SEAN “Diddy” Combs threatened Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura that he would send her “freak-off” videos to her parents to get them fired from their jobs, a stylist and friend of the singer testified.
Combs’ trial descended into chaos early after his defense team demanded a mistrial, claiming prosecutorial misconduct over questioning of the destroyed evidence from Kid Cudi’s car firebombing.
Marc Agnifilo, Combs’ lead attorney, argued the prosecution made an “outrageous” suggestion when they claimed the music executive, 55, could have played a part in the destruction of fingerprint evidence from Cudi’s arson investigation.
The defense claimed the suggestion was raised to the jury during the prosecution’s questioning of arson investigator Lance Jimenez.
Jimenez was testifying about his investigation into Cudi’s car bombing and said that the fingerprint evidence recovered from the bottle of the Molotov cocktail was destroyed without his knowledge in 2012.
Jimenez told the courtroom that the DNA evidence was destroyed on orders from the Los Angeles Police Department, who was not part of his team.
After the judge called for a brief 10-minute break and the jury was escorted out of the courtroom, Agnifilo said the remarks “implied that someone in this courtroom was responsible for the destruction of the fingerprint cards.”
Combs’ defense team urged Judge Arun Subramanian to declare a mistrial, citing prosecutorial misconduct.
However, the motion was quickly denied.
Judge Subramanian agreed to strike the questions and responses about the fingerprint evidence from the record.
The judge then instructed the jury to disregard all the information disclosed about the DNA evidence, saying the questions and responses were irrelevant to the case.
FREAK-OFF VIDEO THREATS
Deonte Nash, Ventura’s friend and a celebrity stylist, testified about the repeated threats Combs allegedly made against his then-girlfriend.
Nash told the courtroom how during one phone conversation, Combs threatened Ventura that he would release the videos of her participating in “freak-offs” on the internet.
When asked what Ventura said about the recorded sexual encounters, Nash said she told him “she didn’t want to” have sex with the men.
Combs also warned Ventura that he would send a copy to her parents’ workplace to get them fired from their jobs, Nash said on the stand.
Nash testified how he saw bruises on Ventura’s body “quite often.”
The day began with testimony from an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, who responded to the break in at the property of rapper Kid Cudi, born Scott Mescudi, in December 2011.
VICTIM #4 EXPECTED TO TESTIFY THURSDAY
The prosecution is expected to call forth Victim #4, who is being identified in court only by the pseudonym “Mia,.”
Mia is a former employee of Combs, who prosecutors say was coerced into sex with him.
During opening statements, prosecutor Emily Johnson described Mia as a former personal assistant whom Combs worked “to the bone for years.”
Johnson said that at some point, Combs allegedly forced himself on her sexually, coerced her to perform oral sex on him, and even snuck into her bed to have sex with her against her will.
On Tuesday, Capricorn Clark, who worked for Combs on and off between 2004 and 2018, testified about her former boss’ violent and arduous demands that led her to develop stress-induced alopecia.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/14332192/sean-diddy-combs-trial-sex-trafficking/
