{"id":31843,"date":"2025-05-16T22:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T22:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/16\/danity-kanes-dawn-richard-testifies\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T22:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T22:18:10","slug":"danity-kanes-dawn-richard-testifies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/16\/danity-kanes-dawn-richard-testifies\/","title":{"rendered":"Danity Kane’s Dawn Richard Testifies"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\n\tFollow all our Sean Combs trial coverage<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\n\tBad Boy Records artist Dawn Richard was called as the fifth witness at Sean Combs<\/a>\u2019 sex-trafficking and racketeering trial on Friday, as prosecutors sought to corroborate claims the music mogul brutally beat his longtime ex-girlfriend Casandra \u201cCassie\u201d Ventura.<\/p>\n

\n\tRichard, a breakout talent from Combs\u2019 MTV reality series Making the Band<\/em> who later joined Bad Boys\u2019 all-female group Danity Kane and the R&B trio Diddy\u2013Dirty Money, confidently strode into courtroom, avoiding making eye contact with her former label boss. When Richard mistakenly said the wrong color of Combs\u2019 sweater \u2014 white instead of cream \u2014\u00a0while pointing out Combs for the court, he teasingly put up both of his hands to identify himself. <\/p>\n

\n\tWith Ventura\u2019s testimony still fresh in jurors\u2019 mind from earlier in the day, a Southern District of New York prosecutor quickly got to the heart of Richard\u2019s testimony about Ventura. Richard testified she had
\u201cnever seen\u201d anything like one instance of alleged physical violence where Combs allegedly attacked Ventura in 2009 over a batch of eggs. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe came downstairs screaming, belligerent, asking where his food was, and proceeded to hit her over the head, kicked her and beat her to the ground in front of us,\u201d Richard told jurors. (Richard said her fellow Diddy-Dirty Money bandmate Kalenna Harper was present for the alleged assault.)<\/p>\n

\n\tRecounting a scene that she previously outlined in a civil lawsuit<\/a> against Combs, Richard said she was in the kitchen at Combs\u2019 Los Angeles mansion that night while Ventura was cooking eggs for Combs. She said Combs came downstairs and demanded to know where his food was. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe proceeded to come over to her and took the skillet with the eggs in it and tried to hit her over the head with it, and she fell to the ground,\u201d she testified. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt didn\u2019t seem that it hit her fully,\u201d she continued. \u201cShe went into the fetal position \u2026 I was scared for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRichard was in the beginning stages of testifying about the events that followed \u2014\u00a0Combs calling a locked-door meeting with just her and Richard and allegedly threatening them \u2014\u00a0when Combs\u2019 lead attorney Marc Agnifilo raised an objection. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian decided it was a good place to end the day. Richard will continue testimony on Monday <\/p>\n

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\n\tRichard\u2019s dramatic account, delivered in a federal courtroom in lower Manhattan, followed after Ventura spent four days testifying<\/a> about the violence she allegedly endured.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a civil lawsuit filed last September, a week before Combs was arrested and indicted<\/a>, Richard alleged that the billionaire businessman harassed and abused her during their working relationship, then threatened her life after she witnessed him savagely beat Ventura. According to her lawsuit, Richard was in the room when Combs first met Ventura nearly 20 years ago. At that point, Ventura was a 19-year-old aspiring singer and Combs was a \u201cpredatory\u201d label boss in his late thirties. Richard also described the incident in 2009. \u201cI\u2019ve been asking you for my shit. I can\u2019t stand you bitch, you never do it right!\u201d she quoted Combs, saying he appeared \u201chigh on drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cCombs pushed Ms. Ventura against the wall and choked her, then picked up the scalding hot pan of eggs and threw it at her, causing her to fall to the ground in a fetal position,\u201d Richard\u2019s lawsuit said. \u201cCursing and screaming, Mr. Combs dragged Ms. Ventura up the stairs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to her complaint, Richard was left \u201cterrified\u201d by the attack and received a chilling message from Combs during a recording session the next day. \u201cIf you say anything, there will be consequences,\u201d Combs allegedly told Richard and their other bandmate Harper. \u201cPeople end up missing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\tIn her lawsuit, Richard said Combs also subjected her to years of her own physical, psychological, and financial abuse. She claimed he regularly groped her buttocks and breasts without permission and once tried to punch her when she dared to take a break from a rehearsal to eat and rest. She said Combs swung his fist at her face, but a bodyguard grabbed her and locked her in a freezing cold, company-owned Bentley. She said Combs left her there for hours, unable to escape because the compartment she was in had no interior door handles.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn another damaging account, Richard alleged in her filing that once in 2005, she saw Combs\u2019 ex-partner and the mother of three of his children, Kim Porter, leaving Combs\u2019 Manhattan recording studio in tears, \u201cwith visible facial injuries including a lacerated lip.\u201d (Porter later died at age 47 of lobar pneumonia in 2018.)<\/p>\n

