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Kid Cudi gave his long-awaited testimony at Sean Combs‘ intercourse trafficking and racketeering trial in the present day, describing for jurors the menacing harassment Combs allegedly inflicted when he discovered the rapper was relationship Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.
Cudi claimed Combs personally broke into his residence in December 2011, and that the music mogul’s jealous rage culminated with a firebombing of Cudi’s Porsche outdoors his Hollywood Hills residence in January 2012.
The rapper, actor, and producer, whose actual title is Scott Mescudi, took the witness stand shortly earlier than 11 a.m., with Combs trying straight forward and avoiding any eye contact with the musician as he entered the packed courtroom.
Talking to jurors throughout his almost 90 minutes of testimony, Mescudi stated his romance with Ventura began after she instructed him she and Combs “had some issues” and “weren’t relationship anymore.” He stated he was “actually confused” when Ventura known as him in a panic one morning in December 2011 to say Combs had found their relationship. “She sounded actually careworn on the telephone, nervous, scared,” he recalled. He went to choose her up and took her to the Sundown Marquis lodge. “I simply thought it
was secure and simply wished to place her someplace the place she was off the radar,” he stated.
The musician stated he later spoke to Combs’ assistant on the time, Capricorn Clark, by telephone. She instructed him she was “pressured to go alongside” with Combs and one other man to Mescudi’s home, and so they had been contained in the residence whereas she outdoors in a automotive. “She was very scared, seemed like she was on the verge of tears,” he stated of Clark. Mescudi stated he began racing to the Hollywood Hills deal with and known as Combs from his automotive. “Motherfucker, are you in my home?” he recalled repeatedly asking Combs.
“I’m right here,” Combs allegedly replied. “I’m over right here ready for you.”
Based on Mescudi, Combs had fled by the point he arrived. Nonetheless, there have been telltale indicators somebody had damaged in. Vacation presents from Chanel had been opened and left within the kitchen. Mescudi’s canine was discovered locked in a toilet, clearly traumatized by one thing, he stated. Mescudi stated after the incident, the canine was “very jittery and form of on edge on a regular basis.”
After he noticed his canine, Mescudi known as Combs once more, he testified. “I used to be searching for him. As a result of I wished to confront him. I wished to struggle him,” Mescudi instructed jurors. As soon as he gathered himself, he known as police as an alternative and made a report. He then traveled to Connecticut with Ventura for the vacations. Combs was texting him all through the journey, Mescudi stated, however he determined to not interact.
“I instructed him, you already know, particularly instructed him, ‘You broke into my home. You messed with my canine. Like, I don’t need to speak to you,’” Mescudi testified.
A few weeks later, Mescudi’s canine sitter known as him to say his Porsche was on hearth, he testified. Somebody had sliced the automotive’s convertible roof and dropped a Molotov cocktail inside, on the motive force’s facet, he stated.
“What the fuck?” he stated of his response to the automotive bombing in his driveway. Jurors noticed photographs of the broken sports activities automotive, with its crimson leather-based inside blackened from flames.
Mescudi stated he reached out to Combs after that, as a result of the scenario was “getting out of hand.” He stated the trio met on the Soho Home in Los Angeles the following day. “Combs was standing there, staring out the window together with his palms behind his again, like a Marvel supervillain,” Mescudi recalled, inflicting laughter within the courtroom.
On the assembly, Combs refused to acknowledge any connection to the automotive, Mescudi instructed the jury. He believed that Combs “was mendacity,” Mescudi testified. The musician stated Ventura successfully ended their relationship, basically ghosting him.
For his half, Mescudi stated he additionally wished to provide the connection area. It was “for my security, for her security,” he testified, “as a result of I knew Sean Combs was violent.” Below cross-examination, Mescudi admitted nobody noticed who torched the automotive and that he had no direct proof Combs was concerned. (Combs has pleaded not responsible to the 5 felony prices towards him and denies any connection to the automobile arson.)
After the jury left the room, U.S. District Courtroom Choose Arun Subramanian admonished protection lawyer Brian Metal for asking Mescudi about his intercourse life with Ventura. A prosecutor known as the tried questioning “outrageous.”
