Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sex trafficking trial: Cassie’s makeup artist on the stand after Kid Cudi’s testimony
Rapper Kid Cudi has told a New York court that Sean “Diddy” Combs broke into his house in a fit of rage over Cassie Ventura, alleging the mogul later “firebombed” his Porsche.
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Rapper Kid Cudi has alleged love rival Sean Combs broke into his home, locked his dog in the bathroom and opened Christmas presents meant for his family during a dispute over Cassie Ventura.
The Grammy Award winner, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, took to the witness stand in Combs’ racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking trial on Thursday local time in New York.
Mr Mescudi told the court he believed Combs was also responsible for firebombing his Porsche in the driveway of his home in a jealous rage and said he looked like a “Marvel supervillain” when they met to discuss the incident the following day.
Mr Mescudi dated fellow musician Ms Ventura for about a year in 2011 and said he was later shocked to find out she had “played” him by continuing her relationship with Combs while they were together.
Combs, 55, is accused of using his fame, fortune and many businesses to run a racketeering scheme in which he controlled Ventura for 11 years, allegedly using violence and threats, forcing her and others into the drug-fuelled “freak-off” sex marathons.
He faces life in prison if convicted. He has denied all charges.
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RIHANNA’S, JLO’S MAKEUP ARTIST CALLED AS WITNESS
A celebrity makeup artist was called as witness against Diddy
Mylah Morales told the jury she has worked with many A-listers including Rihanna, Cassie Ventura, and Jennifer Lopez.
Morales testified about a 2010 fight in a hotel room between Combs and Ventura that left the R&B singer with a “swollen eye” and “busted lip.”
Morales said it was the weekend of the Grammys, when Ventura was slated to attend a private party at Prince’s house.
An irate Combs came into the hotel room where the makeup artist and Ventura were, saying, “Where the f--k is she.”
Then the couple went into the bedroom and Morales heard yelling and screaming.
Afterwards, Combs stormed out and left and Ventura emerged from the room with “a swollen eye, busted lip and knocks on her head.”
She took a “distraught” and “upset” Ventura to her house and called over a doctor friend, who said Ventura didn’t have a concussion.
Morales said she didn’t call the cops because she “feared for my life.”
DIDDY ‘FIREBOMBED KID CUDI’S PORSCHE’
Rapper Kid Cudi told the jury about how his Porsche was set on fire at his house with a molotov cocktail.
The arson attack happened outside the home of Kid Cudi – whose real name is Scott Mescudi – in January 2012.
Mescudi, who was 45 minutes away, said he got a call from his dog-sitter between 6:30am and 7:00am.
“She told me my car was on fire,” Mescudi said. “I immediately went to my house.”
Jurors were then shown a photo of Mescudi’s Porsche damaged by a molotov cocktail, which Mescudi’s nearby friend sent to him while he was on his way home.
“He was closer to my house and I wanted to see the damage,” Mescudi said.
The photo also showed a slash in the convertible top of the car and the car’s red seats melted.
“The top of my Porsche was cut open and that’s where they inserted the molotov cocktail,” he testified.
He said when he got to the car he could see the molotov cocktail “bottle and it was burnt up” and sitting “on the ground, outside the vehicle.”
He called the police to report the arson incident.
DIDDY ‘HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH’ CAR BOMBING
Mescudi and Combs met at SoHo House in Hollywood.
“After the fire I thought this is getting out of hand and I need to talk to him,” Mescudi said.
Mescudi says he was escorted into the room by Combs’ security guard D-Roc and the music mogul was “staring out the window with his hands behind his back like a Marvel supervillain.”
He said they talked about when Mescudi and Cassie Ventura started dating and how it ended.
“His whole point was we were homies, you know that was my girl,” Mescudi said. “I let him know she told me they were broken up and I took her word for it.”
Mescudi said Combs was “very calm … it was weird he was so calm.”
Eventually, Ventura came into the room and Mescudi “was upset to find out she had kinda went back to [Combs.]”
“We fell in love, things just happened,” Mescudi said Ventura told him.
Mescudi and Combs shook hands and Mescudi asked, looking him straight in the eyes while holding his hand: “What are we going to do about my car?”
“He looked back at me with a cold stare,” Mescudi said. “‘I don't know what you’re talking about’.”
The two rappers didn’t meet again until a couple of years later and Combs apologised about all that bulls--t,’” Mescudi recounted.
The pair never had any other problems again after that.
DEFENCE FOR DIDDY GRILLS KID CUDI
Brian Steel – a lawyer for Sean “Diddy” Combs – grilled rapper Kid Cudi about how he doesn’t have any evidence tying the fallen music mogul to a car bombing.
“I didn’t hear any follow-up about the fingerprints or anything,” said Kid Cudi, real name Scott Mescudi.
“There is no eyewitness that puts Combs at your house, true?” Steel asked Mescudi.
“Yeah,” Mescudi responded.
“You don’t have any information anyone affiliated with Combs was on or around your property?” Steel asked.
“No,” Mescudi answered.
Mescudi admitted that he was played by Cassie Ventura when she told him that her relationship with Combs was over.
“She played you,” Steel said.
“Yes,” Mescudi responded.
“You had no clue” that Ventura was still dating Combs, Steel asked.
“No clue,” Mescudi responded.
