Latest news with #violence
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- General
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Shocking moment PSG and Inter Milan fans clash in Munich ahead of Champions League final
Another Champions League final has been marred by violence as PSG and Inter Milan fans have clashed in the build-up to Saturday night's game. Harrowing footage shows supporters fighting tooth and nail on public transport in Munich, with bottles being thrown and legs kicking out. Over in Paris, shops are erecting barricades to defend themselves, presumably from potential backlash if PSG lose another final after their 2020 devastation. More to follow. 🚨 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚: PSG and Inter fans are fighting in Munich ahead of the UCL final. — The Touchline | Football Coverage (@TouchlineX) May 31, 2025
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A 'criminal enterprise' may be emerging in Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking trial
Capricorn Clark, a former assistant to music mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs, said Combs was on a mission of revenge in December 2011 after learning rapper Kid Cudi was also dating his girlfriend, R&B singer Cassie. Combs, armed with a gun, commanded Clark to go with him to Cudi's Hollywood Hills estate, Clark testified this week during Combs' sex trafficking trial. ''Get dressed,'' Combs allegedly told Clark after beating on the door of her home. ''We're going to kill this n-----.'' Sign up for the 'Diddy on Trial' newsletter for key developments and analysis After Combs and a member of his security team broke into Cudi's home, she said, they saw he wasn't there, setting off a violent chain of events that she would tell a Bad Boy Records executive about three months later. 'I told him that Puff kidnapped me with a gun,' Clark said, referring to one of Combs' previous stage names. Clark's stunning testimony in the third week of Combs' trial provided another example of the control he allegedly wielded as head of his New York-based record label, building on the premise set forth by prosecutors that Combs allegedly oversaw a criminal enterprise that relied on employees and other accomplices to carry out illegal acts. Clark's 'testimony is certainly helpful in painting a sinister image of Combs, of his manipulation and his coercion, his control and his violence, which will be beneficial to the prosecution down the line in terms of gaining the jury's sympathies that this guy was up to no good and needs to be put away, or at least held accountable,' said Mark Chutkow, a defense lawyer who handled racketeering cases as a federal prosecutor in Detroit. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy; two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. As per the federal racketeering statute, the government must prove at least two predicate offenses, or crimes, committed via a criminal enterprise, Chutkow said. Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, spent four days on the stand in the first week of testimony, saying she 'felt trapped' into engaging in orchestrated sexual encounters, known as 'freak offs,' with male escorts at hotels and homes — sessions that she said Combs funded. Kid Cudi, whose legal name is Scott Mescudi, testified how his car was firebombed in January 2012, following the December break-in at his home. Los Angeles police also testified that evidence showed the break-in was connected to Combs. The car that police observed leaving the scene of the break-in at Kid Cudi's home was registered to one of Combs' companies, according to testimony from Los Angeles police officer Chris Ignacio. Another accuser, who used the pseudonym 'Mia' on the witness stand, testified that she worked for Combs as a personal assistant for several years and he sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions during that time. Combs was never charged in the firebombing or alleged sexual assaults. His defense team said in opening statements that Combs is a 'very flawed individual' prone to violence and jealousy in his relationships, but that the sexual encounters were consensual. The tangled relationships Combs had with his employees will have to be addressed by the jury during deliberations, Chutkow said, because prosecutors and defense attorneys have raised questions about whether the workers were victims, accomplices or both. For example, Clark, who testified she was paid $55,000 a year, said she set up hotel rooms for the freak-offs at Combs' direction and she sometimes procured illicit drugs on his behalf. Although she testified she was kidnapped twice by Combs or his bodyguards and subjected to multiple days of lie detector tests, defense attorney Marc Agnifilo entered into evidence an email Clark sent to Combs in September 2014, asking for his forgiveness. She did not specify what she wanted to be forgiven for. The email was sent two years after Combs fired her and about two years before she returned to work for him again. 'Mia' testified to sometimes feeling like Combs was a best friend and working partner, but other times treated her 'like I was a worthless piece of crap.' 