“The road was crystal clear and … the road was crossed,” the decide stated. “Is it going to occur once more?” the decide pressed. Metal stated no.
On Thursday afternoon, Mescudi posted a video message saying individuals had been “checking in” on him main as much as his testimony, and he appreciated the assist. “I’ve been seeing all of the love and assist, and I simply wanna say, thanks a lot,” Mescudi said. “It actually means loads to me, man. You guys are the very best. I like y’all. It is a tense scenario. I’m glad it’s behind me. And yeah, I like y’all, man. Massive love.”
Final 12 months, Rolling Stone obtained a Los Angeles City Fire Department report that confirmed Mescudi was the proprietor of a Porsche that was set on hearth by an “incendiary gadget” on the morning of Jan. 9, 2012. The reason for the ignition was listed as “intentional.” The report didn’t point out any suspects. A hearth official instructed Rolling Stone that the automobile was not totally engulfed upon the division’s arrival.
Based on prosecutors, Combs’ unstable response to Ventura’s short-lived romance with Mescudi, was an instance of the strategies he used to regulate Ventura. Southern District of New York prosecutors allege that all through a decade-long relationship, Combs coerced Ventura into taking part in extremely choreographed, days-long sexual encounters with male unique dancers and escorts, which Combs dubbed “freak-offs.” Prosecutors allege Combs stored Ventura locked within the abusive dynamic by frequent bodily beatings, threats to launch specific tapes of her, and management over her profession.
In her personal testimony, Ventura stated she and Mescudi struck up their short-lived romance in late 2011 throughout a tough patch in her on-off relationship with Combs. She instructed jurors that Combs found the dalliance when he went by her telephone throughout a freak-off and located emails the place Ventura disclosed the connection to Capricorn Clark.
Combs flew right into a rage, Ventura testified. “I simply bear in mind him placing like a wine bottle opener between his fingers and, like, lunging at me,” she stated. “His eyes blacked out, tremendous indignant. And I simply needed to get out of there.” Ventura fled the freak-off and returned to her lodge, utilizing a burner telephone to contact Mescudi, who picked her up, she stated.
Ventura tried to lie low however stated she finally went to see Combs. “I simply felt like [the] higher [way] to resolve it in that second was to go there and simply communicate to him,” she stated. However Ventura alleged that Combs was not within the temper to clean issues over. “He was irate,” she defined. “He was simply so indignant, and after I was within the room, he instructed me about movies that he had that he was going to launch and the way he was going to harm Scott and I.”
Upon leaving Combs’ home, Ventura was assaulted, she stated. Combs kicked her within the again, sending her flying to the bottom, she stated. Jurors noticed photographs of a giant, purple bruise on her decrease again.
As she was flying again to Connecticut for the vacations that 12 months, she emailed her mom, Regina Ventura, and Capricorn Clark, on Dec. 23, 2011. Ventura testified that she wished to memorialize Combs’ threats. “The threats which have been made in direction of me by Sean “Puffy” Combs are that he’s going to launch 2 specific intercourse tapes of me,” Ventura wrote from an e mail account underneath her alias Veronica Bang.
She claimed Combs threatened to launch “one [recording] on Christmas Day, possibly earlier than or proper after, and one other one a while quickly after that.” She stated Combs additionally threatened to have “somebody damage me and Scott Mescudi bodily,” including, “He made a degree that it wouldn’t be by his palms; he really stated he’d be overseas when it occurred.”
Because of the overwhelming scenario, Ventura stated she ended up breaking apart with Mescudi a couple of days later, believing it could be safer for the each of them. “I imply, Sean stated to me, earlier than I left L.A. that he was going to harm the each of us,” Ventura instructed the courtroom. “I, at the least, took that in my thoughts, like, if I keep on this scenario, we each will probably be damage. If I don’t, then nobody will probably be.”
Though she returned to Combs, Ventura testified that Combs was nonetheless fuming over Mescudi and continued to make threats. “He talked about that once we had been overseas, that Scott’s automotive could be blown up,” she stated. “He wished [Mescudi’s] buddies to be there to see it.”
