Second accuser of Sean ‘Diddy' Combs takes the stand, alleges sexual assault
Sean 'Diddy' Combs was accused of sexually assaulting his former assistant at Manhattan federal court Thursday and subjecting her to brutal working conditions as the feds beef up their case against the disgraced rap mogul.
Mia, testifying under a pseudonym, worked as a personal assistant for Combs from 2009 through 2017. She said the job was all-consuming, and the hours could be untenable, with her longest shift, fueled by Adderall, lasting five days. 'Puff's mood' determined the atmosphere.
Mia told prosecutor Madison Smyser that she had frequently been the target of Combs' violence.
'It was chaotic. It was — it could be toxic. It could be exciting. Like, the highs were really high, and lows were really, really low,' Mia said.
'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.'
After a long pause, Mia added, 'He's also sexually assaulted me,' noting it had happened more than once.
Getting cursed out, berated and having her intelligence questioned by the Bad Boy Records co-founder was par for the course, the witness said. While working as his live-in assistant, the jury heard that she couldn't leave his properties without permission — even off the clock — or lock her bedroom door.
Mia recalled Combs sending his security guards to find her when she went out after he'd gone to bed one night, 'desperate' to see some friends.
'I didn't realize I wasn't allowed to leave,' she said.
Mia is the second of three alleged victims the jury is slated to hear from in the feds' sweeping case against Combs and is expected to testify to allegations included in the indictment relating to racketeering and forced labor.
Manhattan federal court Judge Arun Subramanian ordered court artists and members of the public not to sketch her likeness in any way. Before Combs, she said she had stints working for Harvey Weinstein's ex-wife, designer Georgina Chapman, and comedian Mike Myers.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, transporting individuals for prostitution, and related offenses and could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney's office alleges that as Combs was at the peak of his success and considered among the wealthiest and most influential forces in hip-hop, from 2004 through 2024, he was running a criminal enterprise operated by a network of staff who engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor, bribery, obstruction of justice, kidnapping and arson.
Combs' ex-girlfriend, Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura, spent four days on the stand during the first week of testimony, describing violent beatings and being coerced into debasing sexual performances with male performers that Combs dubbed 'freak-offs.'
She said she never wanted to participate in the sessions and that Combs hung videos of the humiliating encounters over her head as blackmail in testimony backed up by Combs' and Ventura's former stylist, Deonte Nash, on Wednesday. Nash said he witnessed Combs threaten to send the footage to Ventura's parents' workplaces.
Mia said Thursday that she and Ventura were as close as sisters and considered her relationship with Combs 'inequal' and 'toxic.' She recalled seeing Combs being physically violent with Ventura 'all the time.'
Mia corroborated testimony jurors heard from Ventura and Nash about a particularly savage beating that left Ventura gushing blood from her head. Both witnesses said they tried to jump on Combs to get him to stop.
'Oh my god. He's actually going to kill her,' Mia recalled thinking. 'His eyes turned black. … I was trying to get him to stop. It was like he was looking through me.'
A third woman, Jane, which is also a pseudonym, is yet to testify about allegedly being forced into disturbing sexual performances by Combs.
Jurors have heard from a former Combs assistant, Capricorn Clark, that he turned up at her house in the middle of the night with a gun in December 2011 and kidnapped her as he sought to hunt down Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, after hearing he was dating Ventura.
Clark said she waited outside the 'Day 'n' Nite' rapper's home while Combs and an associate broke in. Weeks later, Mescudi's Porsche was blown up in his driveway in an apparent Molotov cocktail attack.
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