Law&Crime Sidebar - P. Diddy on Trial: Balconies, Beatdowns, and a Black Eye — Former Employee Tells All

Episode Date: May 30, 2025

Another of Sean “Diddy” Combs’ personal assistants took to the stand Thursday to detail what exactly was expected of her. A witness known only as “Mia” said during the time she worked for Combs, he sexually assaulted her, threw things at her, and insulted her intelligence. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber spoke with correspondent Elizabeth Millner, who was inside the courtroom, about Mia’s compelling testimony.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you received Depo-Provera birth control shots and were later diagnosed with a brain or spinal tumor called meningioma, you may be eligible for a lawsuit. Visit https://forthepeople.com/lcdepo to start a claim now!HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. A former employee of Sean Diddy Combs testifying under the pseudonym Mia told jurors that he sexually assaulted her, controlled where she went, even subjected her to violent outbursts and also made her work around the clock on extended release Adderall. I'm going to talk with Law and Crimes reporter Elizabeth Milner to get the scoop on all of the harrowing details that she shared. Welcome to Sidebar. Presented by Law and Crime, I'm Jesse Weber. Hey, everybody. This is another law and crime legal alert. If you receive Deferra birth control

shots and were later diagnosed with a brain or spinal tumor called meningioma, you may be eligible for a lawsuit. That's right. Morgan and Morgan is invested. claiming claims that patients were improperly warned about this risk. It's free to check, just takes a few minutes, and you don't pay unless they win. So scan the QR code on screen, click the link below, or head over to 4thepeople.com slash LC Depot to see if you qualify. What a day in court. What a day in court in the Sean Combs criminal trial. So before we even get to the idea that a new alleged victim has taken the stand using the pseudonym Mia, and there's a lot to get into there.

There was something that happened at the beginning of the day, a witness, a celebrity stylist finished their testimony, and it was really interesting what the defense did. So, I'm not going to do this alone. I want to bring on Elizabeth Milner, Law and Crimes Reporter, who has been in that courtroom, not only today for every minute of the testimony and action, she has been there every day of this trial. Elizabeth, always so good to see you. Thank you so much for taking the time.

I know people look forward to your recaps. We've got to start with Deonte Nash. important witness who testified earlier in the trial, testified about the abuse that he allegedly observed of Cassie Ventura, testified about intervening, trying to stop Sean Combs from attacking her, also testified that he observed threats that were made against Cassie Ventura, but he was under cross-examination by Xavier Donaldson today. What was the theme of the cross-examination? Were they trying to hit on any kind of discrepancies or inconsistency? in his testimony. Talk to us about that.

Yeah, it was interesting kind of what the direction of the cross-examination was really going to. Even on day one of Deonté Nash's cross-examination that trickled into day two, which is today. And so even right off the bat this morning, Xavier Donaldson asked Deonté Nash, good morning, how are you? And Deonté responded blessed. So I was like thinking, okay, how are we going to, how's the mood going to be during this testimony? But it really was kind of a little bit of all over the place. For example, we saw a text message exhibit that was taken down pretty quickly. None of us in the gallery were able to kind of even comprehend what was kind of going on,

what the point of this message was to be shown to Deonté and then just be brought down just immediately afterwards. Then he was asked a little bit about Capricorn Clark, and specifically in 2011, and Deante was asked whether or not she was kind of the creative, and Deonté responded that she didn't necessarily work on Cassie's mixtape around this time. Then they kind of get into Cassie wearing her hair in a certain style at the MTV the May Awards. It was a green, she had like this neon green hair color. And if you remember from Capricorn Clark's testimony on Tuesday, she kind of took ownership

of making Cassie into that look, for example, is pretty much saying that she was trying to bring Cassie into the future. This was coming after Cassie. I'd been rocking the kind of half-shaped head for a while. And so Capricorn Clark, while on the stand, was like, oh, this is my idea. I wanted to bring her into the next level, into the future and give her a new look, whereas Deonte, when he was on the stand today, was just explaining that this was a group decision that was made amongst a lot of people within the staff. So then we kind of get into a little bit more of what had happened to Cassie as far as the bed framing incident. For example, Deonté Nash was asked, you spoke with prosecutors about this incident, and Deontay responded, yeah, you didn't tell prosecutors that Diddy kept kicking Cassie while she was bleeding, and Deontay responded, I gave as little as possible.

I only answered what I was asked. And again, Deonte made it very clear at the beginning of his testimony that he didn't want to be testifying in the first place. He was subpoena to testify, didn't want to be doing this, something that a lot of other witnesses have also said the same thing about. Then we kind of get into the 2015 revolt conference that happened in Miami. And this was kind of a big issue this morning, or not a big issue, but this was kind of a big point. Because it kind of has to do with Michael B. Jordan, in a sense, because Deonte said he was over in Miami. styling little Kim while Cassie was over in South Africa with Mia shooting the movie Honey 3, and that was the same movie that Michael B. Jordan was in?