'You do have these elements of extortion and coercion and fear and intimidation also at play, which you see in gangs and you see in the Mafia and other criminal organizations, and so I think that you don't necessarily have to have co-conspirators and accomplices that are completely voluntary in their commitment to the organization,' Chutkow said. Employees may have also realized the benefits of being in the powerful celebrity's inner circle and so may have been willing to go along, he added. 'That's why you hear the concept of a 'den of thieves,'' Chutkow said. 'They all have their own agendas at play, but they're still working together towards advancing other criminal objectives.' Chutkow said 'that's probably the way the prosecution will kind of categorize this for the jury, and say, 'Hey, we would love to be able to put on witnesses like firemen and nurses for you, but that's not the world that Combs worked in.'' Bad and illegal behavior does not necessarily guarantee a racketeering conviction, said Mark Zauderer, a veteran trial and appellate lawyer in New York. 'There is lots of evidence of violence and possible criminal activity,' he said of Combs' trial. 'But all of that still does not answer the question of whether the jury will find an enterprise and a conspiracy. 'There's no question that a jury can and will consider a so-called victim's own complicity in the matters that were violent and even illegal.' Attorney Rachel Maimin, a former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, said that while racketeering charges can be complex, prosecutors can sometimes prove the charge with only one witness or even circumstantial evidence. 'I don't know if they've met all of the elements of racketeering yet, but prosecutors are showing that Diddy used employees from his business and organization to carry out criminal activities,' Maimin said. 'They're linking the crimes to his business.' If you or someone you know is facing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence hotline for help at (800) 799-SAFE (7233), or go to for more. States often have domestic violence hotlines as well. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Witnesses say Sean 'Diddy' Combs broke the law for decades. Why didn't they say anything?
NEW YORK ― When celebrity lawyer Perry Sanders Jr. finally deposed Sean "Diddy" Combs about a bloody rap music turf battle that had killed two of its biggest stars in 1996 and 1997, the young music impresario wasn't very helpful. Although not quite so forthcoming with information, Combs was, not surprisingly, disarmingly personable and offered something else instead. "When it was over, we sat there just the two of us in that conference room, and he was eating tomato soup as he was training for a marathon," Sanders told USA TODAY. "He offered me a cup, and said, 'Don't say I never gave you anything!'" As his federal sex crimes trial enters its third week now, a parade of witnesses has detailed a shocking level of violence that Combs allegedly inflicted on longtime girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura Fine, including head kicks, scar-inducing beatings and dragging her by her hair. But, as Sanders recalled, Combs could also be quite charming when he wanted, or needed, to be. Diddy's sexual assault lawsuits: A timeline of alleged incidents, 1991 to 2024 Prosecutors have told jurors the violence was part of an alleged sex trafficking and criminal racketeering enterprise led by Combs that began in 2008, in part to shield him from outside scrutiny. Court records and victim claims show the Bad Boy Records founder was accused of similar sexual violence and predatory behavior as far back as 1990, as he was first making a name for himself in the music business. So why wasn't significant legal action taken until last year? "People that want to keep secrets have surrounded themselves with other people that were willing to keep their secrets for generations, probably from Biblical times onward," said Sanders, who said he has known Combs and many others at the highest levels of the music business for decades. : Step inside the courtroom with USA TODAY as Sean 'Diddy' Combs faces sex crimes and trafficking charges. Subscribe to the newsletter. Sanders, a Colorado lawyer who has worked on Michael Jackson's estate, says Combs' case isn't an outlier, but rather a case study in how powerful men like Combs can stay protected by lawyers, assistants, publicists, stylists, security and even random bystanders who suspected or witnessed something but looked away, stayed silent or were paid to forget what happened. Why didn't we listen? These women spoke out about Diddy years ago. Ventura Fine finally came forward in November 2023, filing a lawsuit alleging that Combs kept her locked in the abusive relationship through frequent beatings, coercion, control over her career and blackmail. That, she alleged, included threats to release explicit sex tapes of her engaging in marathon sex sessions known as "freak offs" with paid sex workers. Within 24 hours, Combs and Ventura Fine settled the case "amicably" with Combs declaring his innocence. Privately, he paid her $20 million and reportedly required her to sign a non-disclosure agreement barring her from speaking publicly of the allegations again. But Ventura Fine's lawsuit opened the floodgates. Cassie alleges horrific abuse by Diddy. Why survivors see themselves in her story. Dozens more accusers have come forward, and in September, the Justice Department's Manhattan office unsealed a federal indictment that could send the Bad Boy Records founder to prison for life. Combs, 55, is facing charges of sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution and racketeering, which consists of directing an illegal enterprise under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, known as RICO. