s mother, Regina Ventura, who testified earlier this week, said she became “physically sick” upon reading the email. “I did not understand a lot of it,” she said. “The sex tapes threw me. I did not know the other person in it, but I knew that he was going to try to hurt my daughter.”
Due to the overwhelming situation, Ventura said she ended up breaking up with Mescudi a few days later, believing it would be safer for the both of them. “I mean, Sean said to me, before I left L.A. that he was going to hurt the both of us,” Ventura told the court. “I, at least, took that in my mind, like, if I stay in this situation, we both will be hurt. If I don’t, then no one will be.”
Although she returned to Combs, Ventura testified that Combs was still fuming over Mescudi and continued to make threats. “He mentioned that when we were out of the country, that Scott’s car would be blown up,” she said. “He wanted [Mescudi’s] friends to be there to see it.”
Ventura said she saw Mescudi sometime later during a meeting between the trio at Soho House in Los Angeles. “The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the relationship that we were no longer in,” Ventura said. “At the end of the meeting, “Scott said, ‘What about my vehicle? And Sean said, ‘What vehicle?’ And that was the end of the meeting.”
Combs also allegedly retaliated against Ventura by demanding money from her parents. Her mother testified that an “angry” Combs contacted her in an attempt to “recoup money that he had spent on [Ventura] because he was angry that she had a relationship with Scott Mescudi.” Regina said she took out a $20,000 home equity loan in order to wire the money to Combs because “I was scared for my daughter’s safety.”
Also giving testimony this week was former Danity Kane and Diddy-Dirty Money member Dawn Richard; exotic male dancer Sharay Hayes aka “The Punisher”; Combs’ former personal assistant David James; and expert witness Dr. Dawn Hughes, a clinical and forensic psychologist who is expected to testify why “victims stay in relationships” and “coping strategies,” according to prosecutors.