And so, Deante was asked, was she able to do movies while signed to Bad Boy? And he responded sometimes. He was asked, Mr. Combs signed a contract to let Cassie do this movie, and Deonté responded correct. And so it seems like Deonté was kind of interrupting Xavier Donaldson at some point. And he just came out out of the blue and just said, yeah, I was trying to hook her up with Michael B. Jordan because Diddy's doing his thing. Miami, why can't Cassie do her thing over in South Africa? And what was Diddy's thing that he was doing

in Miami? Well, he was spotted with Gina. And Deonté revealed that it wasn't Deontes who told Cassie this information, that it was actually another stylist who had relayed to Cassie, something along the lines of, oh, girl, you look good with Diddy today. And Cassie's like, what are you talking about? Because Cassie's over in South Africa shooting a movie, and the person that was actually being referred to was actually Gina. And again, it was a point where Cassie had said, well, she was testifying that Gina was really kind of this point of contention between herself and Diddy because she was always around. Whereas Deonte was kind of explaining that Cassie, you know, really didn't care about Gina and everything like that because at the time, they two were broken up. And Cassie did

kind of verify that too. And so Deonti was asked about Cassie's other relationships, about dating an NBA player and a football player. And there was kind of a moment in the courtroom today where Deonte was asked. Cassie was in a relationship with Andre Branch and Deonte is like, no, I don't think so. And then he was, he paused for a second and was like, oh, wait, you mean the cute football player? And then all the courtroom pretty much erupted with laughter. So it was kind of one of those moments where Deontes personality really kind of shine through during the testimony. Maybe something that doesn't necessarily translate as well to the transcript. And so we saw another exhibit photo of a text message is a text message between Deontay and Cassie about Michael B. George. where Deonte essentially was saying, be calm and ignore, pretty much saying that Cassie wasn't pressed about Gina and that Cassie and Deonte would go out together to restaurants while she was on a break with Diddy because I think the defense was trying to imply that Cassie was just partying all over and was doing things outside of Diddy's presence. But Deontay was kind of like, no, we're calm people. For the most part, we just go out to restaurants together and that's what we kind of do. And so then we kind of get into the post intercontinental hotel incident in March of 2016, where we see a text exhibit between Deonti and Cassie around that time, and Deontes kind of commenting on just the look of her face, that type of sword.

And I think what the defense was trying to do was kind of point out that Cassie didn't have maybe bruises or injuries to her face, while the two were exchanging these text messages. And for the most part, it seemed like from the messages that Cassie didn't. Cassie was giving, or Cassie was sending to Deonte, she was saying things like this guy's tripping, we did the same drugs, and I'm trying to keep him from embarrassing himself, and Deonte was like, well, just fake sleep. Then the defense tried to kind of point out that didn't Cassie say she didn't want to go to this hotel during this incident? And Deonté responded, well, not this time, but she has told me before that she hasn't wanted to go to these hotels. Then they kind of talk about Cassie keeping secrets from her friends, whether or not she was revealing to her friends just every. ounce of her life, including points about whether or not she had told Deonte that she was

kind of participating in these freak-offs with other men and that these videos that were threatened to be released, that they involved other men and not particularly Diddy being shown on these videos. And so I think the big sticking point that the defense was trying to do was just that Cassie was keeping secrets from Deonti. And Deonti kind of countered that where he was like, look, I don't tell my friends every single thing in aspect of my life, but that's just what we do. were not up each other's behind in a sense, like that they kind of let each other breathe and they don't tell every single ounce and facet of each other's lives. But from the defense perspective, it seemed like they were trying to drive home the point

that Cassie kept secrets and she wasn't very forthcoming with people even very close to her. So a couple things there. First of all, when you mentioned Gina, just so everybody knows, we believe that to be alleged victim number three in this case, who by all accounts and we did a previous sidebar on it, may not testify in this case. There has been difficulty, it seems, from the prosecution getting a hold of her or attorney. It was back and forth last week between defense counsel and prosecutors about whether or not she's even a part of the case anymore. I just want to make that clear, and the defense has been really hitting upon the fact that Gina, you know,

they've been characterizing Combs' relationship with Cassie, not as one of a victim and a sexual, a sex trafficker, but a domestic violence relationship, that there was a tumultuous relationship, it was a toxic relationship, was full of love, anger, jealousy. that he wasn't controlling her or beating her up to force her into these coerced sexual performances. But really, this was just a really bad relationship. And I agree, I think what they've really been trying to do is assassinate Cassie's character,

that she's not trustworthy, that she is shady, that she manipulated combs, that she can't be trusted. So I see what they're doing here. There was a part of his cross-examination where they talk about, his connection to Cassie and that she didn't reveal these alleged freakoffs to him what until years later and that she's still in touch with him i mean i even heard testimony today what that he helped design or style what she wore to court so talk to us a little bit more about what

she told him regarding the alleged freakoffs and also that they're still in touch which i guess goes to her his credibility right the defense would say he's doing anything and saying anything to protect her right and that was something that dionte revealed on day one of his testimony that he does still keep in touch with cassie he was the one who actually revealed to open court yesterday that cassie had delivered her third child with her now husband alex fine and so as far as just the messages go between cassie and dante even while she was testifying even a little bit after she was testifying it really had to do with what dionte does best and that's style like Essentially, Cassie was reaching out to Deonte because she didn't know what to wear to court because, again, she was very pregnant around this time, about eight and a half months and nothing was fitting her.

And that was what Deonte was kind of explaining as far as why the two were communicating, especially while Cassie was on the stand while she was testifying in court during week one of trial. And then during the cross-examination, the defense was trying to kind of point out that Cassie was keeping this huge secret from Deonti. Again, that being her stylist, but also one of her very, very close friends and best friends, too. just essentially about why she was participating in these freakoffs and Cassie didn't actually reveal this to Deonti until 2013 and so the defense was like so from 2008 to 2013 Cassie just didn't say anything to you kept this big secret and Deontze was explaining that yeah it was okay and I was thinking to myself maybe she just didn't reveal it because likely she was embarrassed or likely how often do we talk about our intimate moments and every single detail of them

with our best friends. And so I thought that was an interesting point that the defense was trying to go for as far as, again, kind of going into the tune of Cassie keeping secret and being secretive about her life. But maybe it was just a situation where she didn't feel comfortable sharing this or maybe didn't think other people would understand. And so, yes, the defense was definitely trying to kind of say that Cassie was keeping the secret for years on end and that she didn't reveal this until years into their friendship as opposed to, I guess what, telling her, Deontay right off the bat. Wasn't there also a point of cross-examination when they were challenging Nash about still staying in touch with Sean Combs? So the guy that allegedly not only

