EDITOR’S NOTE: Warning: This story comprises descriptions of rape and sexual violence.
A former worker of Sean “Diddy” Combs took middle stage in his federal felony trial Thursday and testified that he bodily and sexually assaulted her on multiple events in the course of the time she labored for him.
The worker, who’s testifying underneath the pseudonym “Mia,” is anticipated to return to the stand on Friday to finish the third week of testimony. The prosecution has stated their case is anticipated to final about 5 weeks.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to expenses of racketeering conspiracy, intercourse trafficking and transportation to have interaction in prostitution. If convicted, he may face a sentence of as much as life in jail.
Prosecutors have stated Combs and a few in his internal circle acted as a felony enterprise and used threats, violence, medicine, bribery, arson, kidnapping and lies to coerce his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura into collaborating in “Freak Offs” and to guard the music mogul’s repute.
The protection has acknowledged Combs was violent with romantic companions and stated he had “a bit of a different sex life” however argued he has not dedicated the alleged federal crimes.
Here’s what we discovered in testimony Thursday.
Mia, who labored as Combs’ private assistant and for Revolt Films from 2009 till 2017, stated he sexually assaulted her on multiple events.
Speaking in almost a whisper and generally breaking into tears, Mia stated the primary time Combs sexually assaulted her was a couple of months into her employment once they had been on the Plaza lodge in New York City for his fortieth celebration. She stated Combs requested to talk together with her within the kitchen and supplied her two photographs of vodka that she consumed. She stated the drinks “hit me kinda hard.”
She stated she was shocked when Combs then leaned in to kiss her in opposition to the wall and put his arm up her costume. Mia stated the following factor she remembered, she was sitting in a chair in one other room because the solar got here up.
In one other incident, which she stated passed off in 2009 or 2010, Mia testified she was asleep in a backside bunk mattress in Combs’ Los Angeles house when he climbed on prime of her and raped her. The door was unlocked as a result of she wasn’t allowed to lock it, per Combs’ home guidelines.
Mia additionally testified about an incident that she stated passed off at Combs’ Los Angeles house. She stated she was packing a bag on the ground in Combs’ bed room closet when Combs appeared along with his penis out. “He grabbed my head and he put it in there,” she stated.
Mia testified that she by no means initiated sexual contact with Combs or advised him she needed to have intercourse with him. She stated she “froze” and didn’t react throughout every incident.
She added throughout testimony that she by no means advised him “no” in the course of the sexual assaults as a result of she was afraid Combs would hearth her, destroy her future or bodily damage her.
“I couldn’t tell him ‘no,’ like, about a sandwich, I couldn’t tell him ‘no’ about anything. There’s no way I could tell him ‘no,’” Mia stated.
Mia additionally testified that she by no means advised the corporate’s human assets division as a result of they had been there to “punish” not shield, and she or he stated she didn’t suppose anyone would imagine her.
Mia stated she “absolutely” didn’t wish to speak about these incidents however felt an ethical obligation to talk out now as a result of “when you’re scared into silence, these things continue to happen to others,” she stated.
“It’s the most traumatizing (and) worst thing that’s ever happened to me,” Mia stated.
Mia additionally detailed a number of cases wherein Combs bodily assaulted her, threw objects at her or yelled at her.
Mia testified that generally Combs handled her like his greatest buddy or working associate. At different instances, he handled her “like a worthless piece of crap.”
On one evening, Mia testified, Combs made a request of her, however earlier than attending to it, she went to her room to retrieve a tampon, inflicting Combs to launch right into a “humiliating rant” in entrance of everybody current. When she advised him that she wanted to alter her tampon, he “aggressively” threw a bowl of spaghetti at her, she stated. The bowl didn’t hit her, she stated.
After that second, she ran outdoors, barefoot, and hid in a bush till she went to a lodge later that evening, she testified.