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. In court, his defense lawyer, Teny Geragos, said prosecutors are trying to twist his romantic relationships with Ventura Fine and others into a federal racketeering and sex trafficking case where none exists. "Sean Combs is a complicated man, but this is not a complicated case," Geragos told jurors. "This case is about voluntary choices made by capable adults in consensual relationships." Legal and law enforcement experts say Combs is not the first major celebrity to face justice years, or even decades, after their crimes allegedly began being committed. That's often the case even when their alleged behavior was anything but secret within their rarified circles. Music mogul R. Kelly and former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein are now serving long prison terms for sex and coercion crimes similar to those Combs has been charged with. (Weinstein is currently being retried on charges of first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape in New York.) Like Combs, they surrounded themselves with people who did not report what they witnessed to the relevant authorities out of a mixture of admiration, fear and their self-interest, Sanders and other experts told USA TODAY. On May 27, Capricorn Clark – a personal assistant who worked in various other roles for Combs and his businesses from 2004 to 2012, then again in 2016 – spent the entire day on the stand testifying about Combs' violent and threatening nature, and his manipulative side as well. More: Diddy's ex-employee says music executive warned her 'to leave Puff alone' Clark told the jury that Combs kidnapped her at gunpoint in 2011 and threatened her, Ventura Fine and a rapper she was dating named Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi) if they told authorities about how Combs had broken into Mescudi's house in a jealous rage. Referring to Combs as Puff, Clark said he came to her home holding a gun and demanded she get dressed because "we're going to kill (Kid) Cudi." But under cross examination, Clark confirmed she kept coming back to work for Combs in various positions, and that she even discussed joining his top management team after authorities searched his Los Angeles and Miami mansions in March 2024 in connection with the current case. In dramatic and tearful testimony, she acknowledged that despite his threats, "I wanted my life back," working with Combs and his team at the top of the rap music and fashion worlds. "I wanted people to see I was a valuable person. I wasn't disposable," Clark said, sobbing. "In this business, he held all the power over me." To that end, Clark also confirmed she refused to talk to Los Angeles police and fire investigators about who set fire to Mescudi's Porsche months after Combs found out the rapper was dating Ventura Fine during a fraught part of their own relationship. Sanders found himself up against a similar wall of silence when suing the city of Los Angeles in 2007 for wrongful death in the 1997 slaying of Combs' friend and Bad Boy Records rapper Christopher Wallace. Wallace, a protégé of Combs who recorded under the name Notorious B.I.G. or Biggie Smalls, was gunned down amid a bloody turf war between Combs and his New York-based Bad Boy Records and Marion "Suge" Knight and his West Coast rival, Death Row Records. Tupac Shakur, a rising star on Knight's label, was killed in a drive-by six months earlier. But penetrating the human layers of protection surrounding both Combs and Knight to get to the truth − including alleged police corruption and a cover-up − was anything but easy, Sanders recalls. More: 50 Cent, Diddy fight spills into court as former assistant reveals long-running feud Phil Carson, the FBI agent investigating Wallace's murder, agrees. Carson, who retired in 2017, said it was extremely difficult – even in the early stages of Combs' rise to stardom – to get past the wall of employees, friends, enablers and others who might have been witness to potential crimes and music business dynamics but who chose to look the other way or forget key details. Britney Spears, Michael B. Jordan, more: All the celebs mentioned during the Diddy trial "You've got to remember that when Diddy was first taking off, in terms of his popularity and the people he was rubbing shoulders with, he was the man,' Carson told USA TODAY. "And people will do anything and everything to attach themselves to somebody like that, not just for immediate financial reasons but to try to jettison their careers." Carson, who has been following the testimony in Combs' current trial, says he sees