attacked Cassie, but he also testified that he was on the receiving end of physical abuse as well. So didn't he stay in touch with Sean Combs? Right. He did stay in touch with Sean Combs, even after he stopped his professional relationship with Puffy or Puff as he has called, as he calls him on the witness stand. But yes, towards the end of his cross-examination, that's when the defense was bringing out Deonte's text messages to Diddy. Specifically, we saw text messages between Diddy and Deontay in October of 2018. So this was after Cassie and him broke up. Cassie was already dating Alex Fine, her now husband at this point. But I think also interestingly enough, this was after the alleged rape that had happened. And unclear whether or not Cassie revealed that part to Deonti

that wasn't talked about during cross-examination or any of his testimony today or even yesterday. And so Diddy asked Deontay to call him. He said, call me, no drama. Deontay responded, I just got here. She's sleeping. And Diddy responded something along the lines of because, again, these text messages go so fast sometimes that Diddy ask, can you wake her up? Is she okay? And I think the defense was trying to imply that Diddy still was caring about Cassie, was still checking up on her.

But Deontay reached out to Diddy or Puppie, Puff Daddy, just about Kim Porter, who is the mother of some of his children after her death. That also happened in 2018. And that Deonti had reached out to Diddy after Andre Carell's death. And that was Diddy's mentor, somebody that really kind of showed Diddy the ropes in the sense professionally as he was kind of coming up. I think he had even interned for Andre Harrell at some point and then worked with him before Diddy went off to do Bad Boy and his own record label. Then we saw messages from January 19th of 2019, again, so we're months after Cassie and Diddy broke up with one another, but Diddy was upset with Deontay that he, he being Deontay, didn't tell Diddy that Cassie was seeing the trainer. And who was the trainer? The trainer is Alex Fine, that being Cassie's now husband. And so Diddy was still asking at this point, and during this text message, asking how Cassie was doing and essentially was saying something along the lines of, it's all good between. you and me, bro, and putting some laughing emojis in there, but it seemed like he was kind of upset that Cassie was seeing, and he referred to Alex Fine as the trainer. And so then we see another exhibit, this one, the year after, so May 9th of 2020, where Deonté sent a message to

Diddy saying, I love you, brother, if you need anything, I got you. And I thought it was interesting that they brought up this particular message, right? Because Deontay has talked at length about witnessing Diddy being violent towards Cassie, even at points being violent towards him himself. But still at some point, Deonté was reaching out to Diddy to say everything's all good and there's love between the two. And I think that's something that the defense has done pretty often where they're kind of using, you know, other people's text messages to show that people still in a way cared about Diddy and that he wasn't this mean, angry monster. He was just kind of in this bad relationship because people were still reaching out to him even after he did all these horrible things. And so

That was kind of towards the end of the cross-examination right before Donaldson had asked Deontay essentially about Cassie keeping secrets in that sort. And he's not the only witness who was questioned about this. Capricorn Clark was questioned, this former assistant, I mean, who really helps with the kidnapping, right? The underlying charge of kidnapping for racketeering. She was questioned about why she continued working with Combs, the man who allegedly kidnapped her and threatened her. So these are difficult questions and difficult questions for the jury to ultimately sort through. Okay, now we have to move on to the second witness of the day. And this is a major, major witness. So this person is testifying under the pseudonym Mia. This is a woman who we believe is listed out as victim for in this case.

She is a former employee of Sean Combs. And before we even get into what she describes as horrific, horrific sexual abuse, I want to get into what she described as the working conditions and how she started her employment, because I believe that this will help support the forced labor allegation, one of the underlying predicate crimes for racketeering. So again, I know I say this so many times, but it's complicated. Just want to lay it out one more time.

In order to prove racketeering, there are a number of underlying. crime, sex trafficking, forced labor, arson, bribery, kidnapping. It seems to me, and I could be wrong, that her testimony would help support forced labor. Am I right? Because what did she describe about her working conditions? Yeah, and I think she kind of echoed a little bit of what other witnesses who have worked under Diddy's employment have also said, where it was essentially a 24-8 job to the point where it wasn't 24-7. They were always on call, always had to be near ditty. But it was interesting kind of seeing Mia inside the courtroom because, yes, I can see me inside the courtroom. Unfortunately for our viewers, you guys cannot see Mia, nor will I get

too much into the description of what she looked like or anything of that. But I will say this just about Mia being on the stand is that she was very soft-spoken. She was very apprehensive while answering some of the questions where you could just really feel her nerves, just through her voice and her tone while she was testifying. Even as she walked to the witness stand, And even while she was on the witness stand, she kept her head down. She didn't even really look at the prosecutor who was asking her questions. And that was Madison Smeiser. She really just seemed just so shaken and nervous just about testifying inside that courtroom.

But as far as testifying just about what it was like working with Diddy, so she had explained that she did work as a personal assistant and later worked as kind of the director of development over at Revolts film, which is a little bit different from Revolt TV. But according to her, she said the work environment. and always depended on Diddy's mood. She described it as it was toxic, it was chaotic, but it was also exciting. But she said the highs were very high and the lows were very low. Soon, the Madison Snyder is asking her how Diddy was as far as did he protrude violence onto her? And she explained that Did he throw things at her, throw her up against the wall, slammed her arm into a door, and sexually assaulted her more than once.

