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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Second Alleged Sean Combs Sex Trafficking Victim Begins Testimony
Follow all our Sean Combs trial coverage The second woman allegedly sex trafficked by Sean Combs took the witness stand at the hip-hop mogul's criminal trial Thursday, just months after she first started speaking with prosecutors but more than a year after she purportedly told Combs that reading Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura's graphic lawsuit was like reading her own 'sexual trauma.' More from Rolling Stone Woman Recalls Sean Combs' Alleged Threat: 'I'm The Devil, And I Could Kill You' Judge Dismisses Four Claims in Ex-Assistant's Sexual Battery Lawsuit Against Vin Diesel Tom Girardi Sentenced to 7 Years in Prison for Embezzling Millions From Clients The woman, testifying under the pseudonym Jane, is listed as Victim-2 in the Southern District of New York's sex trafficking and racketeering case against Combs. Prosecutors previously kept much of Jane's story under wraps, but they allege Combs fed her drugs and coerced her into highly choreographed 'freak-offs' with male escorts between 2021 and 2024. In the courtroom in lower Manhattan, Jane told jurors she first met Combs in 2020, while he was dating one of her friend. She said he paid for their trip to Miami, hosted them at his home and quickly made it clear he was interested in her. 'He was really charming, really nice, and I was already drawn to him pretty instantly,' she testified, according to CNN. 'There was a little bit of flirting going on.' Jane said Combs pursued her after that. She held him at bay at first, at least until her friend got engaged to someone else, she testified. Jane said Combs invited her back to Miami in early 2021, and their first date lasted five days. She said they developed pet names. She called Combs 'Ernie,' and he called her 'Bert,' a reference to the Muppet characters. (Combs previously appeared in Disney's 2014 movie Muppets Most Wanted.) Jane said Combs took her out to a restaurant and walked with her on the beach. 'I was head over heels,' Jane reportedly testified. She later traveled with him on a two-week trip to Turks and Caicos and the Bahamas. Prosecutors say Combs used manipulation, threats and physical violence to get what he wanted from Jane, busting down doors, dragging Jane, by her hair and kicking Jane while she was curled up in a ball on the ground. (Ventura previously testified that Combs coerced her into hundreds of freak-offs during their 11-year relationship that ended for good in 2018.) Prosecutors have indicated they only began speaking to Jane in January, after they uncovered text messages she sent Combs in the days after Ventura's lawsuit was first filed in November 2023. 'It makes me sick how three solid pages, word for word, is exactly my experiences and my anguish,' she texted Combs. After Combs allegedly fed Jane a 'false narrative' and made a vague reference to supporting her financially, Jane continued dating Combs into 2024, prosecutors said. In her opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson told jurors they would hear recordings of phone calls in which Combs called Jane after Ventura filed her lawsuit. 'You will hear him try to manipulate Jane into saying she wanted to have freak-offs. You will hear him interrupt Jane when she pushes back,' Johnson said. Johnson described Jane as a single mom who started spending time with Combs in 2020 and 'fell in love with him quickly.' Johnson said Jane was not seeing other men, but Combs was dating other women and kept his relationship with Jane out of the public eye. Johnson said Combs lured Jane into her first freak-off with little warning or notice. The two already had taken drugs together and been intimate, and Jane complied with the surprise request in an effort to please Combs, Johnson said. Within a matter of hours, Jane found herself in a hotel room, having sex with a stranger while Combs directed her step by step, Johnson told the jury. 'The defendant continued asking Jane to have freak-offs and promising that if she did, they would spend quality time together, they would go on dates together, they would go on trips,' Johnson said on the first day of Combs' trial last month. 'That was what Jane wanted more than anything, a real relationship … But even though the defendant promised her quality time and trips, he never delivered. Those were just lies he told her to get more nights in dark hotel rooms with escorts.' According to prosecutors, Combs took steps to control Jane financially, discouraging her from working so that she could be available to him on a moment's notice. Although Jane repeatedly told Combs that she didn't like 'freak-offs' and only wanted to be alone with him, Combs dismissed the request. He also allegedly ignored Jane's pleas for the male escorts to wear condoms. Combs is accused of threatening to release explicit videos of Jane, supplying her with narcotics to keep her awake and compliant, and using physical violence to trap Jane in his abusive dynamic. During one purported incident, Combs allegedly kicked down four of Jane's doors and lifted her off the ground in a chokehold. Later that night, Combs allegedly beat Jane again, punching her in the face, kicking her on the ground, and dragging her by her hair before forcing her to have a freak-off. 'You're not going to fuck up my night,' Combs allegedly told Jane, according to the government's opening statement. When Ventura filed her stunning complaint and Jane worked up the courage to confront Combs, the Bad Boy Records founder allegedly tried to feed her a 'false narrative' over the phone, prosecutors allege. Combs attempted to convince her 'that she had willingly engaged in sex acts with him,' prosecutors said at Combs' bail hearing last September. 'In this call, the defendant ensures the victim that if she continues to be on his side and provide support and friendship, that she doesn't have to worry about anything else, which is just a thinly-veiled reference to continuing that financial support,' a prosecutor told the court. In the defense's dueling opening statement, Combs' lawyer, Teny Geragos, sought to set Jane apart from Ventura. She told jurors that by the time Combs started seeing Jane, 'he was more upfront about his dating life,' including the fact that he was dating multiple women. She said Jane also was older and more mature than Ventura, 'living her own life in a different state raising her child.' Geragos said that after Jane's first experience with a freak-off, 'she began to do everything possible to make these nights incredible for Combs.' Geragos suggested Jane 'made the choice' to engage in freak-offs 'out of love.' 