The third week of Sean Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering criminal trial brought three crucial witnesses for the prosecution to the stand: former staffers who all claim they not only witnessed Combs attack Casandra “Cassie” Ventura but that they were subjected to a range of abuse themselves while trying to protect her from the unpredictable and volatile hip-hop mogul.
Their testimonies help corroborate Ventura’s accusations of physical abuse against Combs, who is accused of keeping the R&B singer trapped in an abusive dynamic through physical force, manipulation, and coercion. The former employees also help build out the Southern District of New York’s racketeering charge against Combs, who is accused of using his billion-dollar empire as a criminal enterprise to carry out acts of bribery, arson, and kidnapping.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to the five felony counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution charges against him. If convicted, he stands to face 15 years to life in prison.
Although the former employees spoke at length of their fearfulness of Combs, the mogul’s all-star defense team questioned them on why they remained friendly with Combs after either departing his company or claims of sexual assault.
The defense went particularly hard on Combs’ former personal assistant, Mia, referred to as Victim-4 in the government’s case. Mia claimed that Combs sexually assaulted her numerous times throughout her employment and would threaten to tell Ventura that she instigated the alleged assaults if she failed to carry out his demands.
Highlighting the numerous loving social media posts Mia made about Combs, attorney Brian Steel asked Mia, “How did you find any goodness with Mr. Combs after what you described to the ladies and gentlemen of this jury?”
“I think there [are] a lot of textbooks out there that will explain it very easily,” she replied in part. “It’s an abusive relationship, the cycle of violence.”
Here are the key moments from the trial’s third week:
RICO Charge Taking Shape
The first two weeks of the trial focused mainly on the government’s charges of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution as it related to Combs’ relationship with Ventura.
The R&B singer testified that although she loved Combs, she was trapped in the abusive dynamic through threats, physical violence, threats, and coercion. She said many members of Combs’ team were present when Combs would attack her, particularly his security, but rarely intervened.
This week brought the racketeering charge into focus. Prosecutors claim that between 2004 and 2024, Combs used his sprawling businesses as a criminal enterprise to commit a range of offenses, including “sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.” Combs is accused of forced labor by exploiting and maintaining control over certain employees’ lives by leading them to “believe they would be harmed” or face financial ruin if they disappointed him.
Combs’ global brand director, Capricorn Clark, his personal assistant “Mia,” and celebrity stylist Deonte Nash all testified about their overlapping tenure working for Combs between 2004 and 2018. They described their initial excitement at being part of the Bad Boy family but said their lives quickly became consumed by the chaotic, nonstop working environment Combs fostered. They testified that their jobs were in constant jeopardy and they were expected to be available for Combs’ every whim.
Clark said in exchange for her $65,000 salaried position as Combs’ personal assistant, she developed stress-induced alopecia and averaged two to four hours of sleep a night. When she attempted to collect $80,000 in overtime pay, Clark said Combs ripped up the paperwork in front of her. Mia said after being hired in 2009, she suffered a physical breakdown after staying awake for five days straight, suffering blurred vision and muffled hearing. She was only allowed to sleep when she burst into tears.
Eventually, a good portion of their roles became intertwined with Combs’ relationship with Ventura, the witnesses claim, facing threats and physical attacks when Combs was upset with Ventura.
Nash claimed Combs once threw him onto a parked car and strangled him because he had gone out with Ventura without Combs’ permission. What was supposed to be an idyllic vacation in Turks and Caicos turned into Mia and Ventura escaping an irate Combs by paddle board, venturing far out into the ocean in stormy weather. And Clark said she sat frozen in fear when Combs allegedly kidnapped her, showing up at her apartment with a gun and forcing her to accompany him as he looked to confront Kid Cudi over his fling with Ventura in December 2011.