But just as far as even her being interviewed for the job position, She said she was first interviewed by Tony Fletcher, who was the chief of staff at the time. We see an exhibit photo of Tony Fletcher inside the gallery. And then she did an interview with Diddy. And it was interesting just hearing her kind of describing her first interview with Diddy. She said that Diddy was in his underwear when she went over to his apartment for this interview. She had explained that Diddy Silas, Derek Roche, was also there. And she said that she was so excited, but also very nervous, but also really eager.

because around this time, she's in her 20s. She just is excited to start her career. She had previously worked for other high-profile individuals, such as Mike Myers and Georgina Chapman. But as far as working for Diddy, she said that there were a lot of jokes about working 24-7. And initially, she thought it was just that, working 24-7 because she said when she worked as an assistant for Mike Myers,

that she had worked from 10 to 6. So definitely within the confines of just a normal workday schedule. But she said that as far as her salary goes, that when she was first hired on, it was about $50,000. And again, she thought that she'd be working 40 hours a week. And she had explained that she was not working 40 hours a week. She said even on her first day of the job, the HR for bad boy, or this person's name is Boste, gave me a kind of a trial period and said that she didn't even, she might not even possibly meet Diddy until two weeks into the job because this was a trial period.

They were going to see if she's going to work out, if she was a good fit, that type of thing. But she actually kind of met Diddy early on. She began over at Diddy's place at Alpine, New Jersey, and was ordered to do inventory and said that she didn't make it home that night because Diddy wanted her in the studio. And she said she stayed in that studio with Diddy until 1 p.m. the next day. So a night of no sleep. And she said she didn't sleep for 24 more hours and thought, This was all just kind of a part of the trial period.

I guess there was a, or not I guess, but there was this reality show kind of in the like mid-2000s-ish where it was like, I want to work for Diddy, where it was this reality show where people just did that, where they kind of competed to work for Diddy. And she thought it was kind of like that. So that's what she had thought that this was only for the trial period. She knew it was going to be hard work, but she didn't realize it would be that much hard work. And so she said that she would go without sleep often. She said the longest she went without sleep is five days. And let me just say this, Jesse, if I get less than six hours of sleep, I'm already cranky the next day. So for her to go five days with no sleep, I think maybe the longest I've gone without sleep was back in college when I'm studying for an exam.

But according to Mia, this was all just a part of her regular life. And she used things like Adderall because she said she had a prescription for it in order to stay awake for those days on end. She said she ended up having a physical breakdown after her so much exhaustion to the point where she was having child. trouble hearing. She was having trouble keeping her balance and then to the point where she even just burst into tears and hysterically began to cry. And Diddy told her at that point that she could finally sleep. And so I think that was just one of the instances where they're kind of explaining, I think, very well that this was a job that was just around the clock to the point where people were risking their health and risking just their mental health, their emotional

health, their physical help in order to do their job. What was this list that was shown to jurors. I think it was from November 2011. And if I'm right about what this is, it could be important for the racketeering charge, right? I say this again, if you're going to be charging, if you're going to charge Sean Combs with racketeering, that he's operating this criminal enterprise, conspiracy to commit racketeering, conspiracy to further criminal activity, he can't do it alone. He might be the only one charged, but there's got to be other people who are part of it. The staff, the assistants, the bodyguards, you need them to testify. It doesn't necessarily mean they all took deals or they're all guilty of something that's not the point

there had to we have to understand what this organization was like if we understand for example we heard earlier from an assistant at the beginning of the trial that this was sean combs kingdom that helps prove there's an overarching criminal enterprise there's a common purpose what was this list that i understand was shown to the jurors yeah so this was kind of falling under the umbrella just all of all of Mia's responsibilities while she was on the job and so inside the courtroom we're seeing this exhibit photo of this text message from Mia to to Diddy and other staffers but this one was private it was under seal however we see another exhibit and that was just a laundry list of responsibilities to the point I couldn't write everything down because it was

two pages long it was extremely long to read there were so many words in text but I do have kind of the gist of what this email entailed. But I just want to give everyone the back story of why she even sent this email to Tony Fletcher, who was then the chief of staff. And it was because Mia had testified that Diddy had asked her something along the lines of what the F do you do all day. And so what Mia did was she sent this list to Tony Fletcher, where she said her duties included all of PD. That's how she would refer to Diddy as PD's social media presence. She also explained that she was the main liaison between PD and Hollywood. PD also referring to Diddy. She said that she was in charge of PD's daily routine, keeping him on schedule, protecting him

at all times, staying in PD's eyesight, because that was one sticking point that she made during her testimony where she said she always had to be near him in some type of fashion. There were times where he would just need everything in the world to be given to him. And then there were other times she would just be standing around him for hours on end and he wouldn't ask for a thing. but she needed to be within close proximity to him. She explained that this list also included anticipating his moods and that she had explained that this even dictated the day. I kind of go back to the point where she had explained that every single day is different.

He can ask you for 17,000 things or you can stand next to him again for 22 hours and he wouldn't ask for a thing. And so those were just some of the duties that she listed. But trust me, Jesse, there was so much more. just went by so fast. I couldn't write every single thing down. Was there one about cracking his knuckles? Yes. That was an interesting one that I heard it, but I completely forgot to write it down. But yes, to the point where she would be asked to crack his knuckles,

like truly it really felt like he was just the king of his kingdom. And everybody, including his staff, just did whatever he wanted. And look, that in and of itself is not a crime, but it tells a lot more of the context and a lot more of what the prosecutor, is trying to build up to, there was this, you know, alleged criminal enterprise where he was abusing, threatening women, and that everybody was doing his bidding. And, you know, it was all to serve his desires. So I think it just helps tell a little bit more of the story. And speaking of which, now we have to talk about what is a very difficult subject matter. Because Mia testified

about several sexual assaults, right? And I think those are key to this story. If we're talking about a repeated pattern of abusing women, again, that's part of the racketeering charge, better understanding maybe the sex trafficking counts that's faced with Cassie Ventura and another victim. What did she say about these alleged sexual assaults? Well, I do want to give everyone kind of. before warning that it was really kind of triggering in a sense to listen to all of this,

because it wasn't just one time. It was more than once. And she was really struggling to kind of articulate the words as far as just what Diddy allegedly did to her. And she got emotional at points. And I was sitting in the row right behind kind of her support system. And so I saw her support system tearing up while she was giving the testimony. It was really kind of hard to listen to. But I am going to kind of take it one by one as far as. just everything that she had went through. So she said there was one time where she was at the Plaza Hotel for Diddy's birthday. It was his 40th birthday, so kind of doing the math.