‘I KNEW SEAN COMBS WAS VIOLENT’: WHY CUDI AND CASSIE BROKE UP
Kid Cudi testified that he and Cassie Ventura stopped seeing each other for their “safety” and because of all “the drama,” involving Sean “Diddy” Combs.
“The drama was just getting out of hand and I kind of wanted to give it some space,” testified Kid Cudi – whose real name is Scott Mescudi.
“The break-in and everything. I just felt things were getting out of hand. For my safety, for her safety,” Mescudi said the pair ended things.
“I knew Sean Combs was violent,” Mescudi added of why he was concerned for his and Ventura’s safety.
‘HE FOUND OUT ABOUT US’: KID CUDI GIVES ACCOUNT OF DATING VENTURA
Mescudi told jurors that he dated Cassie Ventura “briefly” in 2011.
“She and Sean Combs had some problems and they weren’t dating anymore,” Mescudi said of his fling with Ventura.
Kid Cudi told the jury that police came to respond to a home break-in in December 2011 after Cassie Ventura called him and told him Sean “Diddy” Combs “found out about us.”
Mescudi was surprised at what Ventura told him because “I didn’t think she was still dealing with [Combs].”
He said he got a call from Ventura around 5:30 to 6:00am the day of the break-in and she “sounded really stressed … nervous and scared.”
‘MOTHERF**KER, YOU IN MY HOUSE?’ KID CUDI, VENTURA FLEE TO HOTEL
Ventura told Mescudi she gave Sean “Diddy” Combs his address and she “didn’t know what Combs would do” so Mescudi and Ventura went to the Sunset Marquee Hotel in Los Angeles.
Another Combs employee Capricorn Clark told Ventura and Mescudi that Combs was at Mescudi’s house.
Clark “sounded very scared … She was forced to go along with them over there. She was in a car outside my house waiting for them,” Mescudi recalled.
Mescudi told jurors he called Combs.
“Motherf--ker, you in my house?” he told Combs by phone as he drove from a hotel back to his house.
“What’s up?” Combs calmly responded, according to Mescudi. “I just want to talk to you.”
“I’m on my way over right now,” Mescudi recounts saying to Combs.
When Mescudi arrived at his home on Hollywood Hills Road, Combs was not there.
The security cameras were turned away from the front door, some things had been moved around and his dog was locked in the bathroom, he recalled.
“Some gifts I bought for my family were opened, some things I got from Chanel, and my dog was locked up in my bathroom,” Mescudi said.
“I got in the car and that’s when I called Sean Combs. I was looking for him. I wanted to confront him, I wanted to fight him, you know?” Mescudi said.
Instead he decided to call police.
Mescudi and Ventura ended their fling before the New Year and shortly after Combs allegedly broke into his house.
Combs had reached out to him during the Christmas holiday to find out more about Mescudi and Ventura’s relationship.
“[I] told him I didn’t want to talk,” Mescudi said. “He wanted to get to the bottom of it and figure it out, I guess he was in the dark.”
“But post break-in, I didn’t want to talk to him,” Mescudi said. “I told him, ‘You broke into my house and messed with my dog, I don’t want to talk to you.’”
By the New Year, Mescudi and Ventura were no longer together, he testified.
KID CUDI PUFFS ON CIG AS HE ARRIVES TO TESTIFY
Rapper Kid Cudi, 41, puffed on a cigarette as he arrived at the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan on a rainy Thursday morning, set to testify about his brief relationship with Cassie Ventura.
Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi, entered the courtroom wearing jeans, a white T-shirt, white sneakers and a black leather jacket.
Mescudi dated Sean “Diddy” Combs’ long-term on-and-off again girlfriend Cassie Ventura.
Combs allegedly threatened to hurt Mescudi and Ventura when he found out the pair had a fling.
DIDDY AND CASSIE IN CHAOTIC FIGHT ON PRIVATE JET
Sean “Diddy” Combs’s former assistant George Kaplan testified about “chaos” breaking out during a 2015 fight between Diddy and then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura on the music mogul’s private jet.
Kaplan said Combs and Ventura were behind a partition on the jet, which was ajar, and he could see over his shoulder when he heard a “glass crash, shatter.”
“I looked over my right shoulder. I saw Mr Combs standing over Cassie,” Kaplan said, recalling the altercation.
He then said he saw Ventura on her back with her legs hiked up in an attempt to create space between her and Combs.
Combs had a whisky glass in his hand when the “tremendous commotion” broke out, and Ventura was screaming, “Isn’t anyone seeing this?!,” according to Kaplan.
The former assistant said no one responded to the “chaos” on the jet, including Combs’ security detail.
He said he didn’t do anything or call police because he was too mesmerised working for Combs.
“I was 23 years old. All I wanted to do was have a great job in the entertainment industry,” Kaplan said. “I could not believe my good fortune to be working for such an icon.”
DIDDY ‘ROUGHED UP’ ANOTHER GIRLFRIEND
Sean “Diddy” Combs’s ex-assistant told the jury about how he also saw his boss rough up another girlfriend, Gina, throwing apples at her.
The Bad Boy Records founder took decorative apples that were in the entryway of his Miami mansion and chucked them at Gina in 2015, ex-assistant George Kaplan told jurors.
Kaplan said Combs threw them “hard. He was very angry.”
And Gina “was trying to shield herself with her arms and trying to move away from him,” Kaplan recounted.
He said he gave notice that he was quitting less than a month after the Gina incident because he didn’t want to be complicit in the violence anymore and he needed to take care of his dad, who had cancer.
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