A woman is expected to take the stand at Sean Combs’s federal trial on Wednesday to give her account of the music mogul dangling her over a 17th-floor apartment balcony.
Bryana Bongolan, a friend of Casandra Ventura, Mr. Combs’s former girlfriend, filed a lawsuit against Mr. Combs last year. In her complaint, Ms. Bongolan said she had been staying in Ms. Ventura’s Los Angeles apartment when, early one morning in 2016, Mr. Combs stormed in, yelled at Ms. Bongolan and held her over the balcony railing — “with only Combs’ grip keeping her from falling to her death” — before he pulled her back and slammed her onto a patio table.
Her full account has been anticipated for months. The indictment that charges Mr. Combs with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy made brief mention of what appears to be Ms. Bongolan’s account, saying that “on one occasion, Combs dangled a female victim over an apartment balcony.” Her story was also referenced in Ms. Ventura’s bombshell civil suit in November 2023, which led to the government’s investigation and Mr. Combs’s arrest.
The racketeering charge against Mr. Combs involves accusations that the mogul engaged an inner circle of bodyguards and high-ranking employees to help him commit a series of crimes over two decades.
Mr. Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His lawyers have said that he and his employees were involved in legitimate business operations, not a criminal conspiracy, and that the sex at issue in the government’s case was entirely consensual.
Prosecutors, nearing the halfway point of what they expect to be an eight-week trial, said they will soon call “Jane,” the second woman — after Ms. Ventura — who the government says was a victim of sex trafficking by Mr. Combs.
In their opening statements, the two sides of the case have portrayed Jane, who is testifying pseudonymously, in stark contrast.
Emily A. Johnson, a prosecutor, described Jane as a single mother who began spending time with Mr. Combs in 2020 and soon fell in love with him. “For the first few months, their sex life was just the two of them and Jane was happy,” Ms. Johnson said. “That was until the defendant introduced Jane to freak-offs.” Mr. Combs, the government said, “had her take drugs to stay awake and aroused for days,” and she once vomited after sex with an escort.
At a bail hearing for Mr. Combs last September, the government said this woman, after reading Ms. Ventura’s suit in 2023, had sent Mr. Combs a text saying: “I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma. It makes me sick how three solid pages, word for word, is exactly my experiences and my anguish.”
In the defense’s opening statement, Teny Geragos, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, described Jane as a willing participant in freak-offs, saying that soon after their relationship began, Mr. Combs suggested a threesome with another man. “I expect that she will testify that she enjoyed that night,” Ms. Geragos said. “She laid down on the couch after and said to herself, like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I just did that.’”
Jane’s relationship with Mr. Combs was still plagued with jealousy, Ms. Geragos said. But they continued with freak-offs. “And the evidence will show you,” Ms. Geragos told the jurors, “that she did it over and over again for three years because she made the choice.”
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.
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