Maybe it's around the 2010 timeframe-ish, but because Mia was very forthcoming that if there were dates that she didn't remember, she was just kind of generalizing it. But she was also forthcoming that if she didn't remember the year, she didn't remember the year. But we know Diddy's age, so I'm just kind of doing some quick math. But she said that she was even at the Plaza Hotel because she was there for work. and she had been on the job only a few months at this time period, and Diddy was over in the penthouse, Mia was there, and that she still had to stay relatively close to Diddy. But one thing that she was asked was whether or not Cassie was there, and she explained Cassie wasn't there for this incident.

And so Diddy had asked Mia, according to her testimony, to speak to her in the kitchen, but he cleared out everyone from the room that that's what she had testified to, and Diddy had allegedly told her that she was doing this good job. She didn't have to go to Malcolm, who's one of the other assistants for every single question that she had had. And so that she could essentially come to Diddy, ask Diddy himself any type of questions that she may have, especially as she's still getting used to the job. Because again, this was right, this was just a few months after she had started. And so Diddy, I guess, gave her two shots for his birthday to kind of cheers to the night. And Mia didn't recall drinking earlier during that birthday party, but remembered after, taking these two shots that she felt really weird and that it wasn't like taking two normal shots,

but she didn't necessarily say that something was put in the shots either, but she said that these two shots that she took with him definitely made her feel weird and said that they hit her kind of hard. And so then all of a sudden, Diddy leaned into Mia to kiss her and put his hands up of her dress. And again, while she's recalling this, she really is just very timid while on the stand, really kind of shaky in her voice, very raspy while she's explaining this. And then she said she didn't want Diddy to do that and that she essentially was just in shock and fear and essentially just grows up because she didn't know what was happening. And she said that even around this time, she looked at Diddy as an older adult, kind of in a way

that, you know, he's kind of around her father's age, that type of thing and that he was essentially the boss or the king and a very powerful person. And so she really just kind of froze in fear, not necessarily knowing what to do. And then somehow, some way, she woke up in a chair. And last place she remembered being was in the kitchen. And so she thought in that particular instance that this was something that would never happen again. She thought that Diddy was just drunk during that night and that she just was going to take the secret to the grave. She wouldn't tell anybody.

And she even thought that Diddy was so drunk and intoxicated that maybe he didn't remember what happened. but also felt like this fell under the confidentiality. And that also played a part into not telling anybody, not going public with this, not going to police with this, because she thought she had to keep it under wraps under confidentiality. Then she recalled another instance

where she was over at Diddy's apartment because, again, everyone, she's a personal assistant. So she says she was there to drop off Diddy's bags. And then Uncle Polly was downstairs and he said something to the effect. And Uncle Polly is one of Diddy's security guards at this point that Uncle Polly said something

to the effect of, I've seen this before. And I think Mia felt a little bit uncomfortable by this situation. So she did what she was supposed to do for her job, where Diddy ended up telling Mia to pull something up on the computer, then Diddy kind of leaned in pretty forward, didn't necessarily act on it in that particular instance. But Mia recalled being just very uncomfortable in that something kind of sounded off alarm bells to her. So she ran to the bathroom and then Diddy eventually.

let her leave the apartment. But then as far as the sexual assault has occurred, she recalled two more instances. During the second time, Mia was at Diddy's Beverly Grove home and that Mia didn't have a door to her room because the staff stayed at Diddy's house, but Mia didn't have a lock on the door, I should say, because she wasn't allowed to have a lock on the door because it was Diddy's home. Diddy didn't feel like that his employees should have a lock on the home. But what was interesting, Jessie, is that she explained that the security guards had locks on their doors. But she, however, was specifically told not to have a lock on her door. And so Mia said she was asleep. And again, she's really kind of talking about this very slowly because

this is when she continues to really get kind of emotional here, where she said that she was asleep and she woke up to somebody on top of her. When she was asked who was on top of her, she explained that it was Diddy on top of her. And she said, I remember that he was using one hand to, and she was kind of speaking pretty slowly, but that Diddy was used. using one hand to get his pants off and the other hand to put his penis inside of her. And Mia was crying at this point and was explaining that she froze, that she couldn't react because she felt so terrified and confused and scared. She didn't want to be having sexual relations or intimate relationships with Diddy

and that she said it felt really quick but also it felt like forever in the same point. And so while I'm kind of hearing this testimony going on, I'm looking over to the defense able to get Diddy's reaction a little bit. And I can see Diddy just kind of sitting there looking in Mia's direction. Then next thing I see, he's kind of jotting notes down, presumably, to get to his defense attorneys to use further cross-examination. But what I did see, though, Jesse, was the jury all looking at Mia. This was not a point where they were doing the tennis match or anything like that. They all had their eyes from what I could see on Mia while they were, while she was explaining this, because she was very emotional at this point. And then there was a third time.

said Mia was at Diddy's other home and that she was in the closet. And Diddy came in and had his penis out and grabbed Mia's head and put his penis in her mouth. And Mia explained that she was just frozen during that moment, too, because every instance she was recalling the sexual assault. She was explaining that she had froze. She was shocked. She was terrified and always thinking the last time was the last incident that would happen like this. But according to her, these were just one of many. And so she said she felt like trash after this.

