NEW YORK (AP) — Singer Dawn Richard told jurors at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial on Monday that the hip-hop mogul threatened to kill her if she told anyone she saw him physically abusing his longtime girlfriend.
Richard testified that Combs made the threat the day after she witnessed the Bad Boy Records founder punch and kick Casandra “Cassie” Ventura after taking a swing at her with a skillet. Richard said he told her and another woman who saw the attack that “we could go missing” if they didn't stay quiet.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitzi Steiner asked Richard what she took “we could go missing” to mean.
“That we could die,” Richard responded, saying she was shocked because all of this happened just as she was beginning to record with Diddy — Dirty Money, a musical trio with Combs and another R&B singer.
Richard disclosed the alleged threat as she returned to the witness stand to kick off the second week of testimony in Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan federal court.
Combs, 55, is accused of exploiting his entertainment powerbroker status to abuse women, including Cassie, through threats and violence for two decades from 2004 until his arrest last September. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argue that prosecutors compiled proof of domestic violence, but not the federal crimes he's charged with.
Before day's end, Cassie's best friend of 17 years and a former personal assistant to Combs testified that she felt trapped as prosecutors tried to uncover proof that Combs was operating a criminal racketeering organization that relied on employees to help him control Cassie and other women in his life.
Testimony about Combs' beatings of Cassie came with hardly a mention of the drug-fueled “freak-offs” that dominated testimony last week, when Cassie explained over four days how her wish for a loving relationship with Combs led instead to her weekly sexual performances with male sex workers that left her too exhausted to pursue her musical career.
Richard recalls violent outbursts
Richard, who began her testimony Friday and concluded Monday, said she witnessed Combs attack Cassie multiple times, including during a visit to Combs’ home recording studio in 2009, when Richard said she and another woman saw Combs hit Cassie “on the head and beat her on the ground” after Cassie deflected a swipe at her head by a skillet.
Richard said she witnessed Combs beat his girlfriend frequently when he “would punch her, choke her, drag her, slap her in the mouth. I saw him kick her, punch her in the stomach.”
Beatings came when Cassie spoke up for herself, “if she had an opinion about something,” said Richard, who also performed in the group Danity Kane.
She said Combs’ staff, including his bodyguards, also witnessed violence, but they “wouldn’t react. They wouldn’t do anything.”
Richard supported Cassie’s testimony that Combs had stifled Cassie’s fledgling singing career, saying she heard Combs tell Cassie that he “owned her” and that any success she had would be on his terms.
Richard said Combs would get mad — sometimes violent — when she and other artists offered to help Cassie write songs.
Defense lawyer Nicole Westmoreland suggested Richard was testifying because she was angry at Combs for ending Danity Kane and Diddy — Dirty Money, and because she has a pending lawsuit against him.
“You felt that Mr. Combs ruined your career not once, but twice?” Westmoreland asked.
“Yes,” Richard answered.
She contended, though, that she was sad, not angry, over the end of the groups, and is suing Combs because he mistreated her and withheld her earnings.
Bad Boy signed Cassie to a 10-album deal in 2006, but only released one — the self-titled “Cassie,” which came out the same year. Cassie and Combs started dating in 2007 and broke up for good in 2018.
Cassie's former best friend recalls violent outbursts
After Richard came testimony from Kerry Morgan. She said she was Cassie's longtime best friend until they had a falling out after Morgan suffered a concussion when Combs' choked Morgan and slung a wooden hanger at her in 2018 when he came to Cassie's Los Angeles home enraged that Cassie was dating someone else.
Morgan said she was going to sue Combs, but Cassie met her at a pizza parlor and had her sign a nondisclosure agreement in return for $30,000 from Combs while accusing her of “milking” and “overexaggerating” the attack. Morgan and Cassie both testified that they haven't spoken since.
Morgan, a reluctant witness who acknowledged that she only testified in response to a government subpoena, said she saw Combs beat Cassie at least twice, including once so severely on a trip to Jamaica when Combs became angry that Cassie was taking too long in the bathroom that she thought her friend had been “knocked out.”
She said she encouraged Cassie to break up with him after realizing that the very confident woman she had met in 2001 during modeling gigs and who roomed with her for a time had “lost her spark” and had assumed a slumped posture as she catered to Combs' needs. But she said Cassie was reluctant to leave Combs.
“He controlled everything. She would’ve lost all of her livelihood,” Morgan said, noting that Combs paid for Cassie's car and apartment, and had her under contract with Bad Boy.
Cassie testified last week that although she continued to go to the recording studio and work on songs, Combs refused to release them.
“He was in charge of her career,” Morgan testified, adding that Cassie sometimes expressed frustration that her music wasn't being released.
Ex-employee says Combs called Cassie ‘very moldable’
David James, who served as Combs’ personal assistant from 2007 to 2009, started crying as he testified that, when he interviewed for the job, one of the hip-hop heavyweight’s lieutenants pointed to a photo of Combs on the wall and told him: “This is Mr. Combs’ kingdom. We’re all here to serve him.”
James’ employment coincided with the early days of Combs and Cassie’s relationship. He recalled her being astonished — and perhaps overwhelmed — by Combs' high-flying, globetrotting ways.
“Man, this lifestyle is crazy,” he recalled Cassie saying as they smoked cigarettes on a dock with her then-best friend Morgan.
James, who will return to the stand Tuesday, said he suggested Cassie leave Combs if she was uncomfortable, to which he said she replied: “I can’t. I can’t get out. You know, Mr. Combs oversees so much of my life.”
James recalled talking to Combs on another occasion about the women in his life. Combs, he said, described his longtime girlfriend Kim Porter, the mother of some of his children, as “my queen.”
When the subject turned to Cassie, James testified that Combs told him: “She’s good. I got her right where I want her. She’s young.”
James recalled Combs describing Cassie as “very moldable.”