Clark alleged she was held against her will at an earlier time, in 2004, after jewelry that Combs had on loan went missing. Clark said Combs’ security guard brought her to a dilapidated office building, where she was questioned by a heavy-set, unidentified man for five consecutive days. “He says I had been brought to the building to take a lie detector test to figure out what happened with this jewelry,” Clark testified. “He said if you fail these tests, they’re going to throw you in the East River.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily A. Johnson said during opening statements that Mia’s experience with Combs fell under the racketeering conspiracy charge. Combs “used physical force, physiological harm, financial harm, reputational harm and/or threats of the same to cause the employee to engage in sex acts with Combs,” a March indictment alleged.
Mia also testified that shortly after Ventura filed her sex trafficking lawsuit against Combs in November 2023, she was contacted out of the blue by D-Roc, a former senior member of Combs’ security team. Mia said her “radar went off” during a phone call where a nervous-sounding D-Roc began “talking in circles,” attempting to minimize the violence in Combs and Ventura’s relationship.
Mia said Combs then attempted to contact her. “I don’t wanna be blowing up your phone,” Combs wrote to Mia in February 2024. “Just needed to talk to you for 10 minutes. Just need my memory jogged on some things. You were my right hand for years, so I just [want] to speak to you to remember who was even around me. And it would be good to hear your voice. But if you don’t want to, all good. Just let me know. Love. Hope you’re well.”
Around that same time, Mia said D-Roc asked how he could send her money. Mia said she never accepted the money and never replied to Combs.
Former Assistant Claims Combs Raped and Threatened Her
Combs’ former personal assistant Mia, who worked for Combs from 2009 to 2017, alleged her boss sexually assaulted her numerous times during her employment and threatened to twist the narrative if she dared to disobey him. It was especially devastating, Mia testified, because she considered Ventura like a sister. “I was going to die with this,” she told the court. “I didn’t want anyone to know ever.”
Mia said the first encounter happened at Combs’ 40th birthday party at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. She said she believed two vodka shots that Combs handed her might have been drugged, causing her head to spin as Combs leaned in for a kiss and slid his hand up her dress. Her next memory was waking up on a chair in another room, she testified.
The alleged assaults were always random and sporadic, Mia said. Once, she alleged, Combs climbed on top of her while she was sleeping in a staff bunk bed at his Los Angeles house and penetrated her. Another time, Mia alleged he unzipped his pants while she was packing his clothes and forced her to perform oral sex on him. There were several other sexual assaults, Mia claimed, but she blocked many of them out, only able to recall a “dark horrible feeling” in the pit of her stomach surrounding them.
Mia said she never discussed the alleged assaults with Combs, but alleged he would vaguely refer to them while threatening her. “He threatened that he was going to tell everybody, and he was going to telecast as though I had something to do with it,” Mia said. “That he would fire me and ruin my future and somehow twist the story into making me look like a threat.”
Cassie Tells Friend She Didn’t Want to Do ‘Freak-Offs’
During her four days on the stand, Ventura said throughout her decade-long relationship with Combs, she was forced into participating in countless freak-offs at Combs’ behest. The freak-offs are at the heart of the sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution charges against Combs; as Ventura testified, she dreaded the freak-offs and tried to push back but felt unable to refuse Combs.
On cross-examination, Combs’ defense team quizzed Ventura on the numerous emails and text exchanges with Combs, where she seemingly expressed an openness to continue the sexual encounters. Yet, Ventura was adamant that she would give anything never to have had to experience a freak-off.
This week, at least one witness seemed to corroborate Ventura’s claim that she didn’t want to have freak-offs with Combs yet felt she had no other choice. Ventura’s stylist and friend, Deonte Nash, recalled a pushy Combs yanking Ventura away from her 29th birthday celebration in 2015.
“As they were leaving, Puff was telling Cassie, ‘Fuck you, I do all this — I’ll do everything for you, and you just can’t do this one thing for me,’” Nash recalled. “I was like, ‘Girl, what is [he] over there doing, what is [he] talking about?’ And Cassie said, ‘Girl, [he’s] just mad because I don’t want to go to the hotel and freak-off with him.’”