She didn't want to be giving Diddy oral sex. Again, her support system in the gallery while she's recalling this moment in her life is crying where I can see in the gallery. And Mia did explain that those weren't the only instances, that there was another part where Mia went to the bathroom. Diddy was standing right there. Diddy pushed her back into the bathroom. Mia was trying to escape. but she was trying to squiggle out and that she just essentially felt pretty unsafe, but doesn't remember necessarily just everything that had happened in this particular instance in the bathroom.

But Mia explained that she never wanted to have sex with Diddy. She never initiated to have sex with Diddy? And she said all these different times where he allegedly sexually assaulted her, Cassie was never there. She was asked, was Did he seeing other people? Did he have other girlfriends? And Mia responded that he was seeing other people and did have other girlfriends, but that they weren't there either to stop any of this. And so she said that they were always so random and sporadic that I didn't think that this

would happen again. And she always thought that the last time would be the last time and that these continued to happen. And after they occurred, Mia said that she just kind of kept it moving and that she just acted like these things and these incidents didn't happen. And she just kind of got right back to work. And she was asked, was Diddy on drugs when he was allegedly sexually assaulting you? and he responded for those particular incidents or those particular incidents that he wasn't on drugs

or didn't appear to be on drugs. And so she said she didn't tell him no, but always tried to kind of squiggle her way out of this. And she said, as far as her explanation on why she felt like she couldn't say no. She said, I couldn't tell him no to a sandwich. I thought I would be a target if she said no to him. I thought he would fire me and mess with my future. He would make me look like a threat.

I knew his power. I didn't want to lose everything that I worked for, and I didn't think I could ever work in this industry again. I think that goes, again, back to Cassie Ventura, who, you know, there's that sex trafficking charge with respect to, and I think this idea of why didn't she step away, why didn't she fight back, why didn't she say no, to hear another alleged victim say that that's a strength in numbers. She also testified, my understanding, is that combs through things at her, right? So Mia recalled that Diddy threw a number of different items at her, including food, a phone, even a computer at her. Mia said as far as Diddy throwing food at her, this specifically was a spaghetti bowl that Diddy threw at her.

She said that Mia went to the room because she needed to use the restroom. She was on her menstrual cycle at the time and that Diddy was upset by this to the point where Mia had explained while on the witness stand, she was bleeding and the blood was dripping down her leg. and Diddy threw spaghetti at her and that this bull didn't necessarily hit her, but she ran out of Diddy's home and escaped by going to a hotel. But she had explained that nobody intervened during this situation. She said she told HR a bad boy and that person being bossed up and that she ended up being suspended without pay because Puff is the boss and that's what he wanted. Then there was another incident where Diddy threw a computer at Mia because they were on this movie set. was complaining about the Wi-Fi according to Mia. So Mia ran to find a production assistant or a

PA to kind of figure out what was going on. And so Mia returned to Diddy to kind of explain what the situation was, but Diddy didn't even listen to what she had to say and just threw a computer at her. Those were just some of the times that Diddy would throw things at her. And Mia is getting pretty emotional, just kind of recalling these incidents here too, where she said, I would always wonder what I did to make him so upset and that she would get really hurt by his actions towards her. Then she recalled another instance where they were in Turks and Caicos and Diddy dumped ice in a bucket onto her. Then Diddy smashed her phone and that Mia ended up jumping on Diddy's back essentially to get her phone back and then Diddy threw her into the pool.

And so these were just one of many instances because there was another incident where she had explained that Diddy slammed her arm into the door too. This was over at Rebolt that Diddy was kind of in a mood and that Diddy was texting Derek Roche, Diddy's stylist, just what kind of mood Diddy was in. And then Diddy all of a sudden took off with her phone and took off with her phone to the bathroom, then slammed her arm into the bathroom door kind of on purpose. She at least, or she initially thought like maybe this was an accident. Maybe he didn't mean to do it. But she said he did it again.

And she thought at that point her arm was broken. But she said essentially that she had a bunch of bruises on her arms and that, Diddy had even threatened and said things along the lines of that he had compromising photos of Mia, that he had taken from her phone, and that Mia had kind of ran to get her phone back, and so we see an exhibit. And this was an email from Mia to Tony Fletcher, who was then the chief of staff, as well as Shannon, who was an executive assistant. So this happened on April 10th of 2013, and Mia had wrote, Puff took my phone and left me on

the street in Hollywood. My phone is in his car, not sure. slash if he'll be back. And Tony responded, are you okay? Mia said, I found revolt because I was lost in barefoot because she took off her heels in order to chase after Diddy. And she was just barefoot in the street, essentially. Tony asked what had happened. And Mia responded, well, this is definitely an in-person story. Anyone want to pick me up from the studio? I don't know where he is. And even while Mia was on the stand, Jessie, she was really kind of explaining that in that particular instance, too, that she was terrified and felt humiliated and embarrassed by the situation

and explained that she didn't know what she did to deserve this treatment from somebody who's supposed to be her boss? So other than the fact that she, it was a former employee and that is very important for, as we mentioned, the forced labor allegation as part of racketeering and overall this theme and narrative that might not even fit into a specific predicate crime but goes to this idea of a criminal enterprise and all of these things combs was allegedly a part of, I think the same thing with Kid Cuddy and the, you know, the alleged