many parallels between how those at the highest levels of the music industry operated then and now. "It's very easy for people just starting off in the industry to just kind of turn a blind eye and just say, hey, that's none of my business. I'm here to do my job. I'm just going to kind of not say anything or get involved,' Carson said. "Not to say that I agree with that, because I don't. But I understand why people may think that way." In Combs' current case, some of the witnesses testified that, like Ventura Fine herself, they were terrified of the rap mogul because of his propensity for violence and retribution. Former male stripper Daniel Phillip, paid by Combs to have sex with Ventura Fine during marathon sex "freak offs," said he witnessed so many violent assaults that he discreetly pleaded with her to leave Combs. EXCLUSIVE: Civil suit against Sean 'Diddy' Combs had fabricated rape kit evidence Phillip said he was "shocked and terrified" after one incident in which Combs threw a glass at Ventura Fine and dragged her by the hair from one room to another. But he didn't intervene, he testified, because "it was going through my head that if I tried to do something, I might lose my life." Israel Florez, a hotel security guard, told jurors he intervened after a now-infamous 2016 incident in which Combs beat and kicked Ventura Fine as she tried to enter an elevator at a Los Angeles area hotel. Closed-circuit video of the assault, first released by CNN, went viral and was shown to jurors. When escorting Combs back to his room, Florez testified, the mogul offered him a stack of money in exchange for staying silent about the altercation. He said he declined the offer. And while Florez filed a hotel incident report, he said he didn't call the police because Ventura Fine didn't want him to. Many of the others who have testified were much closer to the often-fraught dynamic between Combs and Ventura Fine than Florez. They too didn't act on their concerns. Celebrity makeup artist Mylah Morales, who had worked for both Ventura Fine and Combs, said she awoke once to hear Combs screaming and attacking Cassie in the next room of their Beverly Hills hotel suite. Content warning: See photos prosecutors released of injuries to Diddy's ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura Fine Despite seeing Ventura Fine with a swollen eye, busted lip and knots on her head, she said she didn't call the police – or bring up the incident to either of them. "I feared for my life. Because if he could do that to her …" Morales testified, before being cut off by an objection from Combs' lawyers. Some of the most compelling testimony has come from former Combs former personal assistant, George Kaplan. Kaplan testified that Combs brutally attacked Ventura Fine during a crowded flight to Las Vegas on his private jet in 2015, and that he heard screams and the sound of shattering glass coming from the jet's bedroom. There was a "tremendous commotion," Kaplan testified, and Ventura Fine screamed, "Isn't anybody seeing this?" No one else on the plane, including Combs' ever-present security staff, did anything to help Cassie, Kaplan said. And he looked away out of fear for his budding career. Diddy trial replay: Former aide George Kaplan says Combs threatened his job "I was 23 years old," Kaplan testified. "All I wanted to do was have a great job in the entertainment industry." Similar acts of violence made Kaplan quit, ultimately, he said, adding that he was "tremendously" shaken by the plane incident and "felt an element of guilt for not stopping it." But even now, a decade later, he said, "I desperately did not want to come here," and only took the stand because he had no choice but to obey a Justice Department subpoena. Danity Kane singer Dawn Richard, who recorded music with Combs and for Bad Boy Records, said she witnessed Combs kicking, punching and dragging Ventura Fine by the hair. Who is Dawn Richard? Danity Kane singer testifying in Diddy trial about alleged abuse More witnesses are expected to testify about acts of violence that were seen by many others but never reported, or even questioned. A Los Angeles Fire Department arson investigator and a Los Angeles Police officer are expected to take the stand as early as today to testify about how Clark refused to assist them in their investigation into who firebombed Mescudi's car and the threats to Mescudi that Combs allegedly made. "I did not want to be involved in any of this any longer," Clark testified on May 27 as to why she refused to cooperate. Later, she told the jury she also "felt like somewhat of a protector of Puff." And Kristina Khorram, Combs' longtime chief of staff for his many business ventures, could be called as well. Khorram, whom Combs once called his "right hand," has been named as a defendant in at least three civil suits. More: Sean 'Diddy' Combs' 'right hand' breaks her silence following sex trafficking claims So might a Bad Boy Records executive who was mentioned, but not by name, by witness David James, another former Combs personal assistant. James, who said Ventura Fine told him she couldn't leave Combs because he controlled her money and her career, tearfully began his testimony last week by describing his hiring process and a remark made by the executive. "This is Mr. Combs' kingdom," the executive told James, he said, "and we are all here to serve in it." If you are a survivor of sexual assault, RAINN offers support through the National Sexual Assault Hotline at (4673) and and en Español Josh Meyer is a veteran correspondent focusing on domestic, national and global security issues, including transnational criminal organizations. Reach him atJMeyer@ Follow him on X at @JoshMeyerDC and Bluesky at @ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why people stayed silent about Sean 'Diddy' Combs' criminal behavior
