Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial: Cassie Ventura’s friend Bryana Bongolan testifies about shocking abuse
Cassie Ventura’s friend Bryana Bongolan has “night terrors” about Sean “Diddy” Combs after the rapper held her over a high-rise railing his sex trafficking trial has heard.
Entertainment
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Sean “Diddy” Combs once dangled a woman over a balcony 17 stories high, she told the jury Wednesday at the disgraced rap mogul’s bombshell sex-trafficking trial.
Bryana “Bana” Bongolan, a friend of Combs’ ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura who filed a lawsuit last year over the shocking claim, is also revealing chilling threats she says the embattled hip-hop tycoon made to her — and that she watched as he threw a knife at Cassie in a fit of rage.
Combs, 55, is accused of using his fame, fortune and many businesses to run a decade-long scheme in which he controlled and manipulated Ms Ventura, 38, using violence and threats, forcing her and others — including several escorts — into drug-fuelled “freak-off” sex marathons that went on for days.
The rapper has pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Ms Bongolan recounted for jurors a time when the hip-hop mogul held her over a railing at Ms Ventura’s Los Angeles apartment while yelling, “you know what the f*** you did!”
Bongolan said the incident played out in September 2016 when she was sleeping on the couch at the apartment of Combs’ girlfriend Cassie Ventura.
The Bad Boy Records founder banged on the Ms Ventura’s front door, before Bongolan asked him to leave.
Then a slight 155cm, 45kg Ms Bongolan went outside to Ventura’s balcony.
“He basically came up from behind me,” she testified. “He lifted me up and hung me off the rail.”
During the 10 to 15 seconds while Combs manhandled her, he screamed “You know what the f*** you did.”
But Bongolan said she told him she didn’t know and she still doesn’t know to this day.
Then Combs tossed her onto the balcony furniture.
Ventura came out of her bedroom in “disbelief” and asked Combs: “Did you just hang her off the balcony?”
Jurors were shown photos of the balcony and also an image of a bruise on Bongolan’s leg taken after the assault.
She said the incident left her with a bruise on the back of her leg and caused her to sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with “night terrors.”
Ms Bongolan told the court she has an open $A16 million lawsuit against over the balcony incident.
She said she lawyered up in January 2024 and first tried to settle with the rapper outside of court but she ended up turning down an offer and eventually filed suit in November 2024.
Ms Bongolan said Combs once threw a knife that came “pretty close” to hitting Ms Ventura.
The friends were both sleeping at Ms Ventura’s apartment when Bongolan woke up to “banging” and discovered an “upset” Combs inside the apartment.
The I’ll Be Missing You rapper took out a knife and pointed it toward Ventura, then he “threw the knife in Cassie’s direction,” Ms Bongolan testified.
She said the knife came “pretty close” to where Ms Ventura was standing but didn’t strike her.
Ms Ventura “threw the knife back,” Bongolan said, earlier noting that the duo had a “volatile” relationship.
The return throw didn’t make contact with Combs, who “left quickly.”
Bongolan said she never called the cops because she was “scared” of him.
Ms Bongolan also testified she was in Malibu doing a photo shoot on the beach with Ms Ventura in 2016 when Combs approached her and gave her a menacing threat.
“He came up really close to my face and said something along the lines of ‘I’m the devil and I could kill you,’” Ms Bongolan said.
She said she didn’t know why the rapper said that to her and couldn’t tell if he was on drugs at the time.
“I was terrified,” she said, admitting that she was on cocaine at the time.
SEE BELOW FOR YESTERDAY’S TRIAL HIGHLIGHTS:
LONGTIME DIDDY EXECUTIVE TAKES WITNESS STAND; EPSTEIN CONNECTION
Derek Ferguson, a longtime employee of Sean “Diddy” Combs has taken the stand.
Ferguson worked for the hip-hop mogul from 1998 to 2017, including in the role of chief financial officer at Bad Boy Entertainment.