breaking in his home, she also testified about Cassie. And I think was brought on as a corroborating witness for Cassie. And my understanding is she testified about witnessing physical abuse of Cassie Ventura. And there was one particular reference to Prince, right? A Prince party. Can you talk to us a little bit more about this? Yeah, well, we first heard about this party and what happened at this party while Cassie was testifying. She was essentially saying that Diddy didn't want her to go to this party, but she ended up going with one of her girlfriends to this party. Diddy comes, gets super upset at Cassie and the friend. And essentially, they both ran outside of Princess home and Cassie fell into the bushes. But hearing Mia's perspective, because Mia revealed that she was the friend

that went over with Cassie to Prince's house that she was explaining that the night before that there was kind of this award show and that Diddy told Mia to stay with Cassie at a hotel and that Diddy was going to be with his kids around this time. So she didn't expect that Diddy would be going to this party because he said that he was going to be with his children. And so Mia had said we debated like little kids should we sneak out of this hotel to go party with Prince or go to this party at Princess House. And then Diddy comes to this party and Mia said that she walks eyes with Diddy and she essentially says, oh crap.

And so she said that she and Cassie ran out of Prentice's home. They hid in the bushes. But Diddy ended up catching up to Cassie and had her on the ground. And he was about to start attacking her out in the public, essentially. And that security did step up and they did intervene in this particular situation. Mia had explained that she did, that HR had called Mia and told her that she was going to be suspended without pay after this incident. So just another point of where Mia would do something that Diddy didn't like or didn't want. And then there would be punishment and retribution to her, that being that she would either have her job threatened or that she would just essentially be suspended from her job and not be paid for it either.

And she also discussed injuries to Cassie at Cannes, right? So the prosecution was asking, Mia, just about all the bruises that she saw on Cassie as one of her friends and also as Diddy's assistant at the time. And she said she saw everything from a busted lip to black eyes, even bruises on her body. And so then we see an exhibit photo of Cassie on the red carpet at Cannes. This beautiful film festival over in France, it's really this big coveted event. Cassie's on the red carpet and this beautiful dress. However, according to Mia, around that time, Cassie had a busted lip and that she used a. makeup in order to cover up her injuries. Mia had explained, I don't remember the other ones

as far as just the type of injuries that she sustained, she being Cassie, but she was definitely injured during this particular red carpet. And so Mia was explaining that Cassie took this audio recording and she sounded super panicked in this incident and that Diddy could be heard on this audio. Now, we didn't hear the audio, but Mia was describing it as Diddy was cursing on this audio at Cassie, and his tone was pretty angry. And so what ended up happening is that Diddy, Cassie, and Mia all went to a movie premiere, and the movie premiere was for Brad Pitt's movie. And so while at this movie premiere, Mia was explaining that Diddy was kind of digging his nails into Cassie's arms and talking in this really clenched voice at her, kind of in this

very mad and angry tone. While at this movie premiere, while other people, probably hundreds of other people are inside this movie theater. And so she said those were just some of the times that Cassie was injured and then it would have to go onto her red carpet. And then more often than not, that she was covering her injuries with a bunch of different makeup and that Diddy had told Mia at this point to take care of Cassie. And Mia ended up getting Cassie this Ardica gel, which is essentially for bruises. But Diddy told Cassie and Mia that they couldn't leave the hotel together after that.

This is why I think this is important, right? So the more they can build up that he was controlling Cassie Ventura, right, sex trafficking, force, fraud, coercion to induce her into these sexual episodes in different places, right? A travel component, I think that adds to it, right? You know, digging the nails into it. And then if you have employees that are allegedly covering up the bruises or allegedly covering up his crimes, that goes further into the racketeering criminal enterprise. part. Did she also testify about Combs controlling Cassie's career? So yes, and this was kind of towards the start of her testimony when they were really kind of laying the foundation of just what she had witnessed while kind of working with Diddy

while he was still in a relationship with Cassie. And so we see this exhibit photo and this again at the beginning of her testimony where Mia referred to Cassie as Cass and that the two are still best friends together, but even describing their relationship and that being the relationship between Diddy and Cassie. Mia described it as a cycle of highs and lows. It was equal and unequal. It was toxic. It was abusive and abusive. She meant towards Cassie specifically, but that Diddy, and this was something that a lot of witnesses have testified to, where Diddy kind of was in charge of her career, and he was the one who had signed her over to Bad Boy. And so Mia had explained that Diddy had the final decisions of everything, where it comes to Cassie's

music being put out, the studio time that she used her appearance. her public appearance. And so then we see kind of this exhibit and this being from April 12th of 2012 where Cassie sent this email to Diddy to other executives, including Harf Pierre, Capricorn Clark, and James Cruz, who used to manage Diddy. This came from the Veronica Bang email, which is one of Cassie's aliases. And Cassie wrote in this email, I've been informed that I can't perform on Monday due to overage of costs. I have worked very hard but can't be supported, and that email went by so fast, so I wasn't able to get the tail end of it. But I did see Diddy's response, and Diddy responded that, make sure you sloven, and Slevin is, I guess, an executive who works at BET, so you don't embarrass yourself. And Cassie kind of hit back, or not hit back, but she kind of clapped back and said, well, no label support, no show, no, but Cassie ended up performing at this particular show.

But even as far as Cassie wanting to get into film endeavors, that everything kind of had to go through Diddy as far as what film she could do and what he would be able to sign off to, something that Deonte kind of pointed out when he was testifying today and even yesterday, where Mia was explaining that she drove Cassie over to set. She ran lines with Cassie. Cassie started acting around the 2015 time frame, and that Diddy would even visit her on set in that production themselves for the movie or whatever. film she was participating and would get super nervous and apprehensive because Diddy was asking all these questions and essentially kind of, I think, kind of trying to control what Cassie would look, do, say, that type of thing. And that, again, Diddy had final say on Cassie's appearance where it comes to her hair, her nails, her outfits, et cetera. So I'm sure under the cross-examination, they're going to kind of bring home the point, well, maybe it was because he was a label executive. And that's why he was so particular about how his artists would look, that type of thing.

