From the stand for almost the entire day, the sole witness was a woman named Capricorn Clark, whose link from being Sean Combs’s personal assistant to running marketing for the Sean John fashion company seems terribly unclear to many of us (see box below). Clark testified that during the years she worked for him-off and on, between 2004 and 2018-he repeatedly threatened her, and in December of 2011, kidnapped her.
Much of Clark’s testimony, including various claims of physical threats and intimidation allegedly made by Combs and some of his associates, was designed as reinforcement for the racketeering charges against Combs. But some of her most vivid statements concerned Combs’s admittedly stormy and violent relationship with his then-girlfriend, the singer and model Casandra “Cassie” Ventura. Combs pleaded not guilty to all the charges on Friday, which also include sex trafficking and transportation to commit prostitution.
Claims of Threats and Alleged Kidnapping in December 2011
When she testified about the 2011 kidnapping, Clark described events that the jury had heard about last week, but this time from her perspective. She said that it occurred after Combs learned that Ventura, with whom he had an on-and-off relationship, was now dating the rapper Scott Mescudi, also known as Kid Cudi.
Capricorn Clark Describes Alleged Visit to Kid Cudi’s Home
Clark, who wept repeatedly on the stand, testified that on the morning of the Winter Solstice in December 2011, Combs came to her apartment door here in Los Angeles with a look of rage and holding a gun. According to Clark, Combs ordered her to dress and accompany him to Mescudi’s home in the Hollywood Hills, saying: “We’re going to go kill” the musician. (Combs had refused Clark’s requests to tell him that Ventura was now dating Mescuci; he did not take it immediately as she went inside and informed him.) She testified that she was made to wait outside Combs’s car as he and one of his security staff went inside in search of Mescudi
The travel-weary witness gets a rebuff at the hands of Clark, who insists that this is what Combs did at the end of their cunning smash-and-grab robberies, which they had carried out in his Long Island home. Clark told them that the robbers were at work while she was under house arrest, and they had him ring her up so he could ask for more funds, which had become a secret society of sorts after all her early friends died off.
The following afternoon, she said, Combs began beating Ventura, kicking her repeatedly for hours on end as she lay crumpled on the floor: “Fetal position.” Last Thursday, Mescudi told the jury about this break-in, and two weeks later, his car was set on fire. Combs’ lawyers maintain the tycoon had nothing at all to do with the fire. When Ventura was on the stand earlier this month, she spoke at length about being sexually and physically abused.
First, Clark alleges, Combs threatened her when she began work in 2004 with the line: On Clark’s first day of work as a producer, Combs told her, ‘If you ever have anything more to do with Knight, you’ll have to kill me for that.” Clark also spoke about an earlier incident. Sometime during her initial year, she alleged, associates of Combs locked her up in a dilapidated building on 47th Street in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen for five days to undergo several lie detector tests. This took place after
Three pieces of high-end diamond jewelry loaned to Combs, which Clark had been in charge of caring for, went missing. The man who was administering the polygraph tests, Clark claims, would threaten to “throw you into the East River” if you failed. Clark added that she underwent the tests to prove her innocence. “I went down there petrified,” she said. One of Combs’ security men, according to Clark, would take her home every night. He also searched her Manhattan apartment for the missing diamonds.
Job Losses, Termination, and Cross-Examination
She lost the job twice in one year, once for two months and then for three to four weeks. After that, she was rehired to help with Combs’ 35th birthday party. He did not inquire of Miss Clark further about those five days she was absent from the office then nor never raised the subject with her again about the jewels supposedly missing from that part.
She said she left Combs’ employment in 2006 after he pushed her twice because of the alleged incident of theft, to work at another record company — Jive/Zomba though she eventually switched back. After she alleged that she was kidnapped in 2011 by the management of Bad Boy Records, a company co-founded by Combs, she was “terminated” early in 2012. She was later told by Combs himself that this act led to her new unemployment, and at a civil trial, she testified that he pointed out, “You will not work again.”
A lawsuit from her over the allegations of wrongful termination resulted in a settlement by Combs. But his defense team repeatedly objected to the prosecution’s questions about the amounts of that settlement, and those objections were upheld.
During his cross-examination, Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo focused again and again on the various inconsistencies in what Clark said, including an earlier story told to prosecutors that she alleged Combs had aimed at her in 2011 with a gun. Clark later explained that he was not aiming the weapon at her but waving it around. Agnifilo also asked Clark why she would give something to Combs at the time if her claims are true. She explained that it was because she was unable to land another job in the music industry.
Final Role as Creative Director for Cassie Ventura
The last position she held at Ventura, while still working under Combs, was “creative director” in 2016, she said. She said anything to do with Ventura – her hair and clothes, her planning – must be passed in person by Combs herself.