'She was desperate to spend time with him, to be with him, and ultimately, to give him something none of the other girlfriends that he was dating at the time were giving him. She will tell you that she tried many times to change the tenor of the relationship from one of a purely sexual nature to something maybe deeper or more meaningful,' Geragos said. She blamed the alleged violence in the couple's 'toxic and dysfunctional' relationship on Jane's 'jealousy.' In her opening, Geragos said Combs was interested in a 'swingers lifestyle,' which she described as a predilection for consensual 'threesomes by adults.' She told jurors it was not their job 'to judge him for his sexual preferences.' She said the government had the burden to prove Combs coerced the women, and that the evidence would show the women willingly stayed with Combs out of love and because he was a 'wealthy rapper' who gave them generous financial support. Geragos acknowledged that Combs was violent in the video showing him kicking and dragging Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016, but she said 'domestic violence is not sex trafficking.' Jane's time on the stand is expected to stretch well into next week. More than two dozen witnesses already have testified at Combs' trial, which is now in its fourth week. Prosecutors have called multiple former assistants, alleged male escorts, and even Scott Mescudi, the musician and actor known as Kid Cudi, to support their allegations Combs used his wealth, influence, and inner circle to carry out crimes aimed at fulfilling his sexual desires and protecting his reputation. 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Yahoo
01-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Peter Buck, Subway founder and nuclear physicist, worked on nuclear reactors for the US Navy
Most of us have eaten at Subway as it is a multinational fast food company that has been in business for 60 years. The restaurant boasts 37,000 locations worldwide, over 400,000 employees and has revenues usually in the tens of billions of dollars. We have seen Subway plugged in the Adam Sandler movie Happy Gilmore and in the Muppets Most Wanted to TV shows such as Chuck and Hawaii 5-0. However, teeing off a Subway sandwich is an art of its own that only Sandler could pull off. You will be surprised to know how the company was founded. Peter Buck, one of the co-founders, lived an interesting life from a physicist to an entrepreneur. On his way to restaurant success, he studied physics earning a PhD in the subject from Columbia University to working at General Electric and United Nuclear. While at GE, he worked at the Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, which is dedicated to supporting the U.S. Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. The program, also known as Naval Reactors, oversees and is responsible for the safe and reliable operation of the United States Navy's nuclear reactors from 'womb to tomb.' While Buck was at the atomic laboratory, he performed tests and calculations on atomic power plants being developed for US Navy submarines and ships. Buck left the laboratory and worked at United Nuclear and Nuclear Enegegy Services before stepping into being a restauranteur. In 1965, he partnered with Fred DeLuca by loaning him $1,000 to open a sub shop. Buck and DeLuca formed 'Doctor's Associates' to manage the new and growing business. They met challenges as their two shops were not financially successful. However, they pressed forward. By the early 1970s, they had 16 locations throughout Connecticut and in 1974 they began franchising restaurants. The first franchise opened in Wallingford, CT, in 197,6 and the first Subway on the West Coast opened in 1978 in Fresno, CA. Subway opened its first international location in 1986 in Bahrain and opened its first UK location in Brighton in 1996. Subway has since partnered with Walmart supercenters by having restaurants at certain Walmart supercenter locations and the chain surpassed McDonald's locations partnered with Walmart in 2007. By 2015, Buck was on the Forbes 400 list at number 261 for being one of the wealthiest people. His overall net worth was estimated at $1.6B. With his wealth, Buck turned to philanthropy, supporting such causes as education, journalism, medicine and land conservation. When he passed in 2021, Buck gave his 50% share in Subway to his philanthropy foundation, Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation (PCLB), which was estimated at around $5B. He also made donations to the Smithsonian Institution. Buck is survived by his children, Christopher and William. His second wife, Carmen, passed in 2003. Buck created a restaurant giant that offers fine-tasting sub sandwiches and healthy choices for people all over the world, which is an interesting end state for a sub shop co-founder by a US Navy physicist working on nuclear reactors. Who would have thought?
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Muppets Most Wanted' Spawned the Evil Kermit Meme 11 Years Ago. Here's Why Jim Henson Wouldn't Be Pleased
It's been 11 years since we met "Evil Kermit." Muppets Most Wanted, the movie that contained the scene from which the viral meme derived, premiered in March 2014. Ty Burrell, Tina Fey and Ricky Gervais costarred with the beloved cast of characters, who have entertained audiences for nearly five decades. In the film, the Muppets are tricked into taking their show on the road by a European Kermit lookalike named Constantine. Constantine has Kermit take the fall for his crimes and tries to assume his identity until the gang catches on to him and has to save the real Kermit from Siberian prison. A confrontation between Kermit and his doppelgänger in the film led to countless memes about giving in to your darker impulses. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Related: It's Time to Meet the Muppets: Get to Know 10 Forgotten Characters Interestingly enough, Muppets creator Jim Henson didn't like the idea that Muppets could be evil. Even in movies in which there was a "bad guy," it was important to Henson that they be redeemed. "Even the most worldly of our characters is innocent," Henson, who died of toxic shock syndrome at 53 years old in May 1990, said of his characters in a 1979 interview with The New York Times. "Our villains are innocent, really. And it's that innocence that I think is the connection to the audience." It was important to Henson that the Muppets appealed to the childlike wonder that lies in every one of us. "Inside, we're all children," he said. "Everybody identifies with that feeling of looking around at this big world and not knowing who you are and what you're supposed to be doing here." "When the Muppets are on the screen, I want the audience to believe in the moment. The audience can see that most of the characters end at the waist most of the time, and they can know who talks for them — none of that seems to kill the moment. But when they're watching us perform, believing the moment is everything." Read the original article on People