To Deontay, according to Cassie, according to even Mia, this was kind of a sticking point, too, where Diddy kind of controlled every single aspect at final say over how Cassie would look and how she would appear in public and private and those types of things. Let me just read a portion of the indictment to make sense of this. This is in the opening part when they talk about racketeering conspiracy. So we all understand why this is relevant. It says at all times relevant to this indictment, Sean Combs engaged in a persistent and pervasive pattern of abuse toward women and other individuals.

This abuse was at times verbal, emotional, physical, and sexual. And then it goes on to say that at times Combs and others acting in his direction made arrangements for women and commercial sex workers to fly to Combs' location. And Combs ensured participation from the women by, among other things, obtaining and distributing narcotics to them, controlling their careers, leveraging his financial support, and threatening to cut off the same and using intimidation. and violence. Sometimes it's important to go back to the charging instrument to understand exactly where this all falls in line. And before we wrap things up, going back to Kid Cuddy, who I keep saying

is one of the pivotal witnesses in this case because I believe his testimony helps support at least two of the underlying predicate crimes, arson, his car being torched and kidnapping. You know, his testimony supporting the idea that Capricorn Clark was kidnapped by Sean Combs. came up again, too, right? Yeah, he came up again, and I thought, what does Mia kind of have to do with this incident? But really, she didn't have anything to do with this incident because she was on a flight or trying to go to New York, I guess just for some business. But she said on December 22nd of 2011, and that was the day of the break-in, that Mia said

she was initially at Diddy's home in Los Angeles, but she explained that the mood on that particular day was dark. The energy felt really bad. It was different than normal. And that she says she was used to seeing Puff mad, but this time he was really mad, but more so upset, according to her. She said that Diddy told her that he had found out that Cassie was talking to someone else, who was that other person, that being Scott Meskiddy, aka Kid Cuddy. Mia had explained that Diddy appeared heartbroken by this situation and that, again, normally he was angry and aggressive, but this time he felt a little more ominous. And so she explained that she never witnessed Cassie do something to make Diddy.

this upset because even when she was recalling just the incidents of physical violence toward Cassie by Diddy that Cassie wouldn't fight back, that she would essentially just try to kind of like pretty much like kind of defend her body but never would fight back. But in this particular instance, Mia recalled that Cassie made Diddy upset really by this. And so Mia said that she was bracing herself for something really bad to happen. And that really kind of stuck out to me, especially given what ended up happening just a couple weeks later. But Mia said that she left to go to New York. However, she reached out to DRock and then Sienna

because she was worried about Sienna, who was, I guess, a new assistant around this time, kind of navigating what might have been to come on her own. And then she said that she was worried about Cassie and Puffy. And so she reached out to DRock because DRock was kind of like a big brother to her, and she knew that DRock and Puffy, as she calls him, were very close. And so then we see an email thread between Mia and DRock on this particular day where Mia wrote to DRock. I'm currently at Neal's.

I got to talk to you once I'm there, love you. And she explained that she says love you and signs off, love you in all of her emails. And then DRock said something along the lines of, oh, I'm going back to the crib. Mia responded, I'm super worried about P. I have no clue what's going on. And I really don't care to know the details since they'll always usually be the same thing. And so essentially Mia was just kind of trying to explain that she didn't know what was about to happen. She didn't know what was to come.

But she apparently was just so worried about what Puff might have done and just his tone and how he was appearing over at the house before she had left on her over to New York that essentially she wanted to kind of put DRock on radar that something bad might happen. And so as far as just everything that she had entailed into that particular email, wasn't able to grab just every single bit of it. But she said that she had even reached out to Puff, too, Puff, aka Diddy, on that same day where Mia had wrote in this particular email about to take off, and she told Diddy love you, and Diddy responded, Love You, too. And I guess this was something Diddy had said to Mia all the time. But it's interesting that she recalled this particular moment in that she had these kind of emails to back it up because she could feel that something bad might have been coming

and might have been happening. By the way, real quick, before I let you go, Elizabeth, did Mia look at Combs at any point during her testimony? Did she look over at him? No, not from what I could see. All as I could see was her. She had something in her hand. I couldn't tell if it was like maybe a rosary. There were points where it was a napkin because she was wiping her tears because of her emotional testimony. But from what I could see, she really wasn't paying any type of attention or mind to him because I think she was just that nervous about

just recalling all these things that had happened to her. Even when the jury was getting up and getting down to go and take their breaks, that type of thing, she didn't even look at the jury. And other witnesses, even Cassie herself, has looked at the jury while they exit the jury box. But for Mia, particularly, she really, really and notably kept her head down at all times while testifying today.

So the direct examination is going to continue tomorrow. right? Do we know how long it's going to go? Do we know how long the cross-examination is going to go? Well, it's unclear how long the cross-examination is going to go, because there are times where I think it's going to be a quick cross-examination, and then it takes more than an hour. But given that Mia was on the stand, the majority of even today, and that she'll still continue her direct testimony even until tomorrow, the judge already said to everyone, including the jury, that we're expected to stay at least until 4 o'clock today because before we were getting out around 3 o'clock, but it seems that for the most part, the cross-examination, once the direct is done probably in the morning, that it could take the rest of the day and possibly even go until Monday. But we'll see. Elizabeth Milner, thank you so much as always. I know today, like all the days, is difficult testimony to listen to and jot down and repeat, but we really, really appreciate you.

And as always, thank you so much for the great work. Thanks, Jesse. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much for joining us. And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.

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