In the 11th day of Sean Combs’s trial for sex trafficking and racketeering, prosecutors called police and fire officials over incidents at the home of Scott Mescudi, the rapper known as Kid Cudi, and questioned a former stylist at length about the violence and intimidation that he witnessed at the music mogul’s hand.
Those witnesses added further detail to the government’s case that Mr. Combs was a violent sexual predator who used his staff to arrange and cover up coercive sex marathons with women who feared him. Mr. Combs has denied all the charges.
Here are some takeaways from the day in court.
A stylist describes harrowing encounters with Mr. Combs.
Deonte Nash, a former stylist at Bad Boy who worked with both Mr. Combs and his on-and-off girlfriend of around a decade, Casandra Ventura (the singer Cassie), testified that he had witnessed the music mogul beating Ms. Ventura and pressuring her to participate in “freak-offs,” the coerced sexual marathons that are key to the government’s case against Mr. Combs.
Once, in 2013 or 2014, Mr. Nash said, he was at Ms. Ventura’s apartment with her and another woman, an assistant to Mr. Combs who is identified in court only as “Mia.” Mr. Combs came to the apartment and began hitting Ms. Ventura repeatedly, until her head hit the edge of a bed frame, drawing blood. Mr. Nash testified that Mr. Combs said he would take Ms. Ventura to a plastic surgeon, and the next day he saw her on a video call with stitches on her forehead.
On another occasion, Mr. Nash said, Mr. Combs physically pushed Ms. Ventura out of her apartment and threatened to release “sex tapes.” Mr. Nash said he suggested that Ms. Ventura call Mr. Combs’s bluff and allow him to release the tapes since, Mr. Nash assumed, Mr. Combs would appear on the recordings too. She told him that the videos showed her having sex with other men, something that she said she didn’t want to do — an indication that Mr. Nash was one of the very few people that Ms. Ventura confided in about “freak-offs” and the evidence of them that Ms. Ventura said Mr. Combs kept.
Later that same day, Mr. Nash said, he went with Mr. Combs to a hotel where Ms. Ventura had gone. Mr. Nash said that when he reached Ms. Ventura’s room and told her Mr. Combs was looking for her, she said “Oh, no,” and headed to the balcony. “She said that she was going to climb over the balcony,” Mr. Nash testified.
While cross-examining Mr. Nash, Xavier Donaldson, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, sought to underscore Mr. Nash’s continued professional and social relationship with Mr. Combs even after he said he witnessed acts of domestic violence.
Los Angeles authorities detail calls to Kid Cudi’s home.
Last week, Scott Mescudi, the rapper known as Kid Cudi, testified that Mr. Combs had entered his Los Angeles home, and that shortly after, his Porsche was destroyed by a Molotov cocktail — which Mr. Mescudi said he believed Mr. Combs was responsible for.
On Wednesday, a Los Angeles police officer and a fire department arson investigator described being called to the scenes of those incidents in late 2011 and early 2012. Chris Ignacio, the police officer, said he reported to Mr. Mescudi’s home, located up winding, narrow roads in the Hollywood Hills, on the morning of Dec. 22, 2011, for a possible burglary. When he arrived, the officer saw a black Cadillac Escalade with tinted windows in front of the house; the vehicle immediately took off down the street. Officer Ignacio said the license plate showed that the car was registered to one of Mr. Combs’s companies.
Officer Ignacio said he spoke to Mr. Mescudi, describing him as “flustered,” and that he filed a “trespass report,” but gave no details about any investigation that followed.
Lance Jimenez, the arson investigator, said that he was called to the same address on Jan. 9, 2012, and saw a burned Porsche convertible in a driveway about 10 feet from the residence. The car’s cloth top had been cut, and inside the vehicle the inspector found a glass malt liquor bottle and a “designer-type handkerchief” nearby. He determined that the fire was “targeted” and not an accident.
During an investigation that followed, Investigator Jimenez said, he tried to call Ms. Ventura and Capricorn Clark, another Combs aide who testified on Tuesday that she had been kidnapped by Mr. Combs and brought to Mr. Mescudi’s house during the December incident. Neither woman would talk to him, the inspector said.
Lawyers for Mr. Combs have said their client was “simply not involved” in the arson incident outlined in the indictment.
The defense requests a mistrial.
Late in the morning, Judge Arun Subramanian, who is overseeing the trial, denied a request by defense lawyers for a mistrial, after they argued that prosecutors had unfairly suggested that Mr. Combs was responsible for the destruction of fingerprint evidence.
The defense objected to a line of questioning during the testimony of Mr. Jimenez, the arson inspector. Inspector Jimenez confirmed that fingerprint cards collected by police at Mr. Mescudi’s home in December had been destroyed, and so could not be compared to fingerprints found weeks later when Mr. Mescudi’s car was destroyed.
Outside the presence of jurors, Mr. Combs’s lawyers argued that those questions suggested to the jury that Mr. Combs was somehow responsible for the destruction of the fingerprint cards. The prosecution countered that their questions were entirely proper. Judge Subramanian ruled that testimony struck from the record, but Mr. Combs’s lawyers said it was too late.
“There’s no way to un-ring this bell,” said Alexandra Shapiro, a member of Mr. Combs’s defense team.
Judge Subramanian said there had been no testimony from the witness that was prejudicial to Mr. Combs. When jurors returned, the judge told them to disregard the exchange about the fingerprint cards.
Cassie has a baby.
After a break on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Nash, who said he has kept in close contact with Ms. Ventura, confirmed reports circulating online that she had given birth this week to her third child.
Ms. Ventura testified for four days at the start of the trial earlier in May — while visibly pregnant. At one point, prosecutors had asked for the defense to complete their cross-examination on schedule, because they expected that she could give birth at any moment.
Anusha Bayya contributed reporting.
Ben Sisario, a reporter covering music and the music industry, has been writing for The Times for more than 20 years.
Julia Jacobs is an arts and culture reporter who often covers legal issues for The Times.
The post Beatings, Arson and a Denied Mistrial: Latest Takeaways From the Combs Trial appeared first on New York Times.