In one other incident, when Combs’ Wi-Fi didn’t work, he threw a pc at Mia’s head however missed, she testified.
Mia described the work atmosphere with Combs as “chaotic” and “toxic,” decided by Combs’ ever-changing temper.
Mia stated she was 25 or 26 when she first utilized to work for Combs. When she and the top of human assets went to Combs’ house for an interview with him, Combs answered the door in his underwear, she testified. The HR worker left after introducing them, and Combs later put extra garments on, Mia stated.
The former assistant stated she didn’t sleep throughout her first 24 hours on the job and stated working lengthy hours on little sleep was the norm. One time, she stated she labored for 5 days straight with out sleep, utilizing extended-release Adderall to remain awake.
The jury was proven an inventory of Mia’s job tasks that she wrote in November 2011. The listing included “PROTECT HIM AT ALL TIMES” and “anticipating his needs, whims, and moods.” She additionally wrote that Combs may ask her to do “17,000 things at one time” starting from “cracking his knuckles to writing his next movie to doing his taxes.”
Mia stated she wasn’t allowed to go away Combs’ houses with out his permission. Only Combs’ safety personnel had been allowed to lock their doorways, in line with his guidelines, Mia testified.
For a few 12 months, Mia testified, she was the one private assistant. Asked how she felt throughout that point, she stated: “I didn’t have time to feel. But, like, insane.”
On the stand, Mia recalled incidents of bodily violence by Combs in opposition to his now ex girlfriend Cassie Ventura, together with one throughout which Mia remembers fearing that Combs was going to kill Ventura.
One incident, first detailed on the stand by Ventura, passed off at Ventura’s house. Mia stated she and stylist Deonte Nash, who started his testimony on Wednesday and concluded on Thursday, witnessed Combs assaulting Ventura and tried to intervene. Choking up on the stand, Mia stated she noticed Combs decide Ventura up and thought, “is he going to kill her.”
“His eyes turned like black and there was like no getting through,” she stated of Combs’ demeanor in the course of the incident. “Like I was trying to get him to stop and it was like he was looking through me.”
Mia stated Combs slammed Ventura’s head into the nook of a mattress, opening up a gash. The jury was earlier within the trial proven a photograph of an eyebrow scar that Ventura stated got here from the assault.
Afterward, Combs advised Mia to get in contact with an assistant to schedule a health care provider’s appointment to repair Ventura’s damage and advised her to say that Ventura fell as a result of she was drunk, Mia testified.
In 2012, throughout a visit to Turks and Caicos with Combs and Ventura, Mia stated she was woken up by Ventura, who bumped into the room screaming that Combs was going to “kill” her.
In one other incident in Turks and Caicos, Mia testified she and Ventura sought to flee Combs and took paddleboards out to sea whereas Combs was on the seashore screaming at them. When the skies turned black, they needed to determine if it was “scarier to face Mother Nature or to go back to Puff,” she stated. They went again to shore, she stated.
Overall, Mia stated she by no means noticed Ventura battle again. “I’ve just seen her with her arms up, for him to stop,” she stated.
Mia stated she by no means reported something to the police.
“I believed that Puff’s authority was above the police,” she stated. Confidentiality was a very powerful factor to him, Mia testified, and she or he “was supposed to protect him from people.”
Deonte Nash, a star stylist who labored with Combs and Ventura for a few decade, testified on cross-examination Thursday morning that he “always” had issues for Ventura’s security.
The feedback got here when protection lawyer Xavier Donaldson requested Nash about his earlier testimony wherein he stated he noticed a person enter Ventura and Combs’ lodge room over New Years in 2016-2017. Nash stated he left their room after Ventura stated Combs needed to ask one other man over.
Donaldson advised that since Nash left with out asking any questions, he should not have had any issues about Ventura’s security.
“I always did,” Nash stated.
“In this situation, you left the room anyway, correct?” Donaldson requested, shortly after.
“Yes,” Nash responded.