The Latest: Ex-girlfriend of Sean ‘Diddy' Combs to testify in his sex trafficking trial

Winnipeg Free Press

2 days ago

NEW YORK (AP) — The Sean 'Diddy' Combs sex trafficking trial continues its fourth week of testimony with prosecutors planning to call as a witness a woman who will testify under the pseudonym 'Jane.' She alleges she was abused by Combs and made to participate in drug-fueled 'freak-off' sex marathons. She's one of several witnesses to accuse Combs of violence toward them, including his former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie.
The Latest:
The defense is expected to continue questioning Bongolan
For the first hour of testimony Thursday, a defense lawyer is expected to continue the cross-examination of Bryana 'Bana' Bongolan.
Thursday's star witness
Sometime around noon or after, prosecutors are planning to call as a witness a woman who will testify under the pseudonym 'Jane.' Prosecutors say her testimony will be similar to what the jury heard during the first week of the trial from Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura.
Cassie testified for four days about enduring drug-fueled sexual performances for years known as 'freak-offs' to satisfy the music mogul's sexual needs.
Jane, who is older than Cassie, was a single mother who began dating Combs in 2020, about two years after the nearly 11-year relationship between Cassie and Combs had ended.
Prosecutors say the relationship with Jane began as a romance but soon became reliant on 'freak offs' in which Jane would perform sexually with male escorts while Combs directed the action.
Defense lawyers have described Jane as Combs' girlfriend of three years. They say he was more honest with Jane than he was with Cassie, telling her that he was dating multiple women while he was seeing her. Still, they say, Jane's relationship with Combs was plagued by jealousy because Jane wanted a more exclusive relationship. They say the relationship became primarily sexual over time.
Ex-Combs aide says fear stopped her from calling police
Former employees of Combs' Bad Boy Entertainment described repeatedly witnessing him beat Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, but said they didn't report the abuse to law enforcement because they feared Combs would harm them.
Clark testified that the day she started as Combs' personal assistant in 2004, he threatened he would kill her if her previous work for rival rappers interfered with her work for him.
Then, she testified, she watched in shock as Combs viciously assaulted Cassie, his on-again, off-again girlfriend for more than a decade, in 2011 after learning she was dating Cudi. Clark said her 'heart was breaking from seeing her get hit like that,' and neither she nor Combs' bodyguard intervened.
She said she called Cassie's mother and told her: 'Please help her. I can't call the police, but you can.'
Weeks later, Clark said, she reported what happened to Cassie to the president of Bad Boy Records.
Combs' ex-aide says she was 'brainwashed' when she sent loving texts years after rape
A former personal assistant who accuses Sean 'Diddy' Combs of rape testified Monday that she continued sending the hip-hop mogul loving messages for years after her job ended in 2017 because she was 'brainwashed.'
The woman, testifying under the pseudonym 'Mia,' pushed back at defense lawyer Brian Steel's suggestions that she fabricated her claims to cash in on 'the #MeToo money grab against Sean Combs.'
Steel had Mia read aloud numerous text messages she sent Combs. In one from 2019, she told Combs that he'd rescued her in a nightmare in which she was trapped in an elevator with R. Kelly, the singer who has since been convicted of sex trafficking.
It was one of many objections during a combative and often meandering cross-examination that stood in contrast to the defense's gentler treatment of other prosecution witnesses. Several times, the judge interrupted Steel, instructing him to move along or rephrase complicated questions.
Combs paid to hide Cassie beating video because he feared career ruin, witness says
Soon after viciously attacking his longtime girlfriend Cassie in a hotel hallway, Sean 'Diddy' Combs sought out a security guard and predicted accurately that his iconic career would be ruined — his image as the affable, successful 'Puff Daddy' destroyed — if video of the beating ever became public.
Eddy Garcia, 33, testified Thursday that the hip-hop mogul made the comment repeatedly before giving a brown paper bag stuffed with $100,000 in cash to the then-guard, in order to buy what he hoped was the only copy of surveillance footage of the March 2016 assault.
Prosecutors at Combs' sex trafficking trial in Manhattan have made the footage of Combs kicking, beating and dragging Cassie at the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles a centerpiece of their federal case against him. They contend it supports the claims of three women, including Cassie, who allege the Bad Boy Records founder sexually and physically abused them over two decades.
Prosecutors say Combs' persistent efforts to hush up the episode fit into allegations he used threats and his fortune and fame to get what he wanted.
Weekly
A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene.
A woman testifies Combs gave her night terrors by dangling her from a balcony
A former graphic designer for Combs testified Wednesday that he dangled her from a 17th-floor balcony while screaming profanities, leaving her so traumatized she still has night terrors nearly a decade later and would wake up screaming.
Bryana 'Bana' Bongolan, 33, a friend of Combs' former girlfriend Cassie, told jurors that Combs lifted her over the railing for 10-15 seconds before pulling her back and throwing her onto patio furniture.
She said the September 2016 attack at Cassie's Los Angeles apartment caused a bruise on her leg and pain to her back and neck. Jurors saw photos of her wearing a neck brace. Her bruise looked like it was the size of a softball.
Bongolan took the stand during the fourth week of testimony in Combs' trial, and was a prelude to the next big prosecution witness: a woman using the pseudonym 'Jane' who alleges she was abused by Combs and made to participate in drug-fueled 'freak-off' sex marathons. She's expected to testify Thursday.