Combs additionally allegedly retaliated towards Ventura by demanding cash from her dad and mom. Her mother, Regina Ventura, testified earlier this week that an “indignant” Combs contacted her in an try and “recoup cash that he had spent on [Ventura] as a result of he was indignant that she had a relationship with Scott Mescudi.” Regina stated she took out a $20,000 residence fairness mortgage with a purpose to wire the cash to Combs as a result of “I used to be scared for my daughter’s security.”
After the lunch break on Thursday, prosecutors known as movie star make-up artist Mylah Morales to the stand. She instructed jurors her clientele included superstars Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez, and that she labored for Combs for years. Morales, who beforehand spoke out in The Fall of Diddy, the ID docuseries from Maxine Productions and Rolling Stone Movies, then recalled an alleged assault on Ventura through the weekend of the 2010 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Morales stated she was asleep in a room at a Beverly Hills lodge when Combs stormed in, demanding to know, “The place the fuck is she?” (In her prior testimony, Ventura instructed jurors that Combs beat her within the lodge bed room as a result of he was livid she attended a celebration at Prince’s Los Angeles residence.)
Morales recalled listening to Combs screaming at Ventura in an adjoining room. She stated when Ventura lastly emerged, she had “knots on her head,” a swollen eye and a fats lip. Morales testified that she packed up Ventura’s issues and organized for a physician to look at Ventura privately at Morales’ residence, to see if she had a concussion. Morales stated the physician additionally examined Ventura’s abdomen and ribs, advising her to go to the emergency room.
“I used to be afraid of Sean,” Morales instructed the jury of why neither she nor Ventura reported the incident to authorities. “I feared for my life.”
Talking in The Fall of Diddy, Morales added that, “If we known as the police, what would occur? He’s a really highly effective particular person within the enterprise, and he can do issues that may make you go away. And many individuals are afraid of him until at the present time.”
George Kaplan, a former assistant to Combs, additionally testified Thursday, telling jurors he witnessed Combs turn out to be violent with two girls. He stated within the first occasion, Combs allegedly assaulted Ventura on a non-public jet in 2015. He recalled listening to a “super commotion” and glass shattering, however he seemed away, and nobody received as much as intervene, he testified. “It shook me tremendously,” he stated.
“Isn’t anyone seeing this?” Ventura allegedly screamed, in response to Kaplan. He stated ultimately, he seemed again and noticed Ventura mendacity on her again, utilizing her legs to “create area” between her and Combs.
Kaplan stated that one other time, he noticed an indignant Combs hurling what seemed like inexperienced apples at one other girlfriend named Gina. He stated Combs was throwing the apples “arduous,” and that Gina was “making an attempt to defend herself” along with her arms. Later that night time, Kaplan stated he awoke to Gina “screaming” at members of Combs’ safety group as she appeared to be making an attempt to depart Combs’ Miami mansion.
Kaplan, who testified underneath immunity, stated he resigned from his job as a result of he felt dangerous about serving to cowl up the alleged assaults. “I used to be unwilling to face by the habits,” he instructed Combs’ chief of employees, describing his motive for quitting.
Additionally giving testimony earlier within the week was former Danity Kane and Diddy-Soiled Cash member Daybreak Richard; unique male dancer Sharay Hayes, a.okay.a. “The Punisher”; Combs’ former private assistant David James; and knowledgeable witness Dr. Daybreak Hughes, a medical and forensic psychologist.
Hughes testified Wednesday that many victims stay in relationships with intimate accomplice violence for quite a lot of causes. She stated perpetrators use a spread of ways to claim dominance and maintain it, usually interspersing abuse with kindness and “love bombing.” She stated abusers use affection to construct emotional attachment, which feeds into a robust “trauma bond.”
Hughes stated it’s additionally widespread for victims to attenuate abuse and delay reporting it till they achieve distance or obtain psychological counseling. “[Victims] don’t stay as a result of they need to be abused,” she testified. As an alternative, they usually really feel love for his or her perpetrators, and “hope for change,” she testified.
This text was up to date at Thursday, Might 22 at 4:35 p.m. to incorporate Child Cudi’s social video message.
From Rolling Stone US.