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Couple stabs each other during bloody fight in Queens apartment
A Queens couple stabbed each other during a violent fight inside a Queens apartment early Saturday, officials said. It was one of two bloody blade attacks that took place in the city within five hours, the NYPD said. The two victims, a 27-year-old man and a 24-year-old man, were inside their apartment at NYCHA's Pomonok Houses on Jewel Ave. near Parsons Blvd. in Flushing at about 4 a.m. when they started arguing with each other, cops said. As the fight continued, one of the men pulled a knife, cops said. The two stabbed each other as they fought over the knife. When cops arrived, each man was suffering from multiple stab wounds to the body, cops said. EMS rushed both victims to New York Presbyterian-Queens, where the younger man was rushed into surgery and listed in critical but stable condition. The older victim was also listed in stable condition. The knife was recovered as detectives determined what sparked the fight. There were no prior domestic incidents at the apartment, a police source with knowledge of the case said. In an unrelated incident five hours earlier, two men, both 53, were found slashed inside he basement of a Sunset Park, Brooklyn, home on 58th St. near Seventh Ave. One of the victims was slashed in the neck, cops said. The second man had a deep gash to his head. Both were taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn where the one slashed in the neck was listed in critical condition. The other man is expected to recover. No arrests have been made in either case. The bloody back to back attacks come as felony assaults in the city were down, but only by less than 1%. As of May 25, cops had investigated 11,066 felony assaults, 21 fewer than this time last year, cops said.
Yahoo
11 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
At least 4 MTA employees attacked by unhinged riders on NYC buses, trains: cops, sources
At least four MTA employees were hurt in recent attacks as unhinged riders raged at them with wrenches, fists and feet across the Big Apple, cops and sources said. In the first assault, a wrench-wielding maniac bashed a 71-year-old driver in the forehead on board a B61 bus at Lorraine and Hicks streets in Red Hook just after 8 a.m. May 13, authorities said. Investigators believe a female passenger had an issue with the driver and called in her sidekick, who boarded the bus and immediately attacked the operator, sources said. Then the pair — whose relationship is unknown — fled off the bus together, according to the sources. The driver was taken to Brooklyn Methodist Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. Police released surveillance footage of the suspect, who is described as having a dark complexion, standing about 5-foot-6 and believed to be in his early 40s. He was last seen wearing a black sweatshirt and tan pants. The violence continued on Thursday, when three MTA workers were attacked in less than 12 hours, according to cops and sources. The earliest assault occurred minutes after midnight, when a 68-year-old MTA cleaner spotted a crazed man swinging a pipe at intercom kiosks inside the Bergen Street F and G train station in Boerum Hill, police sources said. When the cleaner tried to step in, the brute started swinging the pipe at him but missed — before punching him in the chest, cops and sources said. The assailant, seen wearing all black and carrying a backpack, then fled the scene. Video released by the NYPD shows him yelling as he aggressively points the pipe at the victim. The assailant is still on the loose. Then, around 5:30 p.m., a masked lunatic threw a cup of hot liquid on an on-duty 38-year-old MTA bus driver at Innis Street and Nicholas Avenue in the Port Richmond section of Staten Island, sources said. The driver was taken to Richmond University Medical Center, where he was listed in stable condition. The still-at-large attacker was last seen wearing a black face mask and a beige hoodie. About six hours later, a 53-year-old MTA conductor was clearing an M train at the Delancey-Essex Street station around 11:30 p.m. when she tried to rouse a sleeping passenger, the sources said. The subway snoozer became angry and kicked the conductor in the stomach before taking off, according to sources. The on-duty employee was taken to Bellevue Hospital with minor injuries. The attacker, who is still on the loose, is believed to be a Hispanic man in his 30s, standing about 6 feet tall and last seen wearing a black and white hoodie, the sources said.
