NOTE: The following article contains disturbing details and video footage. Please read at your own discretion.
A former top aide to Sean “Diddy” Combs testified Tuesday at his sex trafficking and racketeering trial that the music mogul threatened her with death on her first day on the job and later kidnapped her at gunpoint to join him in an effort to kill rapper Kid Cudi.
The testimony from Capricorn Clark, the former global brand director for Bad Boy Entertainment, launched the third week of testimony in the trial on a violent note, as prosecutors try to prove Combs led a racketeering conspiracy spanning two decades that relied on beefy security employees and others to ensure he got what he wanted.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of an indictment accusing him of a pattern of abuse toward his longtime girlfriend Cassie Ventura and others.
Clark’s testimony came days after Kid Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, testified that Clark called him from a car outside his home in December 2011 and told him that Combs, angered that Mescudi was dating Ventura, had kidnapped her and forced her to ride him with him to Mescudi’s home.
Day 10
Clark, the 17th witness called by the prosecution, testified that Combs came to her house that morning with a gun in his hand and demanded she get dressed and come with him, allegedly telling her, “We’re going to kill Cudi.”
She testified that Combs was “livid, furious, mad at me” after she told him she didn’t want to go with him.
“I don’t give a f–k what you want to do, go get dressed,” she recalled Combs saying.
She said that she rode in a black Cadillac to Mescudi’s house in Los Angeles, where Combs and a security aide entered the residence while Clark sat in the car.
Clark told the court that while she waited in the Escalade outside of Mescudi’s home, she called Ventura on a burner phone and told her that Combs “got me with a gun and brought me to Cudi’s house to kill him.”
Clark said she heard Mescudi in the background asking, “He’s in my house?” She said she told Ventura, “Stop him, he’s going to get himself killed.”
Ventura told Clark that she couldn’t stop Mescudi, according to Clark.
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Combs returned to the vehicle and asked Clark who she was talking to on the phone, Clark said, adding that Combs grabbed her phone and called Ventura back.
That’s when they heard Mescudi’s vehicle coming up the road, Clark said. Combs and his bodyguard got back in the vehicle and chased after Mescudi, but gave up once they passed police cars that were heading towards Mescudi’s home.
After the alleged break-in, Clark said Combs told the people with him that they had to convince Mescudi “it wasn’t me.”
“If you don’t convince him of that I’ll kill all you,” Combs said, according to Clark.
Clark said that after Combs allegedly broke into Mescudi’s home, she approached Ventura and told her, “If you tell on him, he’s going to hurt us all.”
She said that Ventura went with her to Combs’ Los Angeles rental home. She said Combs was wearing a robe and underwear and “immediately began kicking Cassie.”
Clark said she and a security guard stood by as Combs repeatedly kicked Ventura. She said that Combs threatened to hurt her too if she tried to stop him.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitzi Steiner questioned Clark about her off-and-on employment with Combs between 2004 and 2018, beginning with the first day on the job when she said Combs and a security staff member took her to Central Park after 9 p.m. and said he wasn’t aware of her history of working with other rappers.
Clark testified that Combs told her that if her past work for rap rivals became an issue, he’d have to kill her. (Clark previously worked for Death Row Records, which Suge Knight then managed.)
“He told me that he didn’t know that I had anything to do with Suge Knight and if anything happened, he would have to kill me,” Clark said.
She said she was only weeks into the job when she was blamed for some diamond jewelry that went missing.
As a result, she said, she was taken to a largely empty building in Manhattan where, over five days, she was repeatedly given a lie detector test by a man who seemed five times larger than her.
“He said: ‘If you fail this test they’re going to throw you in the East River,’” Clark recalled.
Clark said they eventually let her return to work. In 2007, she was the director of marketing for Sean John Women’s, Combs’ clothing line. In 2008, she became a global brand director before being terminated in 2012, after she said she was accused of improperly taking a vacation. She went on to work as Ventura’s creative director from 2016 to 2018.
She said after she was terminated, Combs told her “that I would never work again, that he would show me that all these people weren’t my friends, that he would make me kill myself.”
Clark said she received a settlement through Combs’ lawyers over wrongful termination allegations in the fall of 2012, but did not disclose the amount.
What Combs is on trial for
U.S. prosecutors allege that for 20 years, behind the scenes, Combs was coercing and abusing women with help from a network of associates who helped silence victims through blackmail and violence.
Combs faces an indictment that includes descriptions of freak-offs, which are defined in the court doc as “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”
Numerous witnesses have come forward to accuse Combs of terrorizing people into silence by choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, according to prosecutors. One indictment alleges that Combs dangled someone from a balcony.
Although dozens of men and women have alleged in lawsuits that Combs abused them, this trial will highlight the claims of four women.
Combs is charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has denied all the charges against him and has rejected a plea deal, choosing to go to trial instead.
If found guilty in the New York court, he could face life in prison.
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Day 9 testimony
Day 8 testimony
Day 7 testimony
Day 6 testimony
Day 5 testimony
Day 4 testimony
Day 3 testimony
Day 2 testimony
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Global News will be covering the Diddy trial in its entirety. Please check back for updates.
— With files from The Associated Press
