Ex-assistant to Mike Myers describes a 'toxic' work environment at the same job under Diddy

Business Insider

4 days ago

Working for Sean "Diddy" Combs was "chaotic," "toxic," yet also "exciting," according to an ex-assistant who testified on Thursday that she was sexually assaulted and physically beaten by the hip-hop mogul.
"The highs were really high and the lows were really low," a government witness using the pseudonym "Mia" told the Manhattan jury at Combs' sex-trafficking and racketeering trial.
Mia — who said she was actor Mike Myers' personal assistant before she started working as Combs' PA in 2009, at the age of about 25 — told the jury that Combs was violent with her.
"He's thrown things at me, he's thrown me against the wall, he's thrown me into a pool, he's thrown an ice bucket on my head, he slammed my arm into a door, and he also, um, sexually assaulted me," Mia testified.
Mia told the jury that during her hiring interview at Combs' home, the music tycoon and "I'll Be Missing You" rapper answered the door "in his underwear."
She said she was ultimately hired by Combs at a base salary of $50,000.
Mia told jurors that she was warned during her interview that the job involved long hours, but that the schedule was more grueling than she anticipated.
She testified that she once worked for five days without sleep and that the Adderall she took for her ADHD helped her to stay awake.
"I had a physical breakdown," Mia testified, describing her exhaustion. "I felt like I was underwater, and I felt like I was seeing things."
"I burst into tears like hysterical," Mia said, adding that Combs, at that point, told her she could finally sleep.
PA duties included 'cracking his knuckles,' she said
During her testimony, Mia was asked by a prosecutor to read aloud from a Nov. 10, 2011, email, in which she had described the duties of a personal assistant to other Combs staffers.
The email said the duties included "everything from cracking his knuckles to doing his taxes to writing his next movie."
"PROTECT HIM AT ALL TIMES," the email said in capital letters.
Mia said she worked as Combs' personal assistant from 2009 to 2011 and then worked for Revolt Films, the media company Combs founded, between 2011 and 2017.
She also told the jury that Combs was "abusive" to R&B singer Cassie Ventura, his ex-girlfriend and the prosecution's star witness who testified during the trial's first week.
Prosecutors allege that for two decades, Combs led a criminal enterprise that involved the sex trafficking of Ventura and another woman.
"I've seen him attack her. I've seen him throw her on the ground, I've seen him, um, crack her head open. I've seen him chase her. Things like that," Mia testified, referring to Combs and Ventura.
Mia is the third witness to describe a brutal 2013 beating at Ventura's Los Angeles home that left Ventura with a deep gash to her left eyebrow. The injury required a rushed trip to an off-duty plastic surgeon and multiple stitches. Ventura told jurors during her testimony that Combs beat her that day for oversleeping.
On Thursday, Mia described Combs throwing her against the wall when she and stylist Deonte Nash tried to intercede.
"He threw me against the wall so quick and so easily, um, I realized we were in real danger," Mia testified, her head bowed and her voice quiet.
"His eyes were black," Mia remembered, as Combs picked Ventura up and flung her, face first, into the sharp wooden corner of Ventura's platform bed.
Mia is the fourth former PA of Combs to take the witness stand in his criminal trial so far. The ex-assistants have all described being berated, cursed at, and forced to work extremely long hours.
The long hours are key to the racketeering charge against Combs, which includes an underlying accusation of forced labor.
If convicted of the sex trafficking and racketeering charges against him, Combs could face up to life in prison.