\n\tProsecutors clearly hope Richards\u2019 allegations will bolster their case that Combs used his company resources and status as an industry gatekeeper to get what he wanted and cover his tracks. According to his indictment, Combs commanded a criminal enterprise between 2004 and 2024 that carried out and concealed a litany of crimes including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice. Combs has vehemently denied the allegations. His lawyers also have rejected scores of sex abuse lawsuits filed against him since Cassie opened the floodgates with her bombshell sex trafficking complaint<\/a> filed in November 2023.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo matter how many lawsuits are filed, it won\u2019t change the fact that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted, or\u00a0sex\u00a0trafficked\u00a0anyone \u2013 man or\u00a0woman,\u00a0adult\u00a0or\u00a0minor,\u201d Combs\u2019 legal team previously told Rolling Stone<\/em>. \u201cFortunately, a fair and impartial judicial process exists to find the truth, and Mr. Combs is confident he will prevail in court.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring her live testimony in a courtroom in downtown Manhattan \u2013 delivered while eight months pregnant with her third child with husband Alex Fine \u2013 Ventura described her 11-year relationship<\/a> with Combs as loving at first but later highly abusive and exploitative, like a \u201cjob\u201d that left her feeling \u201ctrapped\u201d and \u201cterrified.\u201d She said Combs expected her to live on constant standby to satisfy his sexual desires. If she dared to resist his demands, Combs subjected her to physical violence as well as threats he would release intimate videos to humiliate and \u201cruin\u201d her, she testified. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCombs, 55, has pleaded not guilty<\/a> to charges of\u00a0sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering conspiracy. If convicted as charged, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to prosecutors, a core function of Combs\u2019 alleged criminal enterprise<\/a> was to fulfill and cover up his appetite for drug-fueled, highly orchestrated sex marathons known as \u201cfreak offs\u201d and \u201cwild king nights.\u201d Ventura testified that she took part in hundreds of such encounters, with Combs directing her to engage in sex acts with male sex escorts while he masturbated and recorded the interactions.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to his lawyers, Combs was simply a \u201cswinger\u201d who indulged his eccentric sexual proclivities with other fully consenting adults. They\u2019ve acknowledged Ventura was the victim of at last one episode of domestic violence at the InterContinental hotel in 2016, but they deny Combs trafficked women.<\/p>\n

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\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tDuring the trial so far, the jury of eight men and four women have seen photos of Ventura\u2019s alleged injuries at the hands of Combs, including bruises, black eyes, a gash over her eyebrow and a fat lip. They\u2019ve also repeatedly watched video of Combs kicking and dragging Ventura in a hallway of the InterContinental. Prosecutors used their first witness<\/a> in the case to introduce the harrowing video, which was first\u00a0obtained by CNN<\/a> last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe video, considered a key piece of evidence in the case, was also played repeatedly while Ventura testified. She told jurors Combs \u201cfrequently\u201d turned violent, often during freak offs. \u201cHe would grab me up, push me down, hit me in the side of the head, kick me, like, you name it,\u201d she testified.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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