He is testifying after receiving a subpoena.
The hedge fund Highbridge Capital Management, which dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein reportedly invested in, came up during Ferguson’s testimony.
The investment company, which was purchased by JP Morgan Chase in 2004, owned part of Combs’ media company Revolt TV, Ferguson testified.
“They had a say in a lot of actions of the enterprise,” the executive told jurors.
Epstein invested US$10 million into Highbridge, the Wall Street Journal reported in 2019.
The disgraced financier, who killed himself inside a Manhattan prison while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, also had longstanding ties to Highbridge’s billionaire founder Glenn Dubin, according to reports.
SECURITY GUARD ADMITS LYING ABOUT DIDDY VIDEO, TAKING BRIBE
Security guard Eddy Garcia told the court that after being hounded by Sean “Diddy” Combs and his assistant Kristina Khorram to hand over the only copy of the surveillance video, he and his boss Bill Medrano agreed to take pay-offs in exchange for the footage.
The court heard Combs made multiple attempts to get the footage and in one phone call he sounded nervous, was talking fast and conceded he’d had a lot to drink.
Mr Garcia said on another call, Combs told him that the video “could ruin him”.
“He was concerned that this video could get out and that it could ruin his career,” Mr Garcia told the court.
“He said he would take care of me.”
Mr Garcia said his boss Mr Medrano downloaded the footage to a USB stick which he gave to Garcia to hand over to Combs.
The court heard Combs himself was at the exchange, as well as a bodyguard and Khorram.
“Eddy my angel, come in,” Combs allegedly told Mr Garcia of the meeting.
CASSIE DIDN’T WANT VIDEO TO COME OUT
Garcia said Combs also put Ms Ventura on a video call.
“She said hi, she said that she had a movie coming out and that it wasn’t a good time for this to be coming out and she wanted it to go away,” Garcia said Ventura told him on the call.
Mr Garcia said Combs had him sign a nondisclosure agreement and a contract swearing he was handing over the only copy of the video.
The Bad Boy Records founder then allegedly took cash from a brown paper bag and put it into a money counting machine before handing over $100,000 sorted into $10,000 stacks.
He said his boss Mr Medrano had agreed to take $50,000 in exchange for the video.
Mr Garcia said the remaining $50,000 was for him and another security guard who declined the bribe.
He said he ultimately took $30,000 and $20,000 went to another security guard.
Combs told him not to make any large transactions with the bribe money.
Mr Garcia said he purchased a used car with the cash.
DIDDY CALLED SECURITY GUARD ON EASTER: ‘GOD PUT YOU IN MY LIFE’
“He said, ‘Happy Easter. You are my angel. God is good. God put you in my life for a reason.’ And he asked if anyone had inquired about the video,” Garcia told jurors.
Garcia informed the Bad Boy Records founder that he hadn’t received any questions.
Combs said “Great” and then told Garcia to keep him posted if he did, Garcia testified.
DIDDY’S MUM AND SON ATTEND TRIAL
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ mother, Janice Combs, 84, and son Justin Dior Combs, 31, arrived at Manhattan federal court Tuesday morning to attend the 14th day of the disgraced music mogul’s sex-trafficking and racketeering trial.
Noticeably absent are Diddy’s daughters.
CRAZED FAN CAUSES CHAOS AT COURT
Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial was off to a dramatic start on Tuesday after a crazed fan yelling support for the rapper was dragged from the courtroom.
Moments before testimony began for the day, a woman in the gallery began screaming and ranting about “the system”, yelling to Combs: “Diddy, these motherf*****s are laughing at you”.
Security guards led her from the room as Combs quietly watched the scene unfold.
Shortly after the disturbance, prosecutors called their first witness for the day – Eddy Garcia, a security guard who worked at the Los Angeles hotel where Combs was captured on CCTV viciously beating then-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura in March 2016.
He was followed by a longserving executive employee of Combs, Derek Ferguson.
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