Later that night, Nash recalled an intoxicated Combs yelling out, “Y’all’s girl is going to get some dick tonight.” A “high” Ventura reluctantly packed a bag filled with sex toys and cash to leave with Combs. Nash said Ventura told him that Combs was “making her” go to the hotel.
Mia said she became concerned for Ventura when she accidentally interrupted a freak-off while dropping off supplies for Combs at the hotel. She claimed Ventura answered the door in a bright blue wig and looked like she was “struggling.”
Ventura’s demeanor was much “different than I had seen her before,” Mia explained. “So much that I asked, like, are you good? … She was kind of like, ‘Shh, I’m good.’ And closed the door.”
Destroyed Fingerprint Cards that Led to Mistrial Motion
A line of questioning to a Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator led to Combs’ defense team accusing SDNY prosecutors of “outrageous” behavior and demanding a mistrial.
In previous days, jurors heard testimony from Ventura, Kid Cudi, and Clark regarding a series of incidents that played out over the holidays in December 2011 and January 2012. They alleged that Combs became furious when he discovered Ventura was dating Cudi (whose real name is Scott Mescudi), allegedly breaking into Mescudi’s home and making a series of threats against the singer. A few weeks after the break-in, Mescudi testified that his Porsche was firebombed in his driveway.
Firefighter and arson investigator Lance Jimenez said as part of his investigation into the firebomb, he ordered fingerprints be collected from several items found at the scene, including the Porsche itself.
Jimenez said two fingerprints had already been recovered from Mescudi’s glass front door from the earlier break-in, which he passed along to the Los Angeles Police Department to be tested against any fingerprints found at the scene of the arson. But Jimenez said he never received any report back. Only recently did he learn that the fingerprint evidence was ordered to be destroyed in August 2012. (Earlier in his testimony, Jimenez said he made calls around that time to Clark and Ventura seeking statements about the firebombing.)
Combs’ defense team claimed prosecutors seemed to be suggesting that Combs had something to do with the fingerprint cards being destroyed. After a brief break, Combs’ attorney, Alexandra Shapiro, asked for a mistrial. “As the court will recall, during jury selection, there were issues raised by some prospective jurors about the idea that Mr. Combs could buy his way out of this,” she said. “This type of conspiracy theory is out there, and the type of implication that we believe these questions were designed to create plays right into that.”
However, Judge Arun Subramanian swiftly denied the request, saying, “There is absolutely no testimony from the witness that was prejudicial in any way, shape, or form, as the court sustained the objections that were raised.”
Cassie Gives Birth
Nearly two weeks after testifying against Combs in court, Ventura gave birth to her third child, a boy, on Tuesday. The 38-year-old had been seen earlier in the day running errands in New York City.
The announcement played out in court Wednesday during cross-examination of Ventura’s close friend, celebrity stylist Deonte Nash. Asked by defense attorney Xavier Donaldson when was the last time Nash had spoken with Ventura, he casually answered, “After she had the baby yesterday [to] tell her congratulations.”
Ventura shares two daughters with her husband, Alex Fine, who was by her side throughout her four days on the witness stand. The couple began dating in 2018 — around the time Ventura said she ended her relationship with Combs for good. They married in August 2019, welcomed their first daughter later that year, and had their second daughter in 2021.
The Week Ahead
Steel’s cross-examination of Mia will continue on Monday, June 2. The following witnesses will testify: InterContinental Hotel security supervisor Eddie Garcia, who will testify under immunity; hotel custodian Sylvia Okun and two men named Enrique Santos and Frank Piazza.
The eight-week trial is expected to conclude before the July 4th holiday, as prosecutors previously stated they anticipated a six-week presentation of their case. However, Agnifilo flagged to the court this week that prosecutors indicated they had made “fairly substantial changes in their direct case” and would no longer be calling certain witnesses.
Agnifilo said this might lead to the defense’s side taking longer. “I think we are probably still bumping up against the 4th of July holiday,” Agnifilo said. “I don’t see ending that much earlier, even if the government rests a few